Here's my Christmas time report card on New Zealand. Competition with Australia in sport is tough, so why do we give $5 billion-plus to Australia by supporting Aussie banks?

We have Labour unsure if they should spend on the poor, or the rich, as National has done since Adam was a boy.

NZ is recognised as having several hundred thousand children in poverty. And Finance Minister Grant Robertson has money but doesn't want to spend it, which is cold comfort to those who voted for Labour.

Winston First has proved you can fool people all the time; and it costs the taxpayer about thousands a year per MP in Parliament. Meanwhile, a living wage would keep people independent and save the taxpayers money.

A country like NZ having to have foodbanks like Africa is a slur on all of us.

The big question is who is the biggest problem for the country – the needy or the greedy? Humanity is lacking in both National and Labour. So I reckon Jacinda's report card is not a pass.

R Chamberlain, Otumoetai.