Let me tell you something that happened today.

This morning, David Seymour was on the radio with Mike Hosking, outlining his plans to tackle truancy in this country by enforcing the rules so that parents cop fines if they don’t send their kids to school.

Only about 2.5 hours later, over on ZM, a mum entered a competition to get herself and her daughter to the Taylor Swift show in Melbourne tomorrow.

And even though it was 10 to 10 in the morning and school had started at least 50 minutes earlier, her daughter was at home with her and talking on the radio

Her daughter was home with a sniffle, which became a bit of a running joke because it was clearly a ‘sniffle’ bad enough to keep her home from school but not bad enough to keep her home from a Taylor Swift concert in Melbourne.

Now look, I don't want to be a Grinch to her. Taylor Swift is huge, the tickets are hard to come by, it’d be a wonderful experience for any school kid to go to Taylor Swift, especially overseas.

But it kind of made the point, didn’t it?

The truancy was a joke on the radio. That’s how chill we are about kids missing class.

The 3rd term of last year, 54 percent of kids skipped at least one day every two weeks. Now we can debate whether David Seymour's plan will change that. Maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t. 

There’s a case to say it won’t, because the law already exists. Parents can already cop a fine of $300 if they get busted and they just ignore it.

And if you don’t care about your child enough to send them to school, I hardly think someone else caring and fining you is gonna change your mind.

But at least it signals a change of attitude in Government.

I would rather have the Government try everything to get kids back to school, even if some of it doesn’t work, than try nothing.

And I hope it actually works. After love and safety, education is the most important thing you can give your child.

LISTEN ABOVE

Let me tell you something that happened today.
This morning, David Seymour was on the radio with Mike Hosking, outlining his plans to tackle truancy in this country by enforcing the rules so that parents cop fines if they don’t send their kids to school.
Only about 2.5 hours later, over on ZM, a mum entered a competition to get herself and her daughter to the Taylor Swift show in Melbourne tomorrow.
And even though it was 10 to 10 in the morning and school had started at least 50 minutes earlier, her daughter was at home with her and talking on the radio
Her daughter was home with a sniffle, which became a bit of a running joke because it was clearly a ‘sniffle’ bad enough to keep her home from school but not bad enough to keep her home from a Taylor Swift concert in Melbourne.
Now look, I don't want to be a Grinch to her. Taylor Swift is huge, the tickets are hard to come by, it’d be a wonderful experience for any school kid to go to Taylor Swift, especially overseas.
But it kind of made the point, didn’t it?
The truancy was a joke on the radio. That’s how chill we are about kids missing class.
The 3rd term of last year, 54 percent of kids skipped at least one day every two weeks. Now we can debate whether David Seymour's plan will change that. Maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t. 
There’s a case to say it won’t, because the law already exists. Parents can already cop a fine of $300 if they get busted and they just ignore it.
And if you don’t care about your child enough to send them to school, I hardly think someone else caring and fining you is gonna change your mind.
But at least it signals a change of attitude in Government.
I would rather have the Government try everything to get kids back to school, even if some of it doesn’t work, than try nothing.
And I hope it actually works. After love and safety, education is the most important thing you can give your child.
LISTEN ABOVE

With a straight down the middle approach, Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive on Newstalk ZB delivers the very latest news and views to New Zealanders as they wrap up their day.