Guy Williams

homeless people choose to be homeless‘‘. At this point, I basically yelled: ‘‘Oh yeah! They’re livin’ la vida loca!’’ Even if some people do choose to be homeless, who is choosing to live in emergency housing, and does ‘‘voluntary homelessness’’ explain the highest rate in the OECD? This is New Zealand, and we’re normalising poverty instead of fighting it.

The debate was tense, clearly, there was a rift in the room. Both sides needed to finish strong, so my Uncle closed with this gem: ‘‘The irony is that all these people, Metiria Turei and Marama Fox who claim to be so big on poverty, aren’t even in Government! They’re just throwing mud from the outside.’’ That’s exactly what I said is the problem! Arrggh!

I thought I was heading towards becoming another alarming statistic in New Zealand’s underfunded mental health system. I had to leave, I told them to ‘‘think about all the weird things you’ve said tonight’’. And he said, ‘‘no!’’ I told them, ‘‘maybe find a different doctor’’ he agreed, apparently their anti-science doctor isn’t really helping.

She calmed me down: ‘‘Well, if you care so much, then why don’t you write one of your columns about it?’’