Wairarapa Times-Age only giving the Opposition columns

The Wairarapa Times-Age has been running columns every Monday from National MP John Hayes, and Labour candidate Kieran McAnulty and Green candidate John Hart. All good.

But as John Hayes has announced he will retire at the election, they have decided that they will immediately terminate his column, and give it to the new National candidate when selected. This is some months off, so it means for a couple of months they will run columns only from Labour and the Greens. So much for balance.

Of course it is appropriate to have the column space filled by the new National candidate, but what harm is done by having it filled by the local MP until a candidate is selected. Do they think readers will benefit by not having anyone giving a viewpoint different to Labour and the Greens?