Heather du Plessis-Allan: Consensus Politics can take a hike

You know what's more boring than talking about a capital gains tax? It’s talking about superannuation, and yet here we are again.   We're talking about it again, and how we need to take the Super off the 65 year olds because of what happened yesterday.   Now what happened yesterday was that for a brief minute, the two major political parties almost found consensus on the Super, but it only lasted a few hours.   So Nicola from National said to Barbara from Labour, we should have a chat, and Barbara said okay we should have a chat. Then Barbara thought about it over the next few hours and she's like, nah, we'll have a chat, but I actually don't really agree with that idea.   Which I think is a wise move from Barbara to be honest, because taking super off 65 year olds is unpopular. And it's probably always going to be unpopular as long as we keep running a welfare system that's so generous in this country that people are pretty much expected to spend an average of 13 years on the dole.   It is very, very hard to convince hard working taxpayers that when they get to their golden years, they should give up that little bonus that they get at the end of their lives. They should give that up because we need to save money, and then they look down the road and they see some of them taking the Mickey in the sunshine forever on the dole.   I think it's a hard one to push.   And by the way, while we're on consensus politics, I do not rate this idea. I don't care whether it's in Super, or housing, or transport, I hate it.   I think voters deserve choices. I think you should be able to decide if you want a cycle lane or if you want a road. You might want a cycle lane, you should have that choice. I might want a road, I should have that choice.   I think we should decide if we want to have three storey houses pop up next to us on the property next door without any consent. I think we should decide if we want Super taken away from us or not.   I don't want the politicians getting between themselves, stitching up a little deal and then leaving us no choice. Saying deals made, we've reached a consensus, just going to have to have it this way. That's not what I want.   It's counter to the very idea of democracy, which is that you have ideas running against each other and you, as the voter, get to choose which one of the ideas you like. So frankly, good call from Babs.   Consensus Politics can take a hike, and good luck pushing that stupid Super debate again. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.