Well, what do you know. It's election year. Six years down the track, what score shall we give the current government, vying for a third term in power?

Well, to be frank, they started out in 2008 with the Global Financial Crisis hospital pass, and it's been uphill ever since.

The GFC was very real for most people, with some real horror stories coming out of the USA, Europe, the UK and indeed from most of the civilised world.

And then, crunch. Christchurch. As the rest of the country watched in horror, half a million Kiwi's had their lives really and truly shaken.

It was not only once but twice - and it was fatal for many that dark day down south. Christchurch changed forever.

In some ways New Zealand changed forever. How do you as a government and nation respond to that? Where do you start?

The good news is we didn't have a huge sovereign debt at the time, so we could use our international credibility to borrow and rebuild. And we have had to. And it looks as if we had three homes out of every four damaged, insured, one of the highest percentages of any recent major global disaster.

These days we look at what's going on in Christchurch and count it as part of our growing GDP statistics coming out of recession. It's a funny old world isn't it? And among all of this, the government continues to try and grow the country's wealth and standing in an ever-changing world. Trying to utilise our abundant natural resources. Trying to create real jobs and keep those we already have. Trying to add value and encouraging start-ups, especially in the hi-tech markets, while also trying to settle historical issues.

I believe this government has done a remarkable job considering the cards it was dealt. You don't have to look very far to see other countries much worse off than us. The biggest challenge left to address is, I believe, the welfare laws. This is so we actually help those people who need it, not help people who want to live on it. It's not a platform that will win too many votes, however, for the future of this great small nation, we must make sure the welfare bill doesn't sink us.

Some say it's already too late. Who knows. What I do know is there's only one party with the balls to tackle this enormous issue. The National Party.

For this reason and this reason alone, we need to re-elect John Key's National Government this year.

Struth, we gave Helen Clark and Michael Cullen three terms.
Surely John Key and co deserve the same courtesy.

Graeme Martin, Tauranga City.