The Labour leader, Prime Minister Ardern has just ruled out free dental care as an expensive pipe dream that will never happen. A brave move in an election year. These are exactly the things we're focused on right now. The cost of everything, and our health. Both cause us a lot of pain. Also, she's wrong. It is neither a 'dream' nor is it too expensive.



There were 7,000 Tesla bought last year, with a very kind government subsidy for all those 'vulnerable' citizens able to afford a NZ$70k car from Elon Musk. At NZ$8,000 subsidy per car, that's $56 million. Just the tesla subsidy alone would pay for everyone up to the age of 25 to have free dental care. Ministry of Health figures from 2018 show that we need just NZ$648m a year, to give all Kiwi adults free dental care. That is less than the GIDI fund (Government Investment for Decarbonising Industry) which subsidises industries to - you guessed it - decarbonise.

Josie's editorial on Today FM is here.