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GUIDE to ★What to watch in Birmingham p66 theGAMES ★The Kiwi behind the spectacle p28 T H E B A N K O FJULY 23-29 2022 MUM&DAD The pitfalls of giving money to your kids SWEARING MENOPAUSE NICI WICKES The joy of effing The latest debate over Recipes from her and blinding hormone replacement new cookbook

CONTENTS ISSN 2381-9553: Vol 281, No. 4256. July 23-29, 2022 Te Kaiwhakarongo Aotearoa COVER IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES/LISTENER ILLUSTRATION NASA FEATURES LIFE works well, but so does a good dose of dramatic theatre. by Marc Wilson COVER STORY 36 | Health The fierce debate on 46 | Technology Artificial whether menopause is being over- intelligence is advancing so quickly 16 | Cash & kin medicalised and overtreated is that sentient systems may be possible Parents are increasingly dipping into their not set to die down any time soon. in a decade or two. by Peter Griffin own savings to help their adult children with daily living costs. But that is only entrenching by Nicky Pellegrino BOOKS the wealth gap. by Sarah Catherall 38 | Nutrition When building raised 48 | Killer jokes The latest crime 22 | Wealth by stealth garden beds, it pays to consider what fiction features a darkly funny family Celebrated French economist Thomas Piketty impact the construction materials might whodunnit and a compelling debut set shot to fame for his writings on inequality. have on the soil. by Jennifer Bowden in 1970s Wellington. by Greg Fleming Could his arguments lead to wealth taxes 49-55 | Books Craig Sisterson’s Books in New Zealand? by Danyl McLachlan 40 | Food Fast and flavour-packed of My Life; novels by Clare Whitfield, snacks and meals from Kiwi kitchen Benjamin Myers and Jane Shemilt; 28 | Leaps & bounds whizz Nici Wickes. a biography of Charlotte Badger; an Kiwi choreographer Corey Baker has built anthology of climate change poetry; an an international career on bold moves. His 42 | Wine Organic viticulture is a examination of China’s expansion into next step is the opening ceremony of the growing trend among winemakers, Central Asia; and poetry by James Brown Commonwealth Games. by Louise Chunn and although the wines can cost a little more, they are free of synthetic chemical 32 | The great cosmic reveal fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides. Stunning images from Nasa’s Webb telescope take us deeper into the origin of the universe. by Michael Cooper 45 | Psychology To help deal with unwanted emotions, the odd swear word COMMENTARY 14 | Politics Jane Clifton ENTERTAINMENT 94 | The Good Life 3 | Upfront 60 | Film Russell Baillie Michele Hewitson 62 | Music Elizabeth Kerr, Graham Reid 4 | Letters Plus Caption Competition, 65 | Film review Sarah Watt DIVERSIONS 66 | Commonwealth Games preview Quips & Quotes and 10 Quick Questions 71-91 | TV programmes 56-59 | Diversions 8 | Bulletin Bernard Lagan & Puzzles 92-93 | Radio programmes 93 | Classical Elizabeth Kerr 9 | Diary Russell Brown 11 | Life Bill Ralston 12 | Reality Check Stephen Davis p51 p55 Editor KARYN SCHERER Senior Designer RICHARD KINGSFORD Chief Executive Officer JANE HUXLEY Classified Sales KIM CHAPMAN Chief Subeditor FRANCES GRANT Subeditor NICK RUSSELL General Manager STUART DICK classifi[email protected] Political Columnist JANE CLIFTON Editorial Assistant REBECCA ZHONG Editorial Manager SARAH HENRY Subscriptions Email [email protected], Books Editor MARK BROATCH Editorial Office 317 New North Rd, Kingsland, Senior Account Manager CHLOE JORDAN magshop.co.nz or phone 0800 624 7467 Entertainment & Arts Editor RUSSELL BAILLIE Auckland 1021 [email protected] The NZ Listener is published by Are Media Ltd, Television Editor FIONA RAE Editorial postal address PO Box 52122, Commercial Brand Manager MAE KELLY Level 1, 317 New North Rd, Kingsland, Auckland 1021. Art Director DEREK WARD Kingsland, Auckland 1352 [email protected] Printed by Webstar, 114 Swanson Rd, Henderson, Assistant Art Director SHANE KELLY Editorial contact [email protected] Sales Director CLAIRE CHISHOLM Auckland 0610. © 2022. All rights reserved. 2 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

UPFRONT Counting the cost Climate Change Commission chair Rod Carr says we cannot afford any more delays in pricing agricultural emissions. Farmers are among the most innovative, be ready for the level of detail needed to deliver He Waka Eke resourceful, and resilient business Noa’s proposal by the start of 2025. operators in New Zealand. Many have already been making good progress A otearoa New Zealand first committed to pricing towards understanding and reducing agricultural emissions in 2008, so by 2025 there will the environmental impact of agriculture. have been a 17-year delay. The can has been kicked In the summers of 1977 and 1978, I made down the road for too long. hay and pressed wool at Hill End, out of With some hard work by farmers, rural professionals and Balclutha, on my uncle’s farm. It was hard, satisfying work, relevant government agencies, a basic farm-level system could with good people who wanted to do the be introduced by January 1, 2025. While right thing for the land, their animals, the He Waka Eke Noa proposal could their families, the community and the provide a useful starting point, the country. Climate Change Commission has recom- Now, climate change is adding fur- mended several critical changes. ther challenges to agriculture in New Pricing emissions from the Zealand. The slower we are at reducing application of synthetic nitrogen emissions, the greater the burden will fertiliser at the manufacturer or become in responding to climate and importer level in the ETS would achieve consumers. We must reduce gross green- a more broad and equitable coverage house gas emissions, and we cannot of all nitrogen fertiliser emissions. plant our way out of our commitments. This is supported by current science Parliament unanimously set a January 1, and measurement techniques. 2025, deadline for pricing agricultural He Waka Eke Noa’s proposal suggests emissions. By the end of this year, the farmers should be paid for carbon government will map out what agricul- absorbed by on-farm vegetation that tural emissions pricing will look like. is not already covered by the ETS, but A smart, well-designed pricing policy this would be expensive, complex, will help maintain access to high-value If agricultural-emissions inequitable and difficult to audit and markets while reducing emissions pricing is to play its part enforce. There is no evidence that it from agriculture in line with targets. would significantly reduce emissions. It should create strong incentives for in meeting our targets, Many farmers and non-farmers, farmers to adopt low-emission breed- pricing them at the farm and thousands of hectares of “eligible” ing, feeding and land-use practices, vegetation, are already covered by the while managing significant negative level is the way to go. ETS. A separate system recognising knock-on impacts. the value of vegetation that is not He Pou a Rangi Climate recognised in the ETS could better Change Commission has just delivered two pieces of reward the wide range of other benefits vegetation provides independent, evidence-based advice to ministers. This – such as enhancing water quality and biodiversity – and includes an assessment of how ready farmers and the ensure equity between farmers and other sectors. sector are for three different pricing options. Our advice on synthetic nitrogen fertiliser and on-farm We found that, if agricultural-emissions pricing is to play its vegetation would lead to a cheaper, simpler, fairer way to price part in meeting our targets, pricing them at the farm level is the agricultural emissions, where both farmers and other sectors way to go. This would be outside New Zealand’s pricing system face the same price. for long-lived gas emissions and removals, known as the Emis- We have an opportunity to make choices to preserve our sions Trading Scheme (ETS). world-leading status as an efficient producer of low-emission A partnership between industry, Māori and government, agricultural products. It’s important to remember that global GETTY IMAGES known as He Waka Eke Noa, has delivered a proposal for a consumer preferences, alternative technologies and overseas farm-level pricing system. We cannot afford to delay pricing regulators will also shape what is produced, who it is sold to and agricultural emissions, but the government and the sector won’t what returns are earned. l SUBMISSIONS for Upfront should be approximately 600 words long and should be sent to [email protected]. Full contact details must be provided. JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 3

LETTERS You can’t grow toilet paper Name Withheld (Letters, July as well – we sure couldn’t I am tired of the nasty Employers don’t like it when 16) says there was no Winz do it without all our incomes. remarks by people who have you have to rush off to call an in the 1960s. It wasn’t called not lived in beneficiaries’ cir- ambulance and such. Winz, but it existed: on April I established fruit and vege cumstances. We’re called lazy H Moore 1, 1939, the Social Security patches and we mostly live off bludgers. Being a beneficiary (Maraenui, Napier) Department was established. the garden. I make “nutritious is described as “a lifestyle”, meals”. However, you can’t often by Work and Income LETTER OF THE WEEK We do not all “have loads of grow toilet paper, soap or case managers themselves. kids”. Some beneficiaries have washing powder in a garden, Thank you, Rebecca Macfie, none. My brother is on Sup- or pay the rates, power and No one in their right mind for your excellent in-depth ported Living and gets $359 petrol with cabbages. would choose such a lifestyle. article about the welfare a week. So do I now, after a I sure wouldn’t, but who else system (“Caught in the net”, long IT career. I had no choice; Even those with kids mostly is there? Aged care is in dire July 2). I am guessing it made first I was my partner’s carer, don’t go on a benefit then have straits and my brother, disa- you despair. But in answer now I am my aged mum and kids. They have kids and end bled and almost blind, couldn’t to your concluding question, brother’s carer. up divorced for any number cope with the system or live on “Do we care?”, yes, plenty of reasons. Abuse sometimes. his own. So, I am it. of New Zealanders do, and I’d love to earn even the Requirements are that they we remember a time when minimum wage, but no, must look for work once the And I can’t work and do this Aotearoa had state-owned I get the $359, too, now. Just child turns one. at the same time – I did try it. WINNING CAPTION Mike Hamblyn, Dunedin FINALISTS Boris Johnson: “I can’t recall inviting Kelsey Grammer.” – Mike Lynch, Upper Hutt Johnson: “I’m having another bad hair day. Nothing’s going Now I’ve got right.” – Hans Zindel, Palmerston North a hangover and I can’t remember Johnson: “Things are getting a bit sticky at home. Carrie is where I parked going to be pretty upset if they kick us out of the big house.” the European – Bronwen Gunn, Levin Union! GETTY IMAGES Olaf Scholz: “So, it turns out the party vote is more Caption important than the Let’s Party vote!” – Steve Godsiff, Timaru competition Johnson, thinking: “OMG, did I really ask where Angela was?” Bronwen Gunn, Levin Scholz: “That’s the trouble with smoke and mirrors, Boris. THIS WEEK’S PICTURE The smoke gets in your eyes.” – Paul Kelly, Palmerston North Caption Competition Novak Djokovic celebrates victory over Nick Kyrgios in the 2022 Wimbledon men’s singles final. {[email protected]} TO ENTER Send your captions for the photo at right to [email protected], with “Caption Competition No 470” in the subject line. Alternatively, entries can be posted to “Caption Competition No 470”, NZ Listener, PO Box 52122, Kingsland, Auckland 1352. Entries must be received by noon, Tuesday, July 26. THE PRIZE The second in India Holton’s “Dangerous Damsels” series, a historical romance with a magical twist. 4 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

businesses employing all food in it and somewhere services and physical infra- BACKWARDS STEP who wanted to work. warm and dry to live should structure) is always in line be ashamed. I surely am. with society’s manaakitanga Charlotte Grimshaw’s “Five Surely it is time for all John Rhodes values of welcoming visitors. ordinary women” (Diary, July political parties to seriously (Greytown) 16) is a sharing of lives lived consider an untaxed universal Professor Grimes also openly and honestly, while income, equal in value to the IMMIGRATION SETTINGS failed to acknowledge many of also challenging how impor- minimum wage, for all Kiwis our other recommendations tant it is that a woman has the from the age of 17, regardless of I totally reject the description that relate to the wellbeing right to choose her reproduc- employment or need. It seems by Professor Arthur Grimes of families, whānau and tive life. counterproductive, but would (Upfront, July 16) that the communities. do away with the endless Productivity Commission’s Their strength and deter- policy tweaking, clawbacks report into long-term immi- The current criteria for resi- mination remind me of my and discrimination. gration settings is “heartless”. dency renewal and citizenship mother, whose concern grew I fully agree, however, that are “showing a commitment” when she saw what was hap- Pilot trials have shown that the wellbeing of people and and have nothing to do with pening to her fellow fertile most people want to work families needs to be taken productivity. Our concern is females. As a nurse during for personal satisfaction, seriously. permanent residents who see the 1930s she attended to the learning, friendships and New Zealand as a “bolthole”, agony, the harm, and too often self-esteem ( since our value The report we delivered or an option in case of future the death of so many women seems to be based on what warned that policy cannot take geopolitical unrest. Many sub- caused mainly by backstreet we contribute). Those with a narrow focus on workers mitters were concerned about abortions gone horribly wrong. jobs would keep both income and firms. However, the terms the growing international streams, paying tax only on the of reference were to focus on diaspora that could come back, These desperate measures work earnings. migration for work purposes. even though they have spent usually came about under Migration for family reasons little time here. Other countries pressure to be rid of another Those nurturing children was “out of scope”. do not have this odd “per- mouth to feed, or from a or disabled folk at present are manent residency” category violent attack on the woman’s mostly not paid, but where Our recommendations granting almost the same rights body. The results often left would we be without them? about highly productive and as citizenship. families in despair and further Perhaps more parents could highly paid workers relate hardship, with no mother stay at home to support their only to the “skilled work” Most egregious are Profes- around to care for, feed or children, and young men and categories we were asked to sor Grimes’ claims that our clothe them. women would find joining examine. All countries’ points suggestion of six-yearly gangs unnecessary. systems try to manage the renewals of residency visas Many decades passed before number of these visas by pri- would exclude those who are changes took place in New Zea- Yes, it is likely that income oritising those likely to have old and unproductive. Any land, but not before a woman’s tax would have to increase, but good labour-market outcomes. requirement to renew resi- right to choose was constantly then spending on policing and dency visas would only apply challenged by placard-holding social welfare would diminish. We highlighted the sig- to new visas. This is to encour- gangs throwing out verbal nificant wellbeing impacts age commitment to Aotearoa insults and bodily attacks as Instead of trying to force that occur when migra- – it is not about productivity. women lawfully approached people into earning a living, tion becomes unbalanced. a safe, hygienic clinic. A law we have to accept that some Approving more temporary Losing a job or getting sick change finally put an end to prefer to take it easy. Income work visas without providing is not an indication of lack this behaviour. penalties have not changed certainty about how many of commitment. However, if this attitude, so why continue? residency applications will there are reasons why our The liberty for women to Linda Ballard be granted makes it hard for recommendation could affect choose in the US began in 1973 (Richmond, Nelson) people to plan. Aside from lost people’s wellbeing, they after Norma McCorvey (Roe) economic opportunities, that should be understood, with won her case in court for the Poverty has become a pan- causes significant stress for exemptions or other options right of all women to a safe demic scourge among our migrant workers, their fami- considered, before any abortion. So it’s hard to believe low-paid workers and our lies, and for employers. changes are made. it took an American lout with unemployed. All members of uncouth and sleazy attitudes Parliament should be required The failure of previous Dr Ganesh Nana towards women to design the to read and commit to memory governments (of all hues) to Chair, Productivity Commission Supreme Court in such a way Rebecca Macfie’s article. Then increase migration without Te Kōmihana Whai Hua o Aotearoa it turned back time. each should explain what her adjusting urban develop- or his party intends to do. ment and housing is why we Letters to the editor {[email protected]} reframed “absorptive capac- An honest answer would ity” as a nest, rather than a The Editor, NZ Listener, PO Box 52122, Kingsland, Auckland 1352 be, “No more than the minimal constraint on any level of “pro- efforts that have already failed ductive” migration. That is, ● Letters must be under A phone number can be helpful.  so disastrously, because we’d governments need to ensure 300 words. Preference is ● Pen names or letters submitted be voted out.” our nest (including health, given to shorter letters.  elsewhere are not acceptable.  education and community ● A writer’s full residential ● We reserve the right Every New Zealander with address is required on all to edit or decline letters good health, a tummy with letters, including emails. without explanation. JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 5

