Labour's law and order week ended with, first, a shooting from a character on home detention who plainly should not have been on home detention. And then, well. Then the justice minister was arrested. Let’s hope they don’t do an economy week next week. Chris Hipkins has looked like the adult son in a suit enduring his mother's third wedding.

In her Post/Stuff column this week, Josie argues Labour should turn its fortunes around with a promise of free dental care paid for by increasing the retirement age by a year.

They have ruled out anything big on tax. There have been kittenish evasions about removing the GST from fruit and vegetables. That would help families, but they need to say what would be cut to pay for it, or else it just looks like an election bribe. How about free or cheap dental care?The obstacle in the way of free or cheap dental care is paying for it. No policy is credible unless you say how to pay for it. Apply this rule to all new policies until the election. The point of politics is to make tough choices. If we want free dental care, then we have to identify something lower priority that we can go without to pay for it.Labour could fund free or heavily subsidised dental care for everyone by increasing the age of eligibility for NZ Super by one year. That would replace one universal entitlement with another.