OPINION: "Cry me a river."
As hundreds of thousands of hard-working Kiwis are slapped in the face by the Government with new taxes on their retirement investments, Julie Anne Genter told them to "cry me a river".
The mum and dad investors who help put a roof over the head of people who either want or need to rent in this country - they're mostly good people; they're kind and caring people, they look after their tenants, and they're not evil, nasty tyrants.
At both ends of this debate, you hear about evil empire-builder slumlords and P-riddled nightmare tenants trashing homes.
But that's all they are - the extremes of the debate.
For the most part, most tenants and landlords have great relationships.
But now landlords are going to be forced to raise rents on their tenants - why? Because of two new taxes on their retirement nest eggs they've been working hard to grow.
That's bad enough - but to have Genter, a senior member of the Greens - a party that's in bed with Labour telling these good people to "cry me a river?"
It's a stupid thing to say, it comes from a really ugly place, it's salt in the wound for these blind-sided Kiwis - and a far cry from kind and caring.
Ryan Bridge is a fill-in host on The AM Show.