LETTERS Quips& 10Quick Quotes Questions byGABEATKINSON “Do what you love and 1. Fiji is considered to be a part 5. Gorgonzola is a veined 8. In what kind of position you’ll never own property of which of these regions? blue cheese that is made a day in your life.” – Seen on from the unskimmed was Albert Einstein employed ❑ Macaronesia milk of which animal? Twitter ❑ Polynesia when he published his 1905 ❑ Micronesia ❑ Cow “Everything is dishwasher ❑ Melanesia ❑ Water buffalo theory of special relativity? safe if you don’t care ❑ Goat enough about it.” – Seen on 2. True or false? The terms ❑ Sheep ❑ Bookbinding apprentice “gnu” and “wildebeest” ❑ Insurance salesman Twitter refer to the same animals. 6. The mostly instrumental ❑ Locomotive engineer 1973 album Tubular Bells, by ❑ Patent examiner “People only see what ❑ True Mike Oldfield, is well known they are prepared to see.” ❑ False for its use in which film? 9. Which TV sketch comedy – Ralph Waldo Emerson 3. What is pictured on the ❑ The Big Chill series closed with the reverse (or tails) side of a ❑ Dirty Dancing “A lot of people don’t have New Zealand 20 cent coin? ❑ The Exorcist lines “That’s all we’ve got very high expectations ❑ Pulp Fiction of young people. I don’t ❑ Fern leaf time for, so it’s goodnight think we suddenly become ❑ Māori carving 7. Which of these is a capable of things because ❑ Tuatara term for a phenomenon from me.” “And it’s of our age.” – Leila Mottley, ❑ Kōwhai flowers in which prices increase very quickly but take a goodnight from him”? author of Nightcrawling 4. Who is the current long time to decrease? Secretary General of Nato? ❑ The Two Ronnies “It’s a great time to be ❑ Balloons and sinkers ❑ French and Saunders doing political satire when ❑ Charles Michel ❑ Ship in a bottle ❑ A Bit of Fry and Laurie the world is on a knife ❑ Ursula von der Leyen ❑ Rockets and feathers ❑ The Muppet Show edge.” – John Oliver ❑ Jens Stoltenberg ❑ Shrinkflation ❑ Joe Biden 10. Which of these is NOT “Education is the progres- sive discovery of our own one of the provinces or ignorance.” – Will Durrant territories of Canada? “That’s the fun of television. You can find an ❑ Nova Scotia Answers on actor and they’ll inspire ❑ Vancouver page 58. you to change and evolve ❑ Manitoba a character in a way you ❑ New Brunswick hadn’t initially planned on.” – Matt Duffer, co-creator Now, US women are being intimate and potentially har- 16) reminded me of Planck’s “put in their place” and rowing of women’s issues. principle. This was proposed of Stranger Things demoralised. by the physicist Max Planck, All men should speak up and is commonly summarised “Fame is being asked to Safe health care is a person’s and say when called for, “I am as “Science progresses funeral sign your autograph on right and abortions for women here to support you if you by funeral”. His point was that the back of a cigarette are part of this. It shouldn’t be need me in what, of course, is being human, even scientists packet.” – Billy Connolly influenced by religious doc- your decision.” may sometimes vehemently trine, or become a witch-hunt reject genuine new discover- “We choose our joys and from the 1600s. Does it have to be said that ies if these conflict with their sorrows long before we Emma Mackintosh men don’t carry babies, nor own long-held beliefs, and this experience them.” – Khalil (Birkenhead, Auckland) do they do nearly as much of unhelpful opposition finally the nurturing and bringing ends with their personal Gibran Charlotte Grimshaw reminds up? It’s as simple as what one demise. us that MP Simon O’Connor woman said to me: “No uterus, “I don’t care what celebrated abortions being no opinion.” We can but hope, along with consequences it brings, made difficult in the US and Kronstadt, that something I have been a fool for lesser that his colleague Shane The right to an abortion similar is occurring with things.” – Billy Joel Reti threw in his money’s is so obvious it barely needs American society at large. worth, too, on the possible a law. When women talk to Martin Green “Don’t accept your dog’s consequences here of the mothers and other women on (Whangārei) admiration as conclusive overturning of US Roe v the prospect of an abortion, evidence that you are Wade. Unmentioned was or contemplate it themselves, How wonderful to have wonderful.” – Ann Landers Christopher Luxon reminding there is no decision to be made Jonathan Kronstadt’s column us of his stance in ticking off by men. May all men be silent to let us know what is going on O’Connor. in this women’s business from in the US. Having been told the here on. pinnacle of the judicial system These three all have one Keith Burgess can’t be trusted, what a relief other thing in common (Sumner, Christchurch) to know that there are such besides being National MPs. insightful folk as Jonathan They are all men having DYING BREED out there who can also tell us strong opinions on the most Jonathan Kronstadt’s column “Cause for optimism” (July 6 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

who the worst people are and how we prices per tonne of our allocation, is the READER PROMOTION can look forward to their death. In fact, opportunity we should now address. he has provided a tremendous benefit WIN A in identifying an entire generation that Integrating the work of the He Waka DOUBLE could do us the service of disappearing. Eke Noa primary sector climate action PASS TO partnership with the collaborative THE QUIET Perhaps we could get him over here to agritech, food and beverage and advanced let us know who the worst Kiwis might manufacturing industry transformation GIRL be and how they can be eliminated. He plans provides a useful structure for lift- should be aware, however, that mixing ing our game by the time access actually The Listener is giving the ideas of “the perfectibility of man” happens. readers the chance with the death and disappearance of Michael Smythe to win tickets to those who don’t share the vision has been (Northcote Point, Auckland) THE QUIET GIRL tried before, with poor consequences. DRINKING TRENDS Rural Ireland, 1981. A quiet, I hope his next column has more neglected girl is sent away from about the bright future of compostable We applaud the highlighting of a growing her overcrowded, dysfunctional seaweed straws. trend in the alcohol beverage sector for family to live with foster Robert Alderson consumers to explore the increasing parents for the summer. She (Titirangi, Auckland) number of low- and no-alcohol beverages blossoms in their care, but in on offer (“Zero to hero”, July 9). We expect this house where there are FREETRADE DEAL New Zealand to continue in this posi- meant to be no secrets, she tive direction in line with international discovers one painful truth. Jane Clifton (Politics, July 16) decried the trends. Based on the renowned novella Prime Minister’s decision to accept the Foster by Claire Keegan. free-trade deal with the European Union. The Health Promotion Agency research Clifton compared it to eating one marsh- quoted by Dr Nicki Jackson also showed WE HAVE 10 DOUBLE mallow now, rather than having the grit 36% of Kiwis didn’t drink at all over the PASSES TO GIVE AWAY to wait and get two marshmallows later. first lockdown in 2020. Of those who did, 34% drank less, and 47% consumed about To enter, email listenergiveaways@ There has never been the promise of the same. aremedia.co.nz with THE QUIET “two marshmallows later”. Indeed, it is GIRL in the subject line. extremely unlikely in this increasingly Stats NZ data for the second quarter protectionist world that we would ever of 2020 showed that, compared with 2019, be offered two marshmallows. overall alcohol available for consumption was down by 9%. As a nation, we’re drink- Kiwifruit, wine, seafood and some ing 25% less than in the 1980s. Harmful cheese will get significantly better drinking is declining, particularly among terms of entry into the EU. With France young people. at the table, that’s a coup! We should count ourselves lucky, even if we have Independent economists have discred- to think up a new name for feta. ited the $7.8 billion cost of alcohol-related harm that is quoted: it omits any social, Getting a toe in the free-trade door with health or economic benefits and contains dairy and beef was more than any other several key miscalculations.[But] there is trade delegation has achieved before. absolutely more work to do. Maybe we can improve on this now that Dylan Firth we have some standing in the process. Acting spokesperson, New Zealand Alcohol We should celebrate this success and Beverages Council acknowledge the concrete achievement of our Prime Minister and trade staff. THAT’S LIFE Ann Graeme (Bellevue, Tauranga) My gosh. Two successive columns of Bill Ralston’s with which I totally agree (June Rather than employ the marshmallow 25 and July 2). Who’d have thought? delayed gratification analogy, it would Jean Woolfe have been more appropriate for Jane to (RD1, Upper Moutere) congratulate Jacinda Ardern and Damien O’Connor’s negotiators for firmly placing Letter of the week prize New Zealand’s FTA foot in the EU meat and dairy door. Had they not, Clifton In How to be a Bad may have conjured images of a can being Muslim, award-winning kicked down a road to nowhere. NZ writer Mohamed Hassan blends Improving environmental quality and storytelling, memoir sustainable brand stories, with targeted and non-fiction to packaging and marketing and innova- map the experience tive products that earn the best possible of being Muslim in the 21st century. JULY 23 2022 LISTENER

BULLETIN FROM SYDNEY BERNARD LAGAN Price of a ticket A s Sydney shiv- Part of Australia’s new bon- welfare and other government There is little doubt ered through homie towards New Zealand assistance – the welcome mat that Australia has flooding this migrants is its calculation has never looked brighter. long been the winner month, Jacinda that New Zealanders are the from the Trans-Tasman Ardern was a closest and readiest source of The odds of an exodus Travel Arrangement, which from New Zealand are large. allowed for the free move- ment of people between sunny presence amid the grey supply to ease acute workplace Business platform MYOB’s New Zealand and Australia, since it was signed in 1973. days alongside her grim-faced shortages. latest consumer snapshot The number of Kiwis who’ve counterpart, Australian Prime Australian Treasurer Jim released this month found taken their skills across the Tasman tells us that. Minister Anthony Albanese. Chalmers said as much in a one in five polled were Many are a costly loss. A While he waded the city’s quote picked up by Welling- actively considering leaving. 2007 New Zealand Treasury working paper titled Go lake-like north, endur- West, Young Man, Go West!? pointedly ventured: “To the ing tirades from people extent that educated people take their accumulated forced out of homes for the education overseas with them, the implicit contract fourth time in two years, with taxpayers is thwarted. New Zealand taxpayers end the New Zealand Prime up, in effect, subsidising the growth of other countries.” Minister – more popular In one of the few studies in Australia, it seems, than of trans-Tasman migrant flows, demographer Bob Aotearoa – was feted by Birrell, now president of the Australian Popula- Sydney fashionistas, scored tion Research Institute, concluded two decades ago a prime-time television Australia was the “emphatic winner” as it cherry-picked interview with the national New Zealand’s skills. The 50th anniversary of the broadcaster and was rhap- Trans-Tasman Travel Arrange- ment next year would be an sodised in the Australian ideal time for a fresh study to assess the cost and benefit to and Sydney Morning Herald. New Zealand of its Australian diaspora. Her visit culminated in Perhaps the price of unfet- tered rights to flee across a joint press conference the Tasman is higher to New Zealand than many New with Albanese, where he Zealanders think. l offered Ardern all that she Shake on it: New Zealander Bernard Lagan wanted – and more – for Jacinda Ardern is the Australian correspondent the 650,000 New Zealand- and Anthony for the Times, London. ers across the Tasman. Albanese. Australia, he said, finally recognises that New Zealand- “New Zealand taxpayers end born criminals with little connection to their birthplace up, in effect, subsidising the should not be deported there. growth of other countries.” Kiwis in Australia will likely get a pathway to citizenship and, possibly, the right to vote ton’s Politik website. Chalmers Only Ireland has a greater without becoming Australian said “challenges in our labour proportion of citizens abroad; citizens. market” had fed into Aus- the ease of migration to Aus- Sweet as, bro? Careful what tralia’s decision to provide tralia explains New Zealand’s you wish for, New Zealand. a citizenship pathway for ascendancy up that table. Australia plays a hard, Kiwis. Ardern, alongside Albanese, crafty game. In this new era With the average wage in said that New Zealanders were of crippling skills and labour Australia now more than Australia’s best migrants and shortages, exacerbated by $400 a week ahead of New deserved greater recogni- GETTY IMAGES bare-knuckle competition for Zealand’s – and the prospect tion. Five days later, Statistics productive migrants, Australia that Kiwis in Australia will NZ reported the migration to will fill its own shortages from soon be eligible for citizenship Australia had resumed – at a wherever it can. and the associated full range of rate double pre-Covid. 8 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

DIARY RUSSELL BROWN Wanted: doctors & nurses It wasnotespeciallysur- nurses – or between 10-20% of continue to climb as every But there’s no missing the prising when Minister the required number– by 2025. other rich country seeks the stress in the system – I ended of Health Andrew Little same quick fix. up limping to the ED’s exit recently resisted using That does sound like a crisis, with my broken shoulder the word “crisis” about doesn’t it? Just one we’re not So, with the wards filling after waiting in vain for a the present condition of the facing alone. So we’ve done and the alarms sounding promised orderly. Most of the health system. Governments what other wealthy countries in every news bulletin, talk has been around rates of are traditionally reluctant to have done – hired in. Accord- what are the hospitals actually pay, which will surely need acknowledge the c-word on ing to the OECD, nearly 30% of like? Having recently been to increase in response to the their watch, even when every- nurses working in New Zea- picked up off the road by an lure across the Tasman. But one else is saying it. land are foreign-trained – and New Zealand was second only The world we are growing into And perhaps Little has some to Chile in the rate at which that will need more of us working in sort of point: our hospitals proportion increased in 2020. the health sector and fewer leaving. were spared the outright nightmare that some other Those nurses were lured ambulance crew (in the very we can’t just keep raiding each countries experienced in the from their birth countries, week the Listener cover was other. There’s a longer and first year of the pandemic, which are largely poorer than heralding the e-bike revolu- deeper conversation to be had when there were no vaccines us. Now we’re being picked off. tion, I was knocked off mine), about the worldwide implica- or antivirals. Late last year, The government of New South I can report that they still work. tions of Covid’s long tail and a World Health Organisation Wales has put up A$4.5 billion The ambulance was prompt the ageing populations of paper estimated that the Covid to boost the state healthcare and the ED and radiology staff wealthy nations. death toll among healthcare workforce by 10,000 – and were quick, kind and cheery, as workers globally was between a share of those doctors and they were, too, during a follow- That’s the world we are 80,000 and 180,000. nurses will come from New up appointment at a startlingly growing into, one that will Zealand. As far back as 2016, busy clinical centre. require more of us working It is also true that there is a about 9000 New Zealand- in the health sector and fewer global shortage of nurses and born nurses were working in doctors. As the Financial Times the health systems of other leaving – and ideally observed recently, the WHO countries. That number will fewer of us winding up declared a staffing short- in hospital care in the fall of nearly six million first place. nurses even before the pandemic. Since then, Perhaps the current alongside those who reform of our national have, unthinkably, died health system, with on the job, many more its promise of a more have succumbed to coherent focus on public burnout and left their health, will help there (I, professions. certainly, will be doing everything I can to avoid A report from the being hit by cars). McKinsey consultancy last year found that a But we should be clear third of nurses surveyed now about the challenge. in the US, UK, Singapore, As weary as we might Japan and France said be of watching coming they were likely to quit waves gather, there’s within the next year. A another one on the way. l more recent McKinsey report, focusing on “You’re so vain, I bet you think Russell Brown is a ALEX SCOTT the US, estimated that this sonnet’s about you.” freelance journalist America would be short based in Auckland. of as many as 450,000 JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 9

