Top five columns of 2019: Lizzie Marvelly

Singer-songwriter and columnist Lizzie Marvelly. Photo / Doug Sherring

As we say goodbye to 2019 and welcome in 2020, it's a good time to catch up on the very best of the Herald columnists we enjoyed reading over the last 12 months. From politics to sport, from business to entertainment and lifestyle, these are the voices and views our audience loved the most. Today it's the top five from Weekend Herald columnist Lizzie Marvelly.

Our love was turned into a circus act

In February, Auckland's Pride Parade was controversially replaced with a "march of togetherness" up Queen Street. The loss of the Pride Parade left many feeling a sense of division in the rainbow community. Lizzie Marvelly reflected on what the "glittering, shimmering parade" meant to her.

Will National unleash the Crusher early?

Following a Disastorous poll result for National leader Simon Bridges, Marvelly described him as "a souped-up old Nissan Skyline, just a few burnouts away from a painful crushing" - invoking the nickname of Judith Collins as a possible replacement. However, despite being "Team Crusher", she believed Collins was probably too clever to put herself forward before the election.

We need to straighten out our outdated drug laws

In May, Marvelly found herself "up to my eyeballs (metaphorically speaking) in meth, cannabis, cocaine and MDMA", while researching for her web series The REAL Drug Talk. Looking at the debate around the proposed regulation of cannabis, she concluded that harm reduction must be at the heart of the discussion.

Why Scott Kuggeleijn shouldn't be playing cricket for NZ

Black Cap Scott Kuggeleijn was charged with the rape of a young woman, but was found not guilty in 2017. Marvelly expressed her disappointment that NZ Cricket had brought Kuggeleijn back to the team - as despite the not guilty verdict, "he himself admitted to the kind of behaviour that should be utterly unacceptable to national sporting organisations".

Tantrums, threats and Brian Tamaki

In May, Marvelly rounded up a "very busy few weeks" for Destiny Church's Brian Tamaki. He declared New Zealand had become a "Muslim nation" when the Muslim call to prayer was broadcast during memorial services for victims of the Christchurch terror attack. Tamaki went on to defend Israel Folau comments on homosexuality and revealed he planned to incite prison riots if his Man Up programme wasn't accepted into prisons.