Shamabil Yacob

So that's the kind of the disappointing ends of things.

On the positive end was just how strongly held the idea of New Zealanders.

There is this extraordinary passion for New Zealand, and it sits across age, ethnicity, location, New Zealand-born, foreign-born.

It doesn't matter.

We love this country.

And to me, that gives me a really positive foundation to build from.

And not just a little bit, right?

It's a very strong foundation.

The other thing that gives me a lot of hope is just how much aspiration there is in our young people.

Because I hear all the time, oh, young people, they're feckless.

Not true.

If anybody's feckless, it's the middle-aged and the old.

We are complacent.

We are happy to have gotten all the good stuff.

And now we don't want to work on it.

Whereas the young people, they're not experiencing the best conditions, but they have so much optimism and hope for the future.

To me, that's the foundation for growth.

That's the foundation for change.

So I feel like there is lots of stuff about New Zealand that's actually really good, even if right now there are some signals that are quite frightening.

Yeah, look, I think it's very easy to point the finger at media, but media amplifies the feelings in society.