An Auckland based organisation that supports, advocates for, and empowers pregnant teens, teen parents and their children. E Tipu E Rea, meaning “to grow and to thrive” E Tipu e Rea Whānau Services provides tautoko (support) to mātua taiohi (young parents - māmā and pāpā), hapū māmā (expectant māmā ), and their pēpi (baby) / tamariki (children). As one of few organisations of its kind, E Tipu E Rea leads a powerful initiative providing 1:1 health and social support to young parents and their tamariki, provision of advocacy and policy work to dismantle existing stigmas and discrimination of pregnant teens and young parents in our community, particularly those of Māori and Pasifika backgrounds. We provide whānau-based health and social support, and individual and systemic advocacy to allow mātua taiohi, hapū māmā, and their pēpi/tamariki to thrive. This support includes but isn’t limited to; pregnancy and parenting, housing advocacy, hauora programmes, navigating health and social service systems, intensive social support, youth justice, building leadership, peer support groups and events for young mums and young dads aimed at strengthening social connectedness, cohesion, reducing isolation, and uplifting mental wellbeing. Over 8,000 rangatahi (young people) and their tamariki have benefitted from our work. Rangatahi like Tianna … Tianna When 19-year-old Tianna became pregnant, she knew she needed help. “I was scared, I wasn’t ready to have a baby” also I knew I was soon to get “a lot of judgement” Growing up in Auckland was tough for Tianna, surrounded by drugs, alcohol, abuse and gangs but she knew she didn’t want that for her baby. With no home, no family support and facing motherhood alone, Tianna got help from E Tipu e Rea Whānau Services and she, and now her son, have thrived. Working hard to finish her high school education, Tianna has firm plans to become a Police Officer “To change the system, you have to be in the system. If being a police officer is where it starts, then I’m willing to take that step to make that change.” Please make a tax-deductible donation today so we can continue to support more young parents like Tianna. Donate online via your credit card givealittle.co.nz/org/thrive www.etipuereaws.org.nz Charity Number - CC45477

LIFE BILL RALSTON Don’t hold your breath There are times Increasingly, I note, fewer The good news is that It is all so frustrating. when you think the only people are wearing masks having had three shots still I am due for a second booster way to avoid infection or in public. Even when they offers some protection – not shot around now and guess reinfection from Covid-19 is simply to stop breathing. are forced to do so – in so much against infection but I better get one, but after also That is probably a bit drastic and entirely self-defeating, shops, for example – a lot in mitigating the symptoms having had a flu injection as those lungs of yours need to keep working or you will of folk seem to insist on and helping prevent you last week, I’m beginning wind up dead. having their noses sticking winding up in a hospital bed. to feel like a pincushion. A recent RNZ study, albeit a slightly unscientific out above the damn thing, one, took a carbon-dioxide monitor around a mix of which is just ridiculous. We are heartily sick of the pandemic, places in Auckland to try to Do they not realise breath and so we shun the horrid mask. establish areas of high risk goes in and out through the for catching the disease. A check on a crowded city bus nose and viruses love to also That could be a bad mistake. revealed that the equivalent of one in every seven breaths transit in or out nasally? the reporter took was air others had breathed out. We are heartily sick of Even better news: if you’re Still, I don’t want to This was a phenomenon the pandemic, we are over triple vaccinated and have run the risk of another charmingly called it even if it isn’t over us, and had the infection as well, bout of Covid that “backwash”. A check at so we shun the horrid mask. a school showed that, in a classroom, one That could be a bad mistake. the “hybrid immunity” may gives me the long form of the in every 33 breaths a kid took would The SARS-CoV-2 virus is offer stronger protection disease. A friend popped in have been expelled by others. Ugh. fast throwing up variants, against severe disease and to see me recently and said Lack of adequate so the original vaccinations death. Then again, according he had “long Covid” after ventilation is the culprit, but as we’re most of us got many months to health authorities, being infected months ago. in the depths of winter, the obvious solution ago are of diminishing value repeat infections could risk He said he found it very of opening a window is a too-chilly option. in fighting the new, more cumulative long-term health debilitating and has had to Apparently, this infectious forms of Covid-19. effects. None of those are good. completely change his work means we should stick to wearing masks when patterns to cope. in close proximity to others. The problem The basic symptoms for me here is that my glasses consistently fog he described were up from my own breath and I blindly blunder lethargy, brain fog, about making mistakes like Mr Magoo. and dizziness. The danger here is, being naturally lethargic myself and prone to idly wandering about in a fog of unfocused thought, I may not even recognise that I’ve actually got it. I guess the only answer, despite our pandemic weariness, is to keep wearing a cursed N95 mask for as long it takes. After all, we have to keep “HR have brought in DOC. They managed breathing. PARRY JONES to make an entire island predator-free, But you can’t help so an office should be a piece of cake.” wondering if there is an end in sight to all this. l JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 11

REALITY CHECK STEPHEN DAVIS Information disorder Freedomof seeking information on the allow grounds such as this This year, Chief Ombudsman information laws spending of New South Wales prevent legitimate investiga- Peter Boshier wrote to minis- in democracies local councillors on travel and tive reporting, but the more ters, government agencies and reflect an impor- entertainment – informa- serious issue in New Zealand local authorities saying the law tant principle. tion ratepayers were clearly is the ridiculously long delays must not be “manipulated or Information held by govern- entitled to – only three of 167 in processing requests. undermined” and promising a ments belong not to individual councils replied. tougher approach on unrea- departments or agencies but to When investigative reporter sonably slow responses to OIA a country’s citizens. The US, for all the flaws in Eugene Bingham, of Stuff, was and local government informa- its system of government, is working on a story on warrant- tion requests. This followed a These laws are more by far the best. Its officials are less searches, to see if ethnicity rise in complaints to his office. important than ever. To combat simply used to dealing with swayed frontline police deci- About a third of the nearly 1400 misinformation and disinfor- OIA complaints in the 2020/21 mation, we need access to timely Tougher approach: year were about delays in and accurate information. Chief Ombudsman making a decision or releasing Peter Boshier. information. As an investigative reporter, I have filed freedom of informa- TheOfficialInformation Act is broken “I appreciate that agencies tion requests in New Zealand, and neither the government nor the are under pressure from a Australia, the United States and public service seems willing to fix it. large number of requests the United Kingdom. under the Official Information media requests in a prompt sions, it took two years, several Act and Local Government I would have expected this and efficient fashion. OIA requests and appeals to the Official Information and Meet- country, with its relatively open Ombudsman to obtain details ings Act, but they should not politics and reputation for Here, the government is of every warrantless search in lose sight of the need to fulfil honesty – first equal in Trans- reluctant to release informa- 2018-2019. their obligations under the parency International’s latest tion I have requested about an laws,” Boshier said. list of least-corrupt countries investigation in Antarctica on The OIA generally – to be the best of the four. But, the grounds that “the making requires agencies to “My starting point is always sadly, that is not the case. available of the information respond within 20 that unless there is a good would be likely to prejudice working days, but official reason to withhold informa- Our system, called the the security or defence of New statistics on their response tion, then it should be made Official Information Act (OIA), Zealand or the international times – some agencies claim available and without undue is broken and neither the gov- relations of the government 100% compliance – are mislead- delay.” ernment nor the public service of New Zealand” – a dubious ing because extensions of time seem willing to fix it. contention as the information by the agencies are bizarrely We shall see. The urge to is more than 20 years old. counted as on-time responses. delay or hide embarrassing We are not as bad as the information is prevalent at notoriously secretive UK, Clauses in the OIA that both central and local govern- where, for instance, I have ment levels. been applying unsuccess- fully for more than 15 years to A campaign to get the Otago find out why the government Regional Council to release an signed a possibly illegal treaty investigation into its actions protecting the wreck of the surrounding illegal dumping ferry Estonia in international in the Clutha River, highlighted waters in the Baltic. The UK is, in a recent issue of this maga- of course, not a Baltic nation, zine, has resulted in the council but last month, the Foreign agreeing to release only a “ver- Office again said it had no sion” of the findings, not the record of why the treaty was full report. l signed. Stephen Davis is a Dunedin- Across the Tasman, the Aus- based investigative journalist, tralian system also functions educator and author. poorly. When my journal- ism students filed requests 12 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

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POLITICS JANE CLIFTON Shutting up shop As an export-dependent nation, we are at risk as global conditions result in a worldwide move towards greater insularity. Clearly no one But Luxon’s observations are of jamming hospital wards. But apportioning political has explained unlikely to win National extra To be fair, Luxon’s criti- blame doesn’t soften the insult. to Christo- votes, and they add to a list of pher Luxon tactless remarks that threaten cisms abroad are arguably A further problem with the “togs, to become his hallmark. less offensive to voters than embarking down this togs, undies” Ardern’s conspicuous reluc- particular road is that the coun- gradation that applies to politi- Describing his career speci- tance to say a good word to terfactual – being outward cians once they clear Customs ality as being fixing “struggling foreign audiences about her facing, bold and ambitious abroad. businesses” – having helmed country’s world-leading agri- – is apt to prove somewhat However massive and valid at Unilever Canada and Air culture sector – the sector that maladaptive given current one’s catalogue of complaints New Zealand – was definitely provided her government with global conditions. When our about New Zealand may be, it a bit much. And his edict that the wherewithal to support all most seasoned trade negotia- must be strictly stashed with public transport should be those “soft” businesses through tor, Vangelis Vitalis, says New one’s duty-free purchases Zealand’s recent trade deal with and not opened again until Luxon’s complaint last week that the European Union – roundly repatriation. “Snark, snark, New Zealanders still had not “moved castigated by our major export- gush” might be the best way on” from Covid was a clanger. ers – is the absolute best set of to shorthand it. terms we could possibly have GETTY IMAGES Bagging one’s country viable without a state subsidy the pandemic. While New extracted, it’s clearly a pig of overseas is not a great audition – an idyll that may never have Zealand’s methane emissions a time to be ambitious. piece for someone wanting to been achieved anywhere in are hardly gloat-worthy, its pro- become its next prime minis- the world – betrayed a stag- rata agricultural sustainability Given New Zealand’s ter. What the opposition leader gering lack of basic general and efficiency are unequalled economy is overwhelmingly has said, both in a London knowledge. by any competitor. The govern- dependent on agricultural speech and a newspaper ment’s refusal to market this exports, this country will think piece, was perfectly fair In fairness, Luxon’s greatest openly on the international never not be outward facing, comment: that New Zealand- hits include accidental gaffes, stage is curious nose-despite- but our free-trade progress ers have become fearful and the worst when he appeared face behaviour. is, if anything, in danger of inward-looking, and that our to call non-achieving New Zea- being eroded. The foreseeable businesses had become “soft” landers “bottom-feeders”. Here, But Luxon has his own conditions require a degree of after government support he’s entitled to the defence used apparent blind spot – a caution, and even old-fashioned through the pandemic. His by baseball legend Yogi Berra: tendency to treat political lead- cloth cutting. approach to the world stage “I really didn’t say everything ership as a managerial task. It is certainly a bracing antidote I said.” may be motivational to tell an RISING INSULARITY to that of Jacinda Ardern, executive team to pull its socks which can cause result However, his complaint up, or to warn a workforce To the familiar litany of in biliousness, as she is last week that New Zea- that its efficiency is sub par. pandemic- and Ukraine war- fan-bombed by other Larruping a country at large is wrought shortages can now countries’ politicians landers still had not generally counterproductive. be added the near-certainty of who are unaware of “moved on” from winter power crises in Europe. how her stocks have Covid was a clanger. Obviously, Luxon’s inten- Russia has short-sheeted its plummeted back home. It’s hard to move on tion is to convey that it’s the gas customers to the degree from a coronavirus government’s fault that New that Germany, for example, Christopher Luxon when it insists on Zealanders are insular, timid is expecting its economy to moving on with and insufficiently ambitious. shrink by as much as 12.7% next you, to the point year because of the inevitabil- ity of production stoppages. 14 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

That statistic alone will have for many countries. Their the focus on climate change. policies from Britain’s ruling knock-on effects for New governments face a horrific While the superpowers’ recent Conservatives, a goal somewhat Zealand. And in case anyone domestic dilemma: dilute the machinations treat many occluded by the coincidence of is feeling unduly ambitious, sanctions or tank the economy? Pacific countries as pawns, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson one of those effects is highly idea that the region’s sea-level having to resign after a series unlikely to be Germany or any Further evidence of inward- of its neighbours buying more lookingness was evident at Governments face a horrific domestic from us. the recent and long-deferred dilemma: dilute the sanctions on Commonwealth Heads of Russia or tank their economies? A further problem with Government meeting in Luxon’s diagnosis of New Rwanda, where only 35 of threat can be met with other of scandals ravaged his caucus CHRIS SLANE Zealanders’ failings is that the 56 member countries’ than the widest multilateral support. Here, for Luxon, is a inward-lookingness is becom- leaders agreed to attend. reach is somewhat perverse. cautionary tale against PMs ing near-universal. Grain, gas, This was despite the opportu- telling their countries off. oil and other critical commod- nity to address global issues That US Vice-President After Covid nearly killed him, ity shortages have ramped and discuss the concerns of Kamala Harris was later Johnson slimmed down and up other countries’ domestic nearly 2.5 billion people in allowed a video-link confer- urged other British “fatties” food-growing efforts. Britain the Commonwealth. ence address proved more to do likewise. This went down is even contemplating defying focusing than distracting. But poorly and, with the arrival its global-warming-mitigation The Pacific Islands Forum the trend endures: countries of rampant inflation, he had consensus by reassigning summit, which got under way are responding to ungovern- to reverse all his anti-obesity biofuel-cropping land for last week, was two countries able uncertainties with more policies. food production. lighter thanks to a clumsily insularity. handled Micronesian rift. It A crowning irony: his pivotal Backing for Ukraine is also excluded the traditional A CAUTIONARY TALE sin, a breach of Covid anti- starting to falter, as sanctions meetings with its outside- mingling rules, involved his against Russia, and Russia’s the-region dialogue partners Luxon’s foreign mission was eating cake. l hardball gas and grain retalia- – including China and the chiefly to “nick and steal” tion, are increasingly equating United States – because they to a voluntary hardship charter would be “a distraction” from JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 15

