And so the Greens have been resented, too. Now there is an opportunity for that "See, they're no better than us" feeling to emerge.
I'm reminded of a personal experience when I was an earnest young Christian trying my best to live a decent and wholesome life.
My workmates would vigorously try to trip me up in my behaviour, and would crow with delight when they could point out some way in which I had failed to live up to my standards.
Something similar has happened with Metiria Turei.
Her confession of fraud has given people the opportunity to get back at her and the Greens for what they perceive as a holier-than-thou attitude.
Neither I nor Ms Turei have tried to make out that we are better than anyone else.
But our efforts to live in an unselfish and wholesome way are judged as suggesting we are superior.
It seems to be something we are prone to do as humans. All I can do is invite those who are judging and scoffing to be aware that this behaviour is saying more about them than those they stand in judgment of.
And that is true for any of us.
PHILIP McCONKEY
Palmerston North
There's no gap
A cafe in Melbourne is charging men an extra 18 per cent simply because they are men, supposedly to make up for the "gender pay gap".
This isn't the only sexist practice in this cafe; they also ban male staff and have a policy of priority seating for women.
Of course, the claim is that this is all for a good cause, but the funny part is their actual sexism is practised to highlight a myth.
The "gender pay gap" they are pointing to is based on an assumption of sexism against women and a bit of sleight of hand in the maths.
The claim is that the gap is 18 per cent in Australia, and in an article about this cafe, the Mirror pointed out, "Recent data published by the Economist shows a UK pay gap of 28.6 per cent for all jobs, though this apparently decreases to 0.8 per cent for jobs at the same level, company and function."
As feminist Christina Hoff Sommers points out, the "gender pay gap is simply the difference between the average earnings of all men and women working full time.
"It does not account for differences in occupations, positions, education, job tenure or hours worked per week.
"When such relevant factors are considered, the wage gap narrows to the point of vanishing."
If the "gender pay gap" is worked out without even considering any difference in the hours worked -- such a basic point -- it does not deserve to be taken seriously.
It simply distracts from real issues, like real sexism against women or men.
K A BENFELL
Gonville
Time for change
Prime Minister Bill English uses a trust to hide his assets.
He claimed a $900 a week allowance on his $1.2 million house.
He will pay it back, but he barely got a slap on the wrist by the media.
Meanwhile, the NZ media recently focused every living breath, day after day, asking for the resignation of Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei, who -- as a young, impoverished single mother over 20 years ago -- lied to Winz.
She was wrong. And she will pay back what she owes. But perhaps her real crime was seeing the Greens rise from 11 to 15 per cent in the last Colmar Brunton poll, due to her honesty and candour.
Indeed, standing up for what one believes is a New Zealand tradition.
Future Prime Minister Peter Fraser was jailed for sedition during World War I, Savage's cabinet contained several people who, when young, breached the law with union activities while trying to improve the living conditions of the average Kiwi.
While focusing on such dramas, we have been hearing little to nothing about things that really matter.
The once-egalitarian society of New Zealand has experienced the highest inequality rise in the developed world since the 1990s, yet few bother to tell us the obvious solutions to solving this tragedy.
We hear very little on the lowering of education ratings under National, and increasing individual costs in supposed "free education".
We hear very little about losing significantly in health spending to inflation and population growth.
We hear little to nothing about how, under National, "the latest Unicef report has us languishing at the bottom of the developed world in relation to the health and welfare our children and youth".
We hear practically nothing about New Zealand being globally derided internationally for its weakness on climate change.
It took an overseas article by Yale University to show us that New Zealand is number one in homelessness by a country mile -- now well over four times that of the USA per capita.
It is time to focus on those things that really matter to us.
It is time to change the government.
BRIT BUNKLEY
Whanganui
