And here’s to better things in 2017 . . .

We also asked our panel to describe what they would like to see done differently this year.

My friend was racially abused the other night as he took a bus home in Lambton Quay. He spends his entire life helping other people and some guy called him a n ..... and told him to go back to where he comes from. But then a stranger stepped in and defended my friend. I hope all of us aspire to be that stranger who stood up for my mate and not that stranger who abused him. I hope 2017 will be the year where more people care for each other and stand up for each other’s human rights.

– Susan Devoy I would like to see international cooperation to end war and famine. Also I would like to see payWave accepted in all stores. Actually scrap that last one, it probably isn’t as pressing as the first two. – Guy Williams Good-quality, fresh food easily available and accessible for everyone in the world. On a more achievable I want to use all the science available to me to improve our note, how cool would it be if this summer, real fruit icecreams were free for everyone? – Nadia Lim I’d like to see the thinking of writers like Yuval Noah Harari, Steven Pinker, Matt Ridley et al go mainstream, and the general populace gains a less hysterically doomed perspective on the world. Things will never be perfect but they are without doubt better than they were. The news never reports all the planes that land safely. – Dick Frizzell I’d love to see our food be as nature meant it to be. If New Zealand set the goal of being a 100 per cent organic and GMO-free food producer we would create a massive economic advantage, and our waterways would see a dramatic improvement, as would ‘brand’ New Zealand. – Rob Hamill We are small and isolated here at the bottom of the Pacific, but we can lead by example. We can show more compassion and generosity towards refugees. Let’s shame the Australian government by taking those wretched unfortunates off those hellholes Manus and Nauru. I’d like us to stand up to the climate change deniers, and do more than our fair share to curb carbon emissions. I’d like us to stand together on religious tolerance and race relations, to be a beacon in an increasingly intolerant world. – Sam Neill One thing close to my heart is the way we treat our rivers. Without clean water we have nothing. – Michael Vincent, paua rescuer That the rights of Maori, as encapsulated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, are actually implemented and upheld in this country, starting with the constitutional transformation that was published on February 6, 2016 in a report by Matike Mai Aotearoa. – Margaret Mutu Swimmable rivers. I’m from the South Island and we spent summers in sparkling rivers: Waima, Pelorus, Wairau. Building little rock dams, finding deep green swimming holes that changed every year, wearing holes in your togs trying to bodysurf the rapids. Pointing at a stick and yelling ‘‘eel!’’ to watch the other kids flail to the bank in panic. I want that for my kid, particularly the bit with the eel stick because it was hilarious even if my brother totally pushed me towards the stick to get away. – Ruth Spencer I would like to launch a ‘‘Ten Tunnels’’ project linking the abundant rain that falls on the West Coast to the fertile plains of Canterbury, Otago and Southland. It would provide New Zealand with an endless supply of renewable energy to warm our homes and power our cars. – Tim Shadbolt Hopefully 2017 will see the Anglican Trustees in Christchurch finally come to their senses and get on with rebuilding the Christchurch Cathedral. – William Rolleston How about a washing machine that washes, irons and folds? Am I the only one in the world that loves my underwear ironed and folded?! – Michael Van de Elzen I’d like to see a renewed respect for good old-fashioned factual accuracy. The internet, that labyrinthian sewer of lies and half-truths has made it so much harder to hold politicians and big business to account. – Stephen Sinclair I’d love to see a let-up in the tsunami of plastic flooding our everyday lives: supermarket bags, sushi containers, single-use cutlery and cups, cosmetic microbeads, Nespresso pods, shrinkwrapped cucumbers, the mountains of polystyrene chips used to protect my eBay purchases in transit (most recently a pirate costume for my cat – basically indestructible, even if Jiffy’s dignity is not). – Catherine Chidgey I would like the people who fund our schools and universities to consider whether recent failures of intelligence and decency in Western democracies have any connection with the concurrent decline in support for the humanities. – Bill Manhire Having just celebrated Christmas, a story of a baby born into marginalised and poor circumstances who went on to make an enduring impact, my hope is that all New Zealand children will experience material advantage, security and love. For they will shape the New Zealand of tomorrow. – Andrew Becroft