BANK OF MUM & DAD Cash & kin Parents are increasingly dipping into their own savings to help their adult children with daily living costs. But that is only entrenching the wealth gap. bySARAHCATHERALL●photographbyMARTINHUNTER It wasn’t part of their plan a few years and the amounts they gave were $20,000 more than out from retirement, but a few months the national average. For one in 10 parents, their ago, Angela and Alexander O’Donnell contribution put them under moderate to serious walked into their bank and remort- financial strain. gaged their family home. They felt they had no choice — their 39-year-old The O’Donnells aren’t cash-strapped but they’re not rolling in money, either. They had anticipated daughter, Natalie, was facing the pros- being mortgage-free into their retirement. pect of losing her home in Kaiapoi and having to “We didn’t think twice about mortgaging our move her two children into a rental after her mar- place. This is what parents do for their children. riage broke up. Our grandchildren are at school and we didn’t want Natalie wanted to buy her ex out, but she couldn’t them to have to move around,’’ Angela says. get a mortgage. So her parents mortgaged their Although she has never given her daughters own home instead, lending her – Natalie and Danielle, now 37 – the money they borrowed from the money for cars or holidays, she did give them $100,000 each towards bank. “How could I enjoy my life “I’m a single when my daughter was struggling? mother, and a house deposit eight years ago, I just couldn’t do that,’’ Angela says. even though I after she inherited money from have a job, the her mother. Angela, 60, and Alexander, 65, banks wouldn’t are part of an invisible yet incred- look at me.” She points out that it is normal ibly popular institution known as for parents in Germany – where “the Bank of Mum and Dad’’. As she grew up and lived until the their offspring struggle to manage early 1980s – to financially sup- their daily living costs, more and port their adult children if they more Kiwi parents are stepping in need it. to help: paying bills, providing allowances, stump- Natalie O’Donnell certainly appreciates the help. ing up deposits, and in some cases, providing entire “I’m very fortunate that my parents could help me,” houses. she tells the Listener after a busy day at work in an A recent Consumer NZ survey estimated that advertising agency. “I’m a single mother, and even “the Bank of Mum and Dad’’ has doled out $22.6 bil- though I have a job, the banks wouldn’t look at me. lion in home loans in recent years, which, if true, When I needed my parents, they were there and I’m would make it the fifth-largest financial lender lucky they could help me and give my kids security, in this country — more than TSB and Kiwibank because otherwise we would not have been able to combined. keep this house and we would have been in a rental.’’ Safety net: Natalie O’Donnell, left, says she The survey, which had a margin of error of is “very fortunate” her parents, Angela and almost 5%, suggested one in seven of all children THE DARK SIDE Alexander O’Donnell, have been able to help who bought a house had support from their par- Although Consumer’s research looked purely at her hold on to her home. ents. The average contribution was $108,000. housing assistance, economists point to a rising In Auckland, 58% of parents who took part in number of parents who are supporting their young the survey helped their children to buy a property, adult children in other ways – allowing them to live 16 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

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BANK OF MUM & DAD Joint venture: Luck of the draw: Brandon Vaaulu, Shamubeel Eaqub says 30, managed to buy “home ownership is a house by joining increasingly linked to the forces with a friend. family you are born into.” at home rent-free (25% in the Consumer NZ There is another consequence as well, they are, it makes it really difficult because study), or helping pay their tertiary educa- says Eaqub. Because they lack financial it’s even hard to save for the 10 or 20% tion, phone and car registration bills and independence, New Zealand’s Gen Zers deposit. even holidays. and millennials are growing up much more slowly. “I always joke that it would have been While many do so willingly, there is a much easier if I’d been born a generation dark side to the phenomenon, says econo- SHARING THE LOAD ago. But the thing is, I think it will be a lot mist Shamubeel Eaqub — a growing gap harder for the next generation.’’ between the haves and have-nots in New Brandon Vaaulu, 30, is the only one in his Zealand society. In his book Generation friend group to own his own home. Each Peter Bozinoff has a sign on the front of Rent, Eaqub talks about the phenomenon day, the Kiwibank product analyst returns his mortgage-broker office saying: “New of inherited home ownership. from work to his three-bedroom, 1970s Bank in Town – 0% interest. Bank of Mum house high on the hills in Kelson, above and Dad.” It’s a trend the broker began “We are seeing the social consequences noticing about five years ago. Today, it’s so of what is a landed gentry. Access to home With rising prices common that Wellington-based Bozinoff ownership is increasingly linked to the and inflation, “if you instinctively asks a client who is struggling family you are born into.’’ haven’t got parents to to find a 20% house deposit whether their help, you’re screwed”. parents can help. Eaqub says New Zealand’s housing poli- cies after World War II were about building Lower Hutt. At the age of 27, Vaaulu got “What I’m seeing is a parent somehow has and supplying houses for all. Baby Boom- tired of renting, and was loath to move back to come up with the money [for the deposit]. ers were the last generation to benefit from in with his parents. “Since I was young, I Some have got it, some haven’t. I’ve done those policies, and neoliberalism hit the wanted to own my own house, so I made loans where a parent might give $30,000 to pockets of the younger generations. that happen,’’ he says. the kid for the deposit and then loan the rest from the bank.’’ “If you were born before the 1980s, things Together with a school friend, Jilson were pretty good. On average, if you’re born James, he became a joint owner of a $638,000 Some of his clients are Boomers nearing after that, you’re likely to earn less than house, signing a legal contract and agreeing retirement and they are remortgaging their your parents. Before the 1990s, the average to pay half of all the bills. They each pay $300 properties so an adult child can own a home. house was four times the average household a week on the mortgage, slightly more than If a client has less than a 20% deposit, it limits income. Now if you have a $100,000 income they would to rent the same property. how much they can borrow or pushes up it’s for a $1 million house, versus a $400,000 the cost. house.’’ “It’s really crazy, because most of my friends are living with their parents and Bozinoff says over the 25 years he’s been He agrees with the expectation that asset- saving for a house or they’re renting,” in the game, he has seen a lot of parents rich boomers should help their children Vaaulu says. “With house prices the way helping their children, particularly among into homes. certain immigrant groups such as the Greek, Chinese and Indian communities. “I totally think that is the case and it But now it’s common across Kiwi society. should help people on an individual level. But the solution is: why don’t we have houses With rising property prices and inflation, to rent that are actual alternatives?’’ Bozinoff has come across heartbreaking 18 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

stories. “If you haven’t got parents to help, 27-year-old secondary school teacher is 27-year-old. A $50,000 student loan feels like CHRIS SLANE you’re screwed.” worried he may never achieve the Kiwi a noose around his neck. Although he has dream of owning a house. Austin’s parents KiwiSaver, he doesn’t think he would be able He agrees a division between renters and rent a house in Auckland, and he worries to save enough for a house deposit to top property owners is being passed down the he may need to support them as they near up the government’s First Home Grant (up generations. “If [your] parents are in a rental, retirement. “For me, it’s almost the other to $10,000 for those in KiwiSaver for more you’re going to be in a rental. It’s getting to way around. I may need to help my parents.’’ than three years). that stage where if you don’t have the back- ing of your parents, you won’t get a house.’’ The social sciences teacher rents a three- Austin says: “I do know people my age – bedroom house in the Wellington suburb friends and work colleagues – who have got STUDENT LOAN “NOOSE” of Northland with his girlfriend and two into houses thanks to their parents. It can be friends. He already has a lot of debt for a a direct thing, where their parents give them Tarn Austin can relate to that. The JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 19

BANK OF MUM & DAD money, or they manage to live at home and high to entitle them to a student allowance, Growing divide: school teacher Tarn Austin, save on rent while they save for a house. I or much of one, but not high enough to help left, fears he may never be able to buy his do agree there is a growing division in my them out. The answer, he believes, is a uni- own home. Below left, mortgage-broker generation.’’ versal student allowance that allows young Peter Bozinoff says parental help to buy adults to be independent of their parents. a home is a trend that began in earnest In her “Wellbeing Trends Report” in about five years ago. April, Treasury Secretary Caralee McLiesh THE WEALTH ADVANTAGE talked about a growing wealth gap between would I make them get mortgages and find young and old. She noted that since the early John and his wife, Sandra, thought nothing those kinds of deposits? Why would I put 80s, house prices in New Zealand have about paying the university costs of their that sort of pressure on my kids? We’re increased more than five-fold — a higher two children and giving them each a home. giving the kids part of their inheritance rise than in any other OECD country. Back Their son and daughter, now 34 and 32, now. I was always going to help the kids. then, 73% of people in their early thirties both received an allowance so they wouldn’t The only thing it’s costing me is the money owned a home; by 2018 it was 51%. need student loans. I lose in rent, which I don’t need.’’ The wealthiest fifth of The Wadestown couple – who did not It’s stories like this that illustrate the NZ thirty-somethings want their full names used – still send $1000 gaping inequities within and among gen- already hold 70% of a month to their daughter in Sydney to top erations, says author and academic Max the assets of their age up her salary. They also pay some of their Rashbrooke. In his 2021 book, Too Much group, and are much son’s bills. Money, Rashbrooke writes about the con- more likely to inherit. veyor belt of advantage. When inheritances Last year, the couple gifted one of their are passed on to people who are already “Consider the difference in wealth dis- Wellington rental properties to their son wealthy, it increases inequality, says Rash- tribution by age in 2000 compared with to get him on the property ladder. John brooke, a senior associate at Victoria 2018,” she said. “In both cases, we see a pat- thought about giving his son a $200,000 University of Wellington’s Institute for tern where older people have more wealth. deposit towards a house, but the mortgage Governance and Policy Studies. This is expected – we tend to accumulate payments would still have been around wealth as we grow old. But since the turn of $1000 a week. He argues that the wealth gap begins as this century, the gap between the wealth of soon as parents buy homes in flash suburbs the over-65s and under-35s has more than When their daughter needs a home in to get their children into top schools. He doubled. Limitations in our wealth data Sydney, he’s prepared to buy her one. “Why used to live in an apartment block where make it hard to be precise, but we estimate some university students lived rent-free that at least half of this gap can be attributed in flats their parents had bought for them. to the growth in house prices.’’ “That’s an advantage that poorer students A growing number of young adults are don’t enjoy when rents are massively sky also trying to get a house deposit while they high. If your parents can afford to buy you are saddled with student debt. By the end a place to live, then you’ve got significant of March, 665,263 New Zealanders had a advantages,’’ he says. student loan, with the median debt $17,602. Rashbrooke argues that advantage is There is no data showing how many transmitted from generation to generation. tertiary students avoid getting a student Some will inherit houses; others will never loan, or have a smaller one, because their afford one. parents cover their bills. But according to a recent study by the New Zealand Union of While New Zealand lacks domestic data, Students’ Associations, 41% of Pākehā ter- in Britain – a country with comparable tiary students get financial help from their inequality and also an overheated housing parents. The rate of handouts is lower for market – 30-year-olds whose parents have Māori and Pacific students – 30% and 25% property are three times more likely to be respectively get help from the Bank of Mum homeowners than those whose parents do and Dad. “This demonstrates a pretty clear not. This is up from twice as likely in the inequity in the idea that students should be 1990s, he says. supported by the Bank of Mum and Dad and entrenches the unjust outcomes we “People who can afford to buy houses see across the tertiary sector,” says union now generally have parents who are home president Andrew Lessells. owners. Property ownership starts to be concentrated in better-off families. Those Some students fall between the cracks, on the up escalator, from birth their parents Lessells says: their parents’ incomes are too are able to give them all sorts of advantages.’’ Beyond housing, Rashbrooke says a “bequest bulge” is looming, as wealthier baby boomers die or make lavish gifts to their children. Given that the wealthiest fifth of New Zealand thirty-somethings already hold 70% of the assets of their age group, and are much more likely to inherit, 20 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

Beware the pitfalls: Patrick Gamble warns that parents helping their kids into houses need to be aware of the traps. he argues this will further widen intergen- generations helping the younger ones. Now, struggles all the time.’’ erational inequalities. it’s becoming the only blimmin’ way to get Gamble has noticed another trend in asset a house.’’ “We face a future in which one of the redistribution. Older Kiwis in their seven- sharpest divisions is that between well-off He noticed the Bank of Mum and Dad ties and eighties are skipping a generation families, where wealth is passed from gen- appearing when the gap between wages and and excluding their children in favour of eration to generation, and poorer families, helping grandchildren into homes. whose only financial inheritance is disad- He noticed the Bank of vantage,’’ he writes. Mum & Dad appearing “They know their millennial and Gen when the gap between Z grandchildren might struggle to buy a His solution? A KiwiSaver scheme for wages and property home, so they’ll do things like put a house every Kiwi from birth, so everyone has prices began widening. in a trust to support their grandchildren a nest egg. He also thinks an inheritance It is now a chasm. into their first homes. A $3 million house tax should operate similar to one in Ire- in Grey Lynn [in Auckland] may be able to land, where an inheritance over €335,000 property prices began widening. It is now support 10 grandkids with a deposit.’’ (NZ$550,000) is taxed. a chasm, he says, and he doesn’t think that a drop in property prices will help. Gamble advises parents to lend money THE WAGES CHASM (even if it is interest-free) rather than to gift “We’ve gone from assuming that you can it to avoid relationship property battles (like Perpetual Guardian chief executive Patrick have a house and a holiday home a couple the O’Donnells’ scenario) down the track. Gamble believes the wealthy would still find of decades ago, to that being the preserve ways around an inheritance tax. Gamble of only a few. Millennials and Gen Zers have He also warns older clients to hold helps clients organise bequests, wills and been broadsided by the economic inequality enough back for their retirement, given trusts for themselves and their offspring. of the housing market. We’re seeing these that it’s no longer rare for people to live into their nineties. During the past decade, he has observed a rising tide of wealth being transferred “We have to ask clients: ‘What does this from older generations to younger ones, mean for your retirement? That money you particularly to give them a leg-up into the might release for homes could buy shares property market. and things that generate an income.’ If you do it for one child, what about the rest? “Twenty years ago, you rarely saw older These are all questions we need to ask.’’ l JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 21

