Q+A: The panel discusses the year ahead 

PAUL Let's look ahead to the year ahead.  Fran you start us on this.

FRAN Well I think it's going to be a very challenging year, both for New Zealand but also for the government, and I think it's a year where most people would want the government to succeed, because if the government doesn't succeed New Zealand won't.  The step change in the economy is going to be a very interesting one, obviously some hard choices to be made and how they sell it, but one thing that does concern me is the return of youth unemployment.  I mean I lived through it personally as a mother of a young son during the early 1990s and watched he despair among a range of his cohorts at people who couldn't get jobs or their fulfilment in the jobs they got wasn't so great, and already we're seeing 25% of those seeking work in the 15 to 19 can't get it.

PAUL What is the way we catch up with Australia Mike Williams?

MIKE Well my personal view is we should join the Federation and become the seventh state, we're actually in their constitution already, that would really short circuit things, but I don't think that would be particularly popular.  It's gonna be hard and the point made by John Key is quite valid, you've got immense mineral wealth over there, I don't believe this country matches it, but in the long term this country's got two advantages Australia doesn't have which will tell in a climate change world, one we have water, they are running out, two we grow food.  These things are going to be in demand into the future.

PAUL And 60 million people who have managed to stay above the water are still going to need the food.  Challenges for the year ahead.

THERESE Well I think the budget could be a very tough one, because there's been a lot of talk focusing on the positive things like the growth potential, but the reality is - what we're also hearing from the government is there needs to be cut backs, the money needs to be saved, so that'll be tough.  But look we have great challenges in New Zealand, but I also think we have great opportunities and one of the great things about John Key is he is a man who sees the possibilities so I think he's the right person in the right job at the right time.

PAUL And the great big single possibility he has seen is the business of food.

THERESE But what choices are we willing to make in terms of how we harness that resource of water.  We already see huge battles in Canterbury over water.

PAUL Well of course Lord Patten is suggesting that any major conflicts in the 21st century could well be about water itself.  And so Key in summary how would you put it?

FRAN I think he's made a good start, I think what he has done is united the country and perhaps stopped a sense of hopelessness and despair permeating this country, which could have happened given what we face, so he's kept it calm, he's kept business confidence up, but to get that step change it will require him to lift his own performance and take us with him.

THERESE Can I also say that looking across the House to the opposition and what Labour needs to do in the next year.  I think they need a reshuffle, I think they need to bring forward the stars in their benches, I think they have to present us the face of what their next ministry would look like, and their greatest problem at the moment is, if you look at the polling, they simply are not looking like a viable alternative government, and unless they look viable then the next election I think will be quite bleak for them.

PAUL Difficult for you to answer I know but is Goff cutting the mustard?

MIKE Yes he is, the phone's off the hook at the moment with the electorate and I think you've really got to ask a party to do one thing after a defeat and that is hold together, and that's about all they have to do in the first year, no one will be listening to them.  Therese is quite right, there's 14 new members of parliament, well over a third of the caucus, there's some really stupendous talent there and it's gotta come forward.

PAUL  Very good and I think each of you very much for your contributions.