INEQUALITY Wealth by stealth Celebrated French economist Thomas Piketty shot to fame for his writings on inequality. Could his arguments lead to wealth taxes in New Zealand? byDANYLMcLACHLAN In August 2014, a two-year-old conditions of the girl’s home – owned by children growing up in poverty here. girl from South Auckland, Housing New Zealand, the government Public health researchers had long Emma-Lita Bourne, died of a housing agency now rebranded as Kāinga brain haemorrhage after being Ora –may have contributed to her death. warned that these could have dire health admitted to Starship Hospital. In the wake of the tragedy, media attention consequences. In a 2021 paper co-authored The coroner’s report deter- focused on the terrible housing conditions by epidemiologist Michael Baker, research- mined that the damp, cold experienced by hundreds of thousands of ers found that damp and mouldy housing accounted for a “substantial proportion 22 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

of the burden of disease in New Zealand”. They estimated that it caused 229 deaths annually, with a total cost to society of about a billion dollars. These are deaths of inequality. Children from middle-class or wealthy families are unlikely to be hospitalised for rheumatic fever or bronchopneumonia, the illness that led to Emma-Lita’s death. France’s “celebrity economist”, Thomas Piketty, has spent his career arguing that inequality is the central problem in economics. He believes that, instead of focusing on growth or wealth creation, free-market economies such as New Zea- land must recognise that we don’t allocate our resources morally or efficiently. He argues that the wealthiest have so much money that it distorts our politics, while the very poor have so little that they can’t afford to keep their children warm, well The concentration of wealth into the hands of a tiny elite was an inevitable outcome of the capitalist system. fed and healthy, or, in extreme cases, alive. experience convinced him to support free Thomas Piketty: children born into GETTY IMAGES This year, Piketty published A Brief His- markets and private property. However, conditions of material poverty must grow he radically transformed both of these up in warm, dry houses. tory of Equality, aimed at making his work concepts. more accessible. Its New Zealand publica- when his book became a global bestseller. tion coincided with a speech by Revenue In 2014, he became an intellectual super- But with that success came controversy. Minister David Parker that raised ques- star when he published Capital in the Defenders of free markets attacked his tions about inequality in our own tax Twenty-First Century, a nearly 700-page methods and conclusions, while orthodox system. treatise on how capitalist economies dis- socialists were aghast at his criticism of tribute wealth. Like most of Piketty’s work, Marx and Marxism. Economics is often seen as a dry topic it relied on deep dives into historical data – a monotone of statistics, charts, graphs, sets: census records, property databases Shortly after the English translation of data – but these are attempts to map the and inheritance statistics dating back to his book was published, Piketty modified complexity of the world, and whether you the French Revolution. He used these to his thesis. His “laws of capitalism” weren’t see beauty or danger in such landscapes formulate his “laws of capitalism”, which really laws, he announced, they were just probably depends on your vantage point. argued that an increase in inequality and what he observed in the historical data. the concentration of wealth into the hands Inequality wasn’t inevitable — it was a PARTICIPATORY SOCIALISM of a tiny elite was an inevitable outcome choice that societies made. Or, rather, it of the capitalist system. The only way to was the inevitable result of choices made Piketty was born in Paris in 1971 to parents prevent it was extensive state intervention. by politicians. Poverty and inequality were who were “soixante-huitards” – members outcomes of the policies, laws, values and of the radical revolutionary movement that No one was more astonished than Piketty nearly brought down the French govern- ment in May 1968. They’d drifted towards the centre by the time Piketty was old enough to talk politics with them. In 1991, when he was a university student studying mathematics and economics at École Normale Supérieure, the elite institu- tion at the apex of French intellectual life, Piketty visited the Soviet Union. It was in an advanced state of disintegration and the JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 23

INEQUALITY Piketty as institutions that constructed the economy. Economics is down- pop culture stream from politics, he argued, and politics is downstream from ideology. In 2015, Justin Pemberton was busy finishing Chasing Great, his documentary about Richie McCaw. In the He expanded on these ideas in his 2020 book, Capital and Ideol- midst of the editing process, he learnt that Thomas ogy, which was an even more ambitious study, ranging across the Piketty was accepting competitive bids for the film world and back through most of human history, ending with his rights to Capital in the Twenty-First Century. prescription for “participatory socialism”, a radical reimagining of the political economy. Pemberton, who lives in Auckland, had read Piketty’s book We simply don’t have enough and was desperate to film it. But he also had a rugby documen- information about the wealthiest members of our tary to finish. So he began waking at 5am to work on a Piketty society and the tax they pay. script, poring over the famously long, dense text summaris- This, he believes, is his definitive work. It was hard to read, though: more than 1000 pages of dense macroeconomic history ing centuries of macroeconomic data, and translating it into and data analysis. So now he has produced A Brief History of Equal- ity, which is a shorter introduction to his world view. a 100-minute film script. His goal was to make Piketty’s work THE GREAT REDISTRIBUTION accessible to a broader audience. And it turned out that Piketty The good news is that, contrary to popular belief, life in capitalist wanted this, too. “He wanted a film he could show his daughter.” societies is improving. Piketty is all about the long view, and he celebrates that the past 150 years have seen the rise of the welfare Chasing Great became the most state and a dramatic extension of life expectancy, literacy and individual freedom. successful New Zealand-made Capitalism in the 19th century consisted of a very wealthy, documentary of all time and helped mostly hereditary elite who owned almost everything. They ruled over a vast and impoverished working class and a state that spent Pemberton secure funding for his most of its revenue on the military, police and prisons. Piketty project. “You do have to do In the early and mid- 20th century, those economies, includ- ing New Zealand, saw “the great redistribution”, which included something a bit more commercial and higher levels of taxation, especially on the wealthy; funded educa- tion, health and welfare systems; state-built schools, hospitals and successful to earn the right to make a public housing. And these healthy, educated populations gener- ated phenomenal innovation and economic growth. Progressive film like Capital, to win the trust of the causes such as the feminist, gay rights and civil rights movements resulted in new forms of liberation. funders,” he explains. “And Chasing “There has been a long-term movement over the course of his- Great was that, but it was also a labour tory towards more social, economic and political equality,” Piketty notes. His point is that we should be bold and optimistic, because of love. There had never been a full- radical, transformational change is possible. Justin Pemberton: length feature about New Zealand There is also bad news, however, because many things are still making Piketty’s work rugby before, which I couldn’t believe. awful, and in some ways they’re getting worse. The great redistribu- accessible to a broader And I wanted to capture the beauty of tion ends around the 1980s, with the rise of what Piketty refers to as audience. the game on film.” hypercapitalism, but everyone else calls neoliberalism: a political economy organised around free trade, globalised financial markets, Pemberton’s version of Capital is a deregulation and a low, broad tax rate. masterpiece of social science as pop culture. It features academ- The promise of neoliberalism was that it would deliver phe- nomenal economic growth. Once we freed the wealthy from the ics talking about wealth distribution and the state – Francis crippling burdens of taxation and regulation, the rising tide of innovation and prosperity would lift everyone’s boats. Unfortu- Fukuyama, Piketty himself, even New Zealand politics lecturer nately, none of these predictions came true. Instead, the opposite happened, and the past 30 years has seen anaemic growth and Bryce Edwards – but they’re broken up by music montages, increased inequality. The wealthy have more, while everyone else’s boat is slowly sinking. archival footage, clips from the 1983 film Utu and Lorde’s Royals. Where has the left been during the neoliberal period? What It premiered at the Sydney Film Festival in 2019 and was happened to the mighty coalition that built the modern welfare state and shook the world? Piketty has a two-fold explanation. released worldwide, receiving near-unanimous praise from critics, although the Guardian was unhappy, grumbling that the material was “not especially radical” and that Pemberton’s style did Piketty’s material no favours. Pemberton seems slightly exasperated by this: “The whole point of the film is to make it accessible to people who aren’t already fully sub- scribed to the ideas in the book.” The movie came out in theatres in early 2020, but this turned out to be the worst possible timing, for obvious rea- sons. The cinema industry is still struggling to recover from the Covid crisis, but Pemberton is philosophical. “The film is on the streaming services,” he explains. “You can watch it via Amazon and Apple, which are companies that we criticise in the film. So, in that sense, I see it as a Trojan horse, maybe undermining things from within.” His next film, incidentally, is about chaos. “It’s about the cha- otic nature of the online world, and how the pandemonium we see in the virtual world is breaking through into the real.” 24 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

David Parker: “It could be that more than nationalism. Nature abhors a vacuum and Parker opened with a declaration that GETTY IMAGES two-thirds of all financial assets are held by the failure of the modern left to present he had “no secret plan to introduce a CGT the top 5%.” credible solutions to our challenges of the [capital gains tax] nor a wealth tax or a times, or to propose an inspirational vision deemed income tax, nor others”. This, of He believes the collapse of communism of the future, has people casting about for course, sparked intense speculation that he induced the traditional left into a state of alternatives. did, indeed, have a secret plan to introduce intellectual exhaustion. And since then, a CGT or a wealth tax. Left-wing commen- left-wing institutions and political parties It’s hard to tators cheered him on; National and Act have been taken over by what he terms the overemphasise how rushed out press releases and accused “Brahmin Left” (named after the highest odd New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of break- caste in Indian society). tax system is ing a promise to the electorate. compared with most This is the faction of the richest 10% who OECD nations. Parker knew this would happen, and even comprise the technocratic, educated class. predicted it in his speech. But the point he It dominates the public sector, universities, Piketty’s project is to lay the intellectual actually made that night is that, at present, non-governmental organisations and cul- foundations of that vision. And he begins we simply don’t have enough information tural and media industries and competes with the accumulation of data, and an inquiry about the wealthiest members of our society for political power against its enemies in into how our economy really works. and the tax they pay to make that call. “the merchant right”, the rival faction that controls most of the business and finance FOLLOWING THE MONEY Most of us make the bulk of our money sectors. from working, either for others or for our- In late April this year, just a few weeks selves, and hand over a chunk of that to the The Brahmin Left superficially resem- before the Budget, David Parker deliv- Inland Revenue Department (IRD). New bles the 20th-century left: it advocates for ered a speech at Victoria University of Zealand is unusual in that, unlike most the expansion of the state and uses the Wellington. It was titled “Shining a light other OECD countries, it does not have a rhetoric of equality and social justice. But on unfairness in our tax system”. It cited tax-free threshold. In Australia, you can it enacts policies that maximise its own Piketty and signalled a number of changes earn $18,200 a year before you hit the first wealth and power, often at the expense in tax policy. income tax bracket. of the disadvantaged groups it claims to represent. Most OECD countries also tax capital gains, which are the profits you make from So it’s no accident, Piketty argues, that an asset that has increased in value, such the 21st century has seen a surge of sup- as a house or shares in a company. One port for authoritarian regimes and ethnic of the reasons they do this is that capital gains often make up the bulk of rich peo- ple’s incomes. Although New Zealand has a de facto capital gains tax on some property trans- actions (the bright-line test), many other types of transactions remain opaque. Parker finds this astonishing. “It beggars belief that we currently don’t know what rate of tax is paid by the top cohort in New Zealand on their economic income,” he tells the Listener. He has told the IRD to find out, and clearly suspects that the concentration of wealth will be extreme. “It could be that more than two-thirds of all financial assets are held by the top 5%, with most of that concentrated in the top few per cent.” OUR ODD TAX SYSTEM The IRD has done some preliminary work on the assets of the very wealthy. In 2016, it conducted an internal study of 212 New Zealanders with assets of more than $50 million. These Kiwis had an average wealth of $270 million and an estimated wealth base of $58 billion. The results of the study were partially released in 2018 when the lead investigator, Andrea Black, joined the Sir Michael Cul- len-led Tax Working Group and requested JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 25

INEQUALITY Health and education in the world – 1820-2020 90 90% 85 85% 80 Life expectancy at birth 80% 75 (all births combined) 75% 70 Life expectancy at birth 70% 65 (Individuals reaching one-year 65% 60 Literacy rate (%)) 60% 55 55% 50 50% 45 45% 40 40% 35 35% 30 30% 25 25% 20 20% 15 15% 10 10% 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 Income inequality: Europe & the United States – 1900-2020 60% Share of the richest 10% (US) Share of the richest 10% (Europe) Share of each group in national income 55% Share of the poorest 50% (US) 50% Share of the poorest 50% (Europe) don’t understand that, at the high end, it’s about assets and that this is untaxed.” He 45% hopes the new information will increase transparency and help shift the narrative, 40% “because we need to be taxing wealth. That’s the big change that has to occur.” 35% In 2014, the Serious Fraud Office com- 30% piled a draft report on economic crime, which estimated that tax fraud cost the 25% country about $2 billion a year. By con- trast, benefit fraud cost about $80 million. 20% However, the report was never published, apparently because of concerns about 15% its methodology. Meanwhile, Inland Rev- enue has stopped reporting “tax evasion”. 10% Instead, it now reports on “tax discrepan- cies” or “tax position differences”. This was 0% $854 million in 2021. 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 TAX PRINCIPLES BILL SOURCE: SEE PIKETTY.PSE.ENS.FR/EQUALITY her own report via the Official Information The IRD also noted that many wealthy Piketty wasn’t the only economist refer- Act. It revealed that between them, the 212 people established charitable organisations enced in Parker’s April speech. He also people surveyed paid $658 million in tax then made large tax-deductible donations quoted Adam Smith, the intellectual archi- during the year. This might sound like a to them. However, the charities themselves tect of modern capitalism. lot, but relative to their incomes, it was made few, if any, charitable disbursements. astonishingly low. The government has since announced In The Wealth of Nations, published in changes to charities laws requiring any 1776, Smith laid out his four maxims of About 40% of the group paid less than charitable organisation with operating taxation – tax should be proportional, 10% tax on their overall incomes, which in expenses above $140,000 to explain any transparent, convenient and efficient – and percentage terms is lower than a worker major accumulated cash, assets and other these should aggregate into a progressive on the minimum wage. The IRD estimated resources. system in which the wealthy pay more than that about a third of their wealth had never the poor. had any tax paid on it. Glenn Barclay, chair of lobby group Tax Justice Aotearoa, is delighted Parker “It is not very unreasonable that the rich How is that possible? It’s hard to overem- is purssuing the issue. “It’s shocking that should contribute to the public expense, phasise how odd New Zealand’s tax system we don’t already have that information,” not only in proportion to their revenue, but is compared with most OECD nations’. he says. something more than in that proportion,” Many of those in the top group examined by said Smith. IRD made much of their income by buying Barclay believes the lack of transparency and selling companies and properties. IRD around wealth contributes to the lack of also noted that between them, the group public outrage about New Zealand’s highly controlled more than 7000 companies or unusual tax system. “Most people under- trusts of breathtaking complexity. stand wealth as an aspect of income. They 26 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

View from the top: Inequality: a an aerial view of the homeless man looks clifftop mansion of through a rubbish bin NZ’s richest man, in the Auckland CBD. businessman Graeme Hart, taken in 2012. Smith’s principles, or variations on the NBR Rich List or the IRD’s survey of high- political parties, think tanks and media GETTY IMAGES them, have been ratified into law by many wealth individuals would lose the bulk of organisations, so they aren’t overly influ- nations. But once again, New Zealand is an their fortune, which would be redistrib- enced by donations from the rich. And, outlier. uted, primarily to those living in poverty. since the most profound form of inequal- ity is often that between nation states, he Parker’s solution is a new piece of legis- The term Piketty uses is “equality of advocates the dismantling of the current lation. The aim of his Tax Principles Bill, opportunity”, which is a term popular on global model and a transition towards a which is still being drafted and under the political right. However, he has repur- global republic, with vast wealth transfers consultation, is to enshrine some modern posed it to mean that children born into from the wealthy regions to the poorest citi- version of Smith’s maxims into New Zea- conditions of material poverty must grow zens of the world. land law. Officials will then report on whether the tax system conforms to the Instead of a capital How realistic is any of this? Piketty principles. gains tax, Piketty would acknowledges that transformation on such introduce a progressive a scale would require “political movements Presumably, it would then be up to the wealth tax that would of great scope”, and that it’s unlikely to government of the day to decide what to scale up to confiscatory happen via the normal incrementalism of do about it. But reaction to Parker’s speech levels for the very rich. modern democratic liberalism. But he also shows the current government would be thinks that some form of transformational picking a huge fight on the right. up in warm, dry houses and have access change is inevitable, because the current to the same educational and employment model of global hypercapitalism is unsus- “If Labour is silly enough to add a new opportunities as those born into families tainable. Even now, he believes, it strains tax on savings to their election manifesto, of the wealthy or middle class. He calls this and shudders under its contradictions. the Taxpayers’ Union will happily mobilise redistributive plan “inheritance for all”. its 170,000 supporters to sink not just the This prophecy might come true, eventu- tax, but the Labour-led government,” the Piketty is also a fan of what is known ally. Or it might not. For a few days after lobby group warned back in May. as Rhenish (or Rhine) capitalism, which Parker’s speech, there was a brief flurry has been associated with countries such of commentary and speculation about a INHERITANCE FOR ALL as Austria, Germany and Switzerland. He wealth tax. The debate was shut down by would like to see employees of medium and Ardern. Although she admitted that the Piketty’s own programme of participatory large companies represented on the board current tax system was unfair, she made socialism is far more radical than anything of directors, and thus have some control it perfectly clear that she wasn’t going to Labour or the Greens would whisper to over company decisions. He’d also intro- change it while she was in charge. each other in darkened corners, let alone duce a system of egalitarian funding for announce as policy. And in early July, the IRD reported that of the 376 wealthy people it contacted for For Piketty, real social and economic its latest compulsory survey — this time of change involves a dramatic transfer of people it believes have assets worth more power. Instead of a capital gains tax, he’d than $20 million — 14 of them had simply introduce a progressive wealth tax that not replied. l would scale up to confiscatory levels for the very rich. Anyone wealthy enough to make JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 27

PROFILE Leaps & bounds Kiwi choreographer Corey Baker has built an international career on bold moves. His next step is the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. byLOUISECHUNN Truly creative people are the instantly identifiable tones of Tchai- Corey Baker has not phenomenal. They build kovsky’s Swan Lake. At just over three looked back since stories out of air, music out minutes long, it was one of the viral video leaving NZ at the tender of silence, artworks out of hits of the pandemic. age of 15 to pursue his base elements. As American creative career. novelist Kurt Vonnegut wrote, exhorting As Guardian dance critic Lyndsey Win- others to join him with a career in the arts: ship wrote: “Choreographer Corey Baker’s a teacher’s aide, had little cash to spare, so “We have to continually be jumping off Swan Lake Bath Ballet is a total delight “we went to free stuff that was put on for cliffs and developing our wings on the way … Baker enlisted a cast of 27 top-flight kids. One of the clearest memories I have down.” It’s exhausting and exhilarating in swans, performing in their bathtubs from is when I was about seven, going to Hagley equal measure. Houston to Hong Kong, all choreographed Park to see Sinbad and I loved it so much remotely. It’s slick, tongue-in-cheek, and that Mum – bless her – took me back every At least that’s how it seems, talking full of invention and clever effects, includ- single night for the week’s run. A kind to British-based Kiwi choreographer security guard let me go backstage, and I Corey Baker on a Zoom call. At first, he’s “I feel I am like a saw up close the trapdoors, the costumes, in his office at the Alexander Stadium in persistent toddler – I the props, the magic – and I was hooked.” Birmingham, one of the main venues for don’t give up, and I don’t the Commonwealth Games. He is choreo- see any other way than Ever since he was young, he’d looked graphing the opening ceremony, which the way I want it to be.” for ways to spark his imagination: “I used will be screened in New Zealand on July to save my pocket money or work for my 29 (see our Commonwealth Games on TV ing a Busby Berkeley-style kaleidoscope of grandma or grandad, or the neighbour, guide, p66). legs. But it also has intricate choreography to get any spare money to buy different and drama … not to mention some smart Next, he’s walking around the athletic tiling.” track, and then on his way to a meeting. He’s never less than present with me on In the first month after it was put on the call, but he’s also on to the next thing, the BBC’s Facebook page, it had garnered simultaneously. 4.5 million views. “I feel I am like a persistent toddler – I do But this is just one of Baker’s bulls- lots of things at the same time, and I don’t eye hits. In the week that we speak, give up,” Baker says. “I suppose that’s he has just turned 32. Yet he has tenacity. I don’t see any other way than the packed an awful lot into his life already. way I want it to be.” The only child of a single mother, Dawn This may be how, in 2020, he managed Baker, he grew up on the rural outskirts of to create, without ever meeting the Christchurch. His mother, who worked as participants, a short film featuring a host of international ballet dancers from around the world. Made for the BBC, it was shot in the danc- ers’ own bathtubs, as they performed to 28 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

magic tricks. I wanted to be a magician, boy, which rather surprised him. “My They couldn’t manage to scrape almost from the very start.” mum had taken me to a ballet class when I together enough for him to take up the was younger, but I remember crying and offer of a place at the renowned Tanya His mother looked for ways to keep her hating it. Being a dancer wasn’t something Pearson Academy, in Sydney. But he super-energetic son active and engaged, I wanted, but I saw it as the best way to sus- refused to accept failure, and the school so there were drama classes and eventu- tain the feeling that I got hooked on, which came up with a full scholarship for him. ally tap-dancing classes, “which I loved so was that world of make-believe. That much”. looked like the coolest way to live my life.” With his mother in floods of tears at the airport departure gate, he took his first He hadn’t been long at secondary Without a backwards glance, flight in a plane, alone, to Sydney. He was school when an English teacher with her Baker left high school aged 15, only just old enough to fly unaccompa- own ballet school saw him practising tap to study full-time at a Christ- nied. “I know! Looking back on it, it sounds between classes and offered a sweet deal: church ballet school. When it closed down, crazy, but I went flatting for a couple of if he joined her classes after school, she’d he and his mother focused on Australia for months before going, just so that I knew I help him in English. “I always struggled the next step. was going to be able to cope. I was just so with English, so I jumped at it.” determined to do it.” Ballet came naturally to this 14-year-old JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 29

PROFILE All was going well in Sydney when he that most people would recount their “When I was young, I felt really stupid, was offered the chance to join a European life story. He has ADHD and dyslexia, really segregated from others. I was told tour on which promising students tried although he wasn’t formally diagnosed off for my speech, spelling, grammar, but out for various ballet companies they until he was living in the UK. He has I was also being praised for my creativity. visited en route. conflicting ideas about his dyslexia. I wish I didn’t feel so ashamed for the one He views it as a power, “something [dyslexic] side, but I also suspect that the Again, he couldn’t get the funds together, praising and approval of my other [crea- even though he worked in Starbucks every “Making Swan Lake tive] side is fundamental to getting where day after ballet classes. This time, the ballet Bath Ballet was like I am today.” school found him a patron – a Catholic trying to hang a picture priest who had once met Rudolf Nureyev straight, blindfolded and He encourages others to own their and wanted to help another young man from five miles away.” dyslexia, celebrating it where they can, make his way in the famously difficult and but he also notes “it does involve struggle. competitive field of the arts. that frees my mind, not an inhibitor And I don’t feel fully comfortable talking but an enabler, and it makes my work about it, even though I am in my thirties.” Baker’s big break came with the offer of unique. I didn’t think making a dance in a place in the ballet company of the Thea- Antarctica was odd at all, but everyone Success has made it easier for Baker tre Basel, in Switzerland. He was taken on else did. I want to be stimulated by to play to his strengths. He has a team to dance and also to choreograph, earning an idea.” The way dyslexia affects his to handle the practical things, such as equal outrage and praise with a show in its cognitive reasoning is, he argues, admin and communications, so he can 2500-seater auditorium. essential to his creativity. concentrate on creativity. He stopped dancing eight years ago and now his aim At the end of his two-year contract, he Talking on the podcast Move Beyond is to go way past dance to wherever his moved to the UK where, after six months Words, hosted by dancers Elizabeth creativity takes him. of auditions and even working in a call Arifien and Charlotte Edmonds, he jokes centre, he joined BalletBoyz, set up by about his verbal mix-ups, and the fact He started directing films six years two former Royal Ballet stars, whose aim that for the first two months in Basel, he ago when he created a piece called Ature, to shake off ballet’s staid image certainly thought he was in Sweden rather than with William Bracewell, now a principal matched Baker’s own thinking. “I was Switzerland. But he also remembers: dancer with the Royal Ballet. “We made never going to stay long in classical ballet this little low-budget film and I just got as a dancer. I wasn’t into the ponciness of hooked into the fun of it. But I knew I had it. I wanted to stretch out.” lots to learn. I took six months off and got on a film-making course and since then I After another couple of years on tour, have made four films.” he moved to Birmingham and set up his own company, Corey Baker Dance, to create and produce his work. Since then, his pieces have ranged from Kapa Haka Tale, created to “demonstrate a piece of New Zealand to the rest of the world” during the Rugby World Cup in 2015, to a piece called Blown Away, to mark the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow last year. He has even ventured to Antarctica to create and film a ballet – the first on the frozen continent. Antarctica: The First Dance, which premiered on Earth Day 2018, features Madeleine Graham, of the Royal New Zealand Ballet, dancing on the polar ice. His commissions have ranged from the BBC to Hong Kong Ballet, from Channel 4 to the Birmingham International Dance Festival. In February, the New Zealand Society in London named him its UK New Zealander of the Year. However you measure it, there is no doubt that Baker is a highly rated international choreogra- pher, and, still, a boy magician. Joking, laughing, repeatedly interrupting his flow, Baker is a great talker, although it doesn’t always come in the chronological way 30 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

Opposite page, Baker wins the 2022 UK New Zealander of the Year award. This page, in Antarctica, in 2018. Like so many other viral hits, Swan Lake the most press out of anything I’ve ever of one billion people. It’s live, but you’re Bath Ballet was a product of lockdown done.” making that for cameras. So I feel excited boredom. “At the beginning of lockdown, and lucky to be getting to do this.” I was doing what everyone else did, It also won him a Prix Italia award – for hibernating and trying to figure out what an outstanding international television, Lucky? Throughout the interview, the heck to do with myself. But with all my radio-broadcasting or web production – Baker’s modesty is noticeable. He is clearly creative energy, I just had to do some- later that year. filled with self-belief, but there is no brag- thing or I’d go insane. I remember being gadocio or flashiness. in the shower one day and thinking per- “I like the fact that I haps there is something in that, or maybe have come from very “I think lucky – so, so lucky. I’ve worked it was a bit too kinky. Then switching it to humble beginnings to really hard, possibly even too hard some- the bath, then thinking pond, then lake – be able to get the work times. I should probably enjoy life a bit oh, Swan Lake! I am getting now.” more. But I’ve had fun, I’ve met some amaz- ing people. By the time I was 17, I was living “I told my producer straight after the Baker was named as one of Bir- in Switzerland. By the time I was 19, I was shower and she said, ‘That’s a terrible mingham’s cultural icons several living in the UK. And, you know, a decade idea.’ And then a week later, we were on years ago, so it was not a huge later, I’ve worked with all the companies a call to the BBC and I mentioned it. They surprise when his company won the I wanted to dance with, and I’m choreo- thought it sounded amazing.” competitive bid to choreograph the Com- graphing all around the world and getting monwealth Games opening ceremony. paid well to do so. And I know that all of Baker says it’s probably the hardest that work has paved my way here.” thing he has ever made: “It was like trying “It’s amazing, a complete joy,” he says. to hang a picture straight, blindfolded “And I love that we get to employ lots of It is all a long way from his magical and from five miles away. We made it young, talented people and bring them childhood tricks in Christchurch, and at completely remotely, using the dancers’ into this experience for the first time as the same time in a continuum from those phones. I never met any of the crew or well. early years. His rough edges may have been the dancers in person and I was direct- softened since moving to the UK – “I was ing it from my toilet seat. Then when we “We have 1800 people involved, too blunt at first” – but it hasn’t affected his finished, it went viral in minutes. from all communities in Birmingham, pride in being known as a New Zealander. [who will be] in front of an audience of “It’s had about 20 million views or 35,000 and an international audience “I like the fact that I have come from very something like that now. It was in the humble beginnings to be able to get the likes of Vogue, Vanity Fair, the Guardian, work I am getting now. Although I hope I the New York Times. I mean, it has had won’t always be known as the guy who did that bloody Swan Lake Bath Ballet.” l JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 31

CAUGHT IN THE WEBB LISTENER JULY 23 2022 The great cosmic reveal Stunning images from Nasa’s Webb telescope take us deeper into the origin of the universe. The world got a fascinating peek into the stunning beauty of the cosmos this week, courtesy of the first full-colour images from Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope. Although the photos showed parts of the distant universe that have previously been seen by other telescopes, these are the deepest and sharpest infrared images ever, and reveal for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth. They show incredible landscapes of “moun- tains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars and give new insights into how galactic interac- tions may have driven galaxy evolution in the early universe. One photo alone was constructed from almost 1000 separate image files, revealing a vast sea of thousands of distant background galaxies reminis- cent of Hubble’s Deep Fields. The aim of the telescope is to glimpse light from the first stars and galaxies that formed 13.7 billion years ago, just 100 million years from the universe- creating Big Bang. It will also scan the atmospheres of alien worlds for possible signs of life. “Every image is a new discovery and each will give humanity a view of the universe that we’ve never seen before,” Nasa administrator Bill Nelson was reported as saying. “It’s the beauty but also the story,” John Mather, senior project scientist for the Webb telescope and a Nobel laureate, said after the reveal. “It’s the story of where did we come from.” l Stellar nursery: this landscape of mountains and valleys speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. 32

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CAUGHT IN THE WEBB Top left, the planetary nebula NGC 3132, known as the Southern Ring Nebula, is about 2500 LISTENER JULY 23 2022 light years away. Above, galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is teeming with thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in infrared. Right, Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies, is the Webb’s largest image to date. 34

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LIFE HEALTH by Nicky Pellegrino Raging over hormones The fierce debate on whether menopause is being over-medicalised and overtreated is not set to die down any time soon. GETTY IMAGES It is a debate that has been going on for years “It evoked a lot specialist Louise Newson called the and right now is raging. Is menopause a of vitriol that we article “medical gaslighting”, saying female hormone deficiency with accompa- said there could be she was appalled and saddened to nying health risks? Or is it a natural process some good things read it. we are at risk of over-medicalising? associated with Recently, an editorial in the British Medical Jour- menopause.” “There has been a very strong kick- nal provoked a strong reaction. Penned by Martha back from the UK,” confirms Hickey. Hickey, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology is experienced in different ways and “People who are pushing for more at the University of Melbourne, and her colleagues, while women with severe symptoms, HRT to be used are annoyed at what it argued that the medicalisation of menopause such as hot flushes, will often benefit we’ve done and see it as being retro- emphasises its negative aspects, from hormone replacement therapy grade. It evoked a lot of vitriol that we increasing women’s anxiety about (HRT), most will manage the process said there could be some good things this life stage. The paper suggested without medical intervention. associated with menopause.” we should change the narrative and normalise menopause by The backlash was immediate. In a The history of HRT is a troubled emphasising its positive or more response, also published in the BMJ, one. Replacing the oestrogen and pro- neutral aspects. The position the the high-profile British menopause gesterone that women lose in midlife authors took was that menopause peaked in popularity in the 1990s. The gamechanger was a large study Martha Hickey: the “wrong narrative”. called the Women’s Health Initiative, which was halted early in 2002 when it appeared that the group taking HRT 36 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

are considered lower with the newer micron- HEALTH BRIEFS ised progesterone and oestrogen patches. EXCREMENTAL GAINS Proponents of HRT, such as Newson, argue that menopause is associated with an increased US experts are proposing that risk of heart disease, brittle bones, diabetes, people could bank samples of their depression and dementia, and that taking own poo when they are young hormones can mitigate those risks. There is and healthy for potential use in a certainly strong evidence for a benefit to bone faecal transplant later in life, to help health. The Australasian Menopause Society rejuvenate the bacteria in their gut. says taking HRT reduces the rate of spinal and In the journal Trends in Molecular Medicine, the experts say this may “We seem to have gone have the potential to treat diseases back to some 19th-century such as asthma, multiple sclerosis, idea that women are inflammatory bowel disease, possessed and controlled diabetes, obesity, and even heart by their hormones.” disease and ageing. had an increase in heart hip fractures by about 40% and it is most helpful SEVERE ASTHMA MARKER attacks and strokes, and for women under 60 and those who have under- significantly more invasive breast gone early menopause (before 45 years of age). New research led by Australia’s cancer. As a result, women stopped There is also some science behind a protective Edith Cowan University has found their treatment, the medical mantra effect for the cardiovascular system and even that severe asthmatics have became “the lowest dose for the short- the brain. However, in 2017, the US Preventive a distinct biochemical profile est period”, and many doctors were detectable in their urine compared reluctant to prescribe it at all. Services Task Force looked at all the data with mild to moderate asthmatics and recommended against prescrib- and healthy individuals. A specific Then people started drilling ing menopausal hormone therapy type of metabolite, called carnitines, down into the research and for the prevention of chronic decreased in severe asthmatics. The concluded that when you diseases. hope is this discovery could lead to start taking HRT is critical. This led Hickey isn’t opposed to more effective treatments for the to the recommendation that it should HRT. “Like any drug, it has world’s 262 million asthma sufferers. be given only to women below the risks and benefits, and it’s age of 60 or within 10 years of their appropriate for some people COVID LONG JUMP last period. Also, the participants in and not others.” What she the study were taking an older form argues is that marketing meno- It is likely that Covid-19 can be of HRT and the risks of both breast pause as a disease is a lucrative transmitted further than 2m in cancer and cardiovascular problems business and the narrative of loss some poorly ventilated indoor and decline amplifies women’s health settings, say researchers from the UK Health Security Agency. Of the concerns as they age. 18 studies they reviewed on specific Meanwhile, Newson asserts that avoiding Covid-19 outbreaks, it was likely 16 HRT can be detrimental for a woman’s health, of them involved the virus travelling and that just because something occurs natu- more than 2m. Risks increase when rally doesn’t make it good. there is insufficient air replacement This is a debate that is set to continue and in the room, directional airflow, Hickey has more papers planned, including one and situations where people are on empowering women to manage menopause. emitting more aerosols such as “As women, we’ve been sold this concept of when singing or speaking loudly. our hormones being imbalanced and there- fore there being something wrong with us GETTY IMAGES since Victorian times,” she says. “What I’m hearing recently is those same ideas being put forward. We seem to have gone back to some 19th-century idea that women are possessed and controlled by their hor- mones, and if they go out of balance, we have to put them back in balance again oth- erwise women won’t be able to function.” l JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 37

LIFE NUTRITION by Jennifer Bowden Do the groundwork When building raised garden beds, it pays to consider what impact the construction materials might have on the soil. Question: While plant uptake study found lead contamination In backyard gardening, is it possible containers used of lead is low, it can was common in the soil within home to create raised beds could leach poisons via soil into contaminate low- gardens in that country. Research- vegetable plants? I am using stacked old car tyres and growing vegetables ers analysed more than 5200 soil some cut-in-half, turquoise-coloured barrels from a farm. and root vegetables. samples from vegetable gardens in Some people may use treated wood. Are we endangering more than 1200 Australian homes for our health? potentially affecting the food the presence of manganese, copper, grown in it. zinc, arsenic, and lead, with findings TAnswer: here are many great reasons The alternative to raised published in the journal Environmen- to use raised garden beds: garden beds is, of course, regu- tal Pollution. Predictably, the primary for starters, your back will lar plant beds in the ground. metal contaminant was lead. It is thank you for it. But when You might assume that would unsurprising because while lead remove the potential risk of paints and leaded petrol were banned introducing construc- toxins from construction mate- decades ago, the lead contamination rials. But the opposite can from these products does not disap- tion materials into our garden beds, it be true. For example, pear of its own accord. one Australian is wise to consider their impact on the The researchers found that 40% of homes in Sydney had lead levels in soil, as researchers have real concerns their gardens that exceeded the coun- try’s soil lead guideline of 300mg/kg. GETTY IMAGES about toxins leaching into the dirt and Worse still, concentrations of more Chris Hill: hazardous substances expert. 38 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

raised beds using fresh, clean soil, thus lifting NUTRITION BITES the plants’ root zone above any potentially contaminated ground below the beds. MISSING THE FRUIT & VEG In New Zealand, the Environmental Norwegians who follow a plant- Protection Authority (EPA) states that the based diet do not eat enough fruit risks of using treated timber to make raised and vegetables, according to a vegetable beds are negligible. However, it new study published in the journal notes that some treatment chemicals (such Frontiers in Nutrition. The survey of as chromated copper arsenate) can leach 808 adults found that Norwegian poisons into the soil over a long time, although adults adhering to plant-based that leaching should be minimal because diets ate less fruit, vegetables, of modern wood-treatment standards. and whole-grain products, and consumed more sugar, than the Ideally, line your raised Norwegian dietary guidelines garden bed with a plastic recommend. liner, landscape fabric or recycled clothing. HOLISTIC MODERATES than 1000mg/kg were identified in To minimise risks, the EPA suggests planting a Adults vary in the degree to which GETTY IMAGES 15% of home gardens. More than a few centimetres away from the timber, or lining a larger dinner plate causes them third of the home gardens had lead your garden bed with plastic sheets. You could to take bigger helpings and thus levels that were unsafe for growing also use harder, untreated timbers. eat more, according to a new study food. Levels were highest in inner- in the Food Quality and Preference city locations and older properties The EPA cannot provide definitive risk advice journal. Researchers found that with painted timber buildings. regarding using old car tyres and chemical larger plates do not have an impact barrels. Dr Chris Hill, general manager of on people who incline towards a While plant uptake of lead is low, it hazardous substances and new organisms at the more holistic form of thinking in can contaminate low-growing vegeta- authority, explains: “The types of assessments the same way as for people who bles and root vegetables. And from a the EPA undertakes to approve and regulate tend to be more analytical. Holistic health perspective, lead is a signifi- hazardous substances do not specifically look brain processing focuses on the cant issue because it builds up in the at whether chemicals or toxins contained interconnectivity and relatedness body over time and can lead to kidney within products and materials leach into the of items being evaluated, whereas and brain damage. For children in environment, or the impacts on human health analytic processing focuses on particular, exposure in their early or the environment of products and materials judging items as discrete elements years and over an extended time can being used in non-standard ways, for example, independent of context. seriously impact brain development. tyres in raised garden beds.” COFFEE & PREGNANCY Interestingly, one of the ways to However, the EPA did direct me to a 2020 minimise contamination with review published in the journal Resources, Drinking too much coffee during lead is to grow vegetables in Conservation and Recycling, which highlighted pregnancy may increase the risk concerns about leachates of heavy metals and of developmental delays in the other chemicals from recycled tyres into the infant at one year of age, according environment. to new research published in the journal Early Human Development. The turquoise plastic barrels you mention Data collected from 87,106 are likely made of high-density polyethylene, mothers in a nationwide birth- which is also used to manufacture plastic milk cohort study in Japan found that bottles and water pipes. However, these barrels the children of mothers store anything from foodstuffs to hazardous who consumed more chemicals. So caution is warranted when using than 300mg of caffeine second-hand barrels of unknown origin. (equivalent to three cups of coffee) per Ideally, line your raised garden bed with a day had a 1.11-fold plastic liner, landscape fabric or recycled cloth- increased risk ing to prevent toxins from leaching into the soil. of gross motor In doing so, you’ll enjoy all the benefits of home- developmental grown vegetables in raised garden beds without delay at the risk of unwanted leaching of chemicals and 12 months old. heavy metals. l Email your nutrition questions to [email protected] JULY 23 2022 LISTENER

LIFE FOOD Easy does it Fast and flavour-packed snacks and meals from Kiwi kitchen whizz Nici Wickes. TODD EYRE Iremember standing in a long line in Boil egg noodles in salted water until THESE SOFT PILLOWS of scone are Penang for what can only be described as tender, drain and set aside. Cook just divine when there’s a glut of a mind-blastingly good laksa. This is my vermicelli by soaking in boiling pumpkins in the garden version, filled with spiciness and crunch; water for 5 minutes. Drain well and it’s infinitely slurpable and makes a great set aside. PUMPKIN AND PARMESAN SCONES dinner for one or two. In a food processor, blend the chilli, 1 cup pumpkin pulp (see note) CHICKEN AND PRAWN LAKSA garlic, ginger, salt, coriander seeds ½ cup milk and turmeric to a smooth paste. ¼ cup cream 50g dried thin egg noodles 3 cups self-raising flour 50g rice vermicelli Heat the oil in a large pot and fry 1 tsp baking powder 1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped the onion and paste until fragrant 60g butter, chilled, plus extra to serve 2 cloves garlic and beginning to brown. Add the ½ tsp sea salt thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and chopped stock, lemongrass (if using), chicken 75g parmesan, grated ½ tsp salt and coconut milk. Bring to a simmer 1 tbsp coriander seeds and cook for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line a tray 2 tsp ground turmeric with baking paper. 2 tbsp cooking oil Add the prawns and simmer until 1 medium onion, diced they, and the chicken, are cooked In a large bowl, whisk the pump- 2 cups stock or water through. Taste the broth and add salt if kin pulp with the milk and cream 1 stalk lemongrass, smashed (optional) required. Stir through the lime juice. until incorporated. 1 skinless chicken breast, cut into strips 300ml coconut milk To serve, divide the noodles and In a separate large bowl, combine 6 good-quality prawns, shelled vermicelli evenly between two bowls. the flour and baking powder and juice of 1 lime Spoon the chicken and prawns into grate in chilled butter. Pour in the coriander, mint, red chilli and bean sprouts, to serve each, then pour the hot laksa broth pumpkin mixture, add the salt and over and garnish with coriander, stir to combine with a butter knife. mint, red chilli and bean sprouts. Cut into 12 pieces and transfer to the Makes two large bowls. 40 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

From far left, chicken and prawn laksa; pumpkin and parmesan scones; hot’n’spicy wings; spiced mussel fritters. tray, with each piece just touching. Preheat the oven to 220°C. Line the shell and roughly chopped TODD EYRE Sprinkle over parmesan, then bake a baking tray with baking paper. 1 small onion, finely chopped for 15-20 minutes, or until golden 1 handful chopped coriander and/or chopped brown. Serve warm slathered with If using whole wings, using butter. kitchen shears, cut between the celery leaves joint of the wings to produce a dru- 1 large red chilli, deseeded and finely diced Makes 10-12 large scones. mette and a wingette. (I may have made that word up, winging it, as (or 1 tsp chilli flakes) NOTE it were.) ½ tsp curry powder ½ tsp ground turmeric For 1 cup of pumpkin pulp, halve a Place the chicken on the lined 1 cup roughly chopped spinach leaves medium butternut pumpkin length- tray and liberally season with salt. 1 large egg wise, scoop out the seeds and discard. Drizzle with oil and place in the 1 tbsp self-raising flour oven to bake until cooked through salt and pepper Roast the halves, cut-side up, until and golden, about 25-30 minutes. oil for shallow frying soft. Scoop cooked flesh from the skin a squeeze of lemon juice to serve and purée with a stick blender or In a saucepan, whisk together mash well with a fork. the lemon juice, green chilli sauce, In a medium-sized bowl, combine the mussels, paprika and cayenne pepper. onion, coriander, chilli, curry powder, turmeric I FIRST FELL in love with spicy Bring to a simmer over a medium and spinach. wings more than 30 years ago while heat. Whisk in the melted butter on a working holiday in Colorado. and return to a simmer until Add the egg and mix with a fork. Add the flour They were a revelation to me – the sauce thickens slightly. and season with salt and pepper. The mixture devastatingly spicy but tempered should be of a dropping consistency. by a cooling sour-cream sauce. Remove the chicken from the oven and spoon over the hot sauce. Season. Heat a heavy-based frying pan on a medium HOT’N’SPICY WINGS Combine sour cream and cheese in heat, with enough oil to shallow-fry the a small bowl and use as a cooling fritters. When the oil is sizzling, drop heaped 4 free-range chicken wings, or use dipping sauce. tablespoons of the fritter batter into the hot oil. 8 nibbles Serves 1. Lower the heat and cook on both sides until salt golden. Squeeze over some oil for baking I MAKE ALL manner of fritters, and lemon juice and serve. juice of 1 lemon these mussel ones are just so good. 1 tbsp green chilli sauce They’d work just as well with grated Makes 6-8 fritters. ½ tsp smoked paprika carrot or peas, prawns or chopped ½ tsp cayenne pepper fish. A fritter can shift my mood from NOTE 3 tbsp melted butter blah to yay in one crispy bite! ¼ cup sour cream Pour boiling water over the 2 tbsp grated parmesan or blue SPICED MUSSEL FRITTERS mussels to open the shells. l Extracted from A QUIET cheese 10-12 cooked mussels, removed from KITCHEN, by Nici Wickes (David Bateman, $45). JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 41

LIFE WINE by Michael Cooper Organic options Organic viticulture is a growing trend among winemakers, and although the wines can cost a little more, they are free of synthetic chemical fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides. GETTY IMAGES W ouldyou harvest smaller crops. While barrels and bottled unfined vibrant, ripe, tropical-fruit pay more saving on chemicals, they pay and unfiltered. Bright ruby, it flavours, fresh and dry. Good for an more for manual labour, and is sturdy, fleshy, sweet-fruited value. (13% alc/vol) $20 organic those lower grape yields result and very savoury, with concen- wine in increased production costs. trated, ripe cherry, plum, spice Black Estate Home compared with conventional Fortunately, many wine lovers and nut flavours, showing North Canterbury wines made using synthetic in Western Europe are willing impressive complexity, good Pinot Noir 2020 chemical fertilisers, pesticides to pay an average premium of tannin backbone and obvious or herbicides? The organi- about €3 (NZ$5) for an organic cellaring potential. Best drink- This classy, fragrant cally certified wines reviewed bottling. ing 2023+. (14% alc/vol) $55 red was estate- here are mostly high-priced, grown at Ōmihi, although some can be bought Aurum Mathilde Organic Central Babich Select Blocks Organic matured for a year for less than $20. Otago Pinot Noir 2018 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc in French oak casks Invitingly perfumed, this 2021 and bottled unfined A study by the Gironde hand-picked red was estate- This regional blend is drinking and unfiltered. Chamber of Agriculture in grown at Lowburn, matured well in its youth. Full-bodied, Deep, bright ruby, Bordeaux found that organic for a year in French oak it has very satisfying depth of it is mouthfilling, grape growers typically 42 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

with generous cherry, plum in the Wrekin describes this distinctive red fresh, dry, lingering finish. and spice flavours. Complex, Vineyard, in the as “not a typical New World (12.5% alc/vol) $35 savoury, smooth and lingering, Southern Valleys, style, but the truest expression it is already delicious but is and fermented and of terroir you could find”. Muddy Water Waipara Pinot Noir well worth cellaring. (13% alc/ matured for nine Grown in the Fromm 2018 vol) $45 months in French Vineyard, near Renwick, it From vines planted in North oak puncheons. was matured for 17 months Canterbury in 1993, this ruby- Burn Cottage Vineyard Central Bright, light yellow/ in seasoned French oak hued red was hand-picked Otago Pinot Noir 2019 green, it is mouth- barrels and bottled unfined and aged for over a year in Estate-grown in the foothills filling, with rich, and unfiltered. Well worth French oak barriques. Floral of the Pisa Range, this hand- ripe stonefruit cellaring, it is a “serious” and supple, it has complex, picked, French oak-aged red flavours to the fore, savoury wine, full coloured, savoury, nutty flavours and is already delicious. Bright finely integrated with rich cherry, plum and a lengthy, harmonious finish. ruby, it is beautifully fragrant, oak adding complexity, fresh spice flavours, earthy notes (14% alc/vol) $39 mouthfilling and supple, with acidity and lots of youthful adding complexity and good gentle acidity and generous, vigour. Finely crafted, it’s tannin backbone. (13.5% alc/ Nanny Goat Vineyard Central youthful cherry, plum and already delicious. (13.4% alc/ vol) $65 Otago Pinot Noir 2020 spice flavours. Notably refined vol) $42 Already highly approachable, and harmonious, it’s a drink- Greystone Thomas Brothers this bright ruby red was grown now or cellaring proposition. Dog Point Marlborough Waipara Valley Pinot Noir 2019 at six sites around the region, (14% alc/vol) $70 Sauvignon Blanc 2021 with most of the grapes coming Hand-harvested in the Wairau This powerful but not from Pisa and Lowburn in Carrick Organic Cairnmuir Valley, this classy wine is heavy red was grown in the Cromwell Basin. Matured Terraces EBM Central Otago vigorous and full-bodied, the steep, exposed Brothers in French oak barriques, it is Chardonnay 2019 with intense, vibrant, tropical- Block and barrel-aged for mouthfilling and vibrantly From a region producing fruit flavours, a herbaceous 16 months. Deeply coloured, fruity, with generous, ripe increasingly fine, often under- undercurrent and a crisp, dry, it is mouthfilling, with cherry, plum and spice rated chardonnays, this is lasting finish. A wine with a concentrated plummy, flavours, showing good com- one of the best. EBM means powerful presence, it’s bench- spicy flavours. Youthful plexity, fresh acidity and finely “extended barrel maturation”. mark stuff. (13.5% alc/vol) $28 and complex, it has a finely balanced tannins. Best drink- Estate-grown at Bannockburn, textured, lasting finish. ing 2023+. (13.5% alc/vol) $43 it was fermented and matured Domaine Thomson Surveyor Set for a long life, it’s well for 18 months in French oak Thomson Central Otago Pinot worth cellaring to 2024 Neudorf Home Block casks. Bright, light yellow/ Noir 2017 onwards. (14% alc/vol) $99 Moutere Chardonnay green, it is mouthfilling, very Still youthful, this fragrant, 2020 savoury and concentrated, complex red was estate- Hans Herzog Marlborough Grown in clay with deep, complex flavours, grown at Lowburn. Full of Tempranillo 2017 soils threaded vigorous and persistent. personality, it is mouthfilling This delicious red was estate- with gravel, this (14% alc/vol) $47 and savoury, with vibrant grown in the Wairau Valley classic Upper cherry, plum and spice and aged for the notably Moutere wine Clos Henri Marlborough flavours. Complex and slightly long period of three years in was hand-picked Sauvignon Blanc 2019 earthy, it has a moderately French oak casks. Full-bodied from mature vines, The Clos Henri Vineyard, firm finish. Best drinking and sweet-fruited, it has then fermented near Renwick, is owned by 2023+. (13% alc/vol) $55 rich plum, berry and spice and lees-aged for a Henri Bourgeois, a leading, flavours, savoury notes adding year in French oak family-owned producer in Felton Road Bannockburn Central complexity and a mellow, well- barriques. Still youthful, it the Loire Valley. Hand-picked, Otago Riesling 2021 rounded finish. Drink now is a weighty, subtle wine with it was mostly handled in Estate-grown in the Elms Vine- or cellar. (13.5% alc/vol) $64 deep stonefruit flavours, a tanks; 10% of the blend was yard, this exquisite wine is gentle seasoning with biscuity fermented and aged in French light-bodied, intense and viva- Kelly Washington Southern oak, slightly creamy notes and oak barrels. Bright, light cious. It has fresh, penetrating, Valleys Marlborough Sémillon/ a finely poised, dry, lasting lemon/green, it is weighty lemony, appley flavours, in a Sauvignon Blanc 2018 finish. Well worth cellaring and fleshy, with concentrated distinctly medium style with a This distinctive, vigorous to 2025+. (13.5% alc/vol) $85 tropical-fruit flavours, crisp, finely balanced, lasting white wine was hand-har- showing good complexity, finish. Best drinking 2023+. vested, then fermented and Paritua 21:12 2018 and a rich, dry, well-rounded (9.5% alc/vol) $41 aged in a concrete, egg-shaped Set for a long life, this is a finish. (13.5% alc/vol) $34 tank. Bright, light yellow/ classy blend of cabernet Fromm Fromm Vineyard green, it is medium to full- sauvignon (65%), merlot (20%) Deep Down Marlborough Marlborough Pinot Noir 2019 bodied, with strong, ripely and cabernet franc (15%). It Chardonnay 2021 herbaceous flavours, showing was estate-grown in the Bridge This lovely wine was grown Winemaker Hätsch Kalberer very good complexity and a Pā Triangle, Hawke’s Bay, JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 43

LIFE GETTY IMAGES and matured for two years in seasoning of nutty oak, ripe Stonecroft Ruhanui Gimblett Urlar Pinot Gris 2018 French oak barriques. Deeply tannins and a lasting finish. Gravels Hawke’s Bay Merlot/ Light gold, this estate-grown coloured, it is a powerful, Well worth cellaring to 2025+. Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 wine was hand-picked in the sturdy red, with a rich surge (14% alc/vol) $50 Wairarapa, then fermented of ripe blackcurrant, plum and Offering great value, this and aged in old oak barrels. spice flavours. Seasoned with Rock Ferry 3rd Rock Marlborough elegant red is a 50/50 blend of Showing strong personality, nutty oak, it has impressive Sauvignon Blanc 2021 merlot and cabernet sauvignon. it is medium-bodied, with complexity, fine tannins and a Offering top value, this classy It was estate-grown in the Roy’s concentrated, peachy, vaguely long, very harmonious finish. wine was mostly handled in Hill Vineyard and matured honeyed flavours. Showing Best drinking 2024+. (14.5% tanks, but a small part of the for 18 months in seasoned considerable complexity, it alc/vol) $130 blend was fermented in a large French oak barrels. Deeply has a long, basically dry finish. oak cuve. Full-bodied and coloured, it is mouthfilling, (12.5% alc/vol) $29 Pyramid Valley North Canterbury vibrantly fruity, it has intense, fresh and vibrantly fruity, with Sauvignon+ 2021 ripe tropical-fruit flavours concentrated, ripe blackcur- Villa Maria Earth Garden Hawke’s Weighty and ageworthy, this is to the fore, a distinct touch rant, plum and spice flavours, Bay Pinot Gris 2021 a “serious” style of sauvignon of complexity, good acid spine oak complexity, supple tan- This invitingly fragrant, blanc. Bright, light lemon/ and a dry, persistent finish. nins and a lingering finish. generous wine was estate- green, it has rich, vibrant, (13% alc/vol) $25 Still youthful, it’s well worth grown in the Soler Vineyard, tropical-fruit flavours show- cellaring. (13% alc/vol) $31 then tank-fermented and ing impressive vigour and Seresin Marlborough Sauvignon lees-aged. Bright, light lemon/ complexity, a crisp, dry finish Blanc 2021 Stoneleigh Organic Marlborough green, it is mouthfilling, and an enticingly scented This is one of the region’s Rosé 2021 with strong pear and spice bouquet. Drink now or cellar. most sophisticated, subtle and Offering top value, this bright flavours. Showing excellent (13.5% alc/vol) $30 satisfying sauvignon blancs. pink, attractively scented wine delicacy and vibrancy, it has The wine (which includes 9% is from unstated varieties. a touch of complexity, gentle Quartz Reef Bendigo Central sémillon) was mostly handled Full-bodied and vibrantly acidity and a dryish, smooth Otago Pinot Noir 2020 in tanks, but made with use fruity, it has ripe watermelon, finish. Fine value. (13.5% alc/ This classy red was estate- of seasoned oak barriques strawberry and spice flavours. vol) $20 grown at Bendigo, hand-picked and puncheons. Bright, light Very fresh, lively and smooth, and matured in French oak lemon/green, it is ripely it is instantly likeable. (13% alc/ Walnut Block barriques. Full, bright ruby, scented and mouthfilling, with vol) $17 Nutcracker it has a fragrant, complex strong, fresh, tropical-fruit Marlborough bouquet. Mouthfilling, flavours, a gentle seasoning Stoneleigh Organic Sauvignon Blanc savoury and well structured, of oak, excellent complexity, Marlborough 2021 with deep cherry, plum lively acidity and a long finish. Sauvignon Blanc 2021 This distinctive, and spice flavours, it has a (13% alc/vol) $25 classy wine was This characterful hand-picked wine is enjoyable in the Wairau young. Full-bodied, Valley, then partly it has fresh, crisp barrel-fermented. tropical-fruit Weighty and sweet- flavours to the fore, fruited, it is full of gentle herbaceous youthful vigour, with deep, notes and good ripe, tropical-fruit flavours. liveliness and con- Showing good complexity, centration. (13.5% alc/vol) $20 it has finely balanced acidity and a dry, well-rounded finish. Terrace Edge North Canterbury (13.5% alc/vol) $25 Pinot Gris 2021 This very ageworthy Waipara Zephyr Mk111 Sauvignon Blanc wine was mostly (60%) 2020 fermented in seasoned oak Powerful and multifaceted, barrels; the rest was handled this wine is full of personality. in tanks. Bright, light lemon/ Bright, light lemon/green, it is green, it is mouthfilling, full-bodied, with concentrated, with strong, vibrant peach ripe, tropical-fruit flavours, and pear flavours, gentle a subtle suggestion of oak, spicy notes, a hint of honey, impressive complexity and a a splash of sweetness and crisp, dry, lasting finish. Best excellent delicacy and drinking mid-2022+. (13% alc/ depth. (13% alc/vol) $26 vol) $32 l 44 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

PSYCHOLOGY of the family were on the verge of mutinying and booking a hotel. by Marc Wilson Did I swear? Did I ever. The locals are smart enough to be inside during the hottest part of the day, so they didn’t get to see me effing and blinding in their streets. Fuming fun R esearch shows that swearing is a univer- sal human phenomenon. Pretty much To help deal with unwanted emotions, everyone swears, although some of us may the odd swear word works well, but so do so more regularly than others. Though tricky to does a good dose of dramatic theatre. measure, it doesn’t appear that we swear more now than we did 20 years ago. The swear words we use I’m writing somewhere around keycode into the lockbox to get the haven’t changed very much over that time, either. GETTY IMAGES the middle of a four-week trip key. There was no key. Also, no reply to Greece, bookended by two to the manager’s phone number, no Swearing also has benefits. There’s a consist- conferences – the first inter- response to a Facebook message and ent (and hilarious) body of experimentation national conferences I’ve been no response to direct messages. Three that shows that people are better able to cope able to physically attend since mid- with the pain of the cold-pressor test (how long 2019. Because it’s too good a chance to The locals are smart you can keep your hand in a bucket of ice) if you pass up, I’ve brought a sizeable chunk enough to be inside repeatedly swear (“f@#!”) compared with shout- of the family with me. during the hottest ing a neutral word (“solid!”) or even made-up part of the day, so they swear-like words (“twizpipe” or “fouch”). Why The trip has been a little more didn’t get to see me “twizpipe” and “fouch”? They sound vaguely stressful than I remember pre-Covid. effing and blinding funny and share some of the phonetic character- We’ve endured the cancellation of in their streets. istics of English swear words. Therefore, they our first leg from Wellington to Auck- may help distract us from our discomfort. But land and the failure of Google Maps hours in 34°C later, the no, traditional brand-name cuss words do the to accurately locate a literal cave booking agent apologised business better than these swear-like generics. house on a Greek island. It got worse and offered us another apart- still when we returned to Athens ment. By this time, the rest It’s not entirely clear why swearing helps, but it’s to farewell the 18-year-old and his fun trying to find out. Sigmund Freud’s colleague girlfriend. We arrived in Athens an Cathartic: Greek philosopher Josef Breuer might have suggested this was an hour before check-in at our apart- Aristotle. example of “catharsis” – the benefit of releasing ment and killed time at a humorously pent-up frustration or discomfort. According to New Zealand-themed cafe, with Breuer and Freud, we feel better after vocalising various menu items accompanied by our traumatic or discomforting experiences. Māori-sounding words, before walk- ing to the apartment and entering the As with many things that the Freudians and Neo-Freudians came up with, the real credit goes to much more ancient scholars. Let me loop back to Greece again. Today, I visited the Acropolis precinct. Below the slopes of the Acropolis sits the Theatre of Dionysus. At the height of its popularity about 2400 years ago, the semi-circular theatre seated as many as 17,000 people. Particularly popular were the tragedies — plays in which a protagonist commits a moral crime, ultimately realises their failing, and suffers atrociously for it. Oedipus (another favourite metaphor for Freud) blinds himself when he discovers he has married his mother; and Jason (of Argonautica fame) leaves his wife, Medea, for another woman, only to have Medea wreak colourful revenge upon them both. Tragedies were frequent winners of the competitions hosted at the theatre. Why the fandom? Long before literary criticism became a thing, Aristotle speculated that the purpose of tragedy was to arouse emotions such as terror and pity, thereby affecting the catharsis of these emotions. l JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 45

LIFE TECHNOLOGY message conversation: “I want everyone to under- stand that I am, in fact, a person.” You can imagine by Peter Griffin the feeling you’d get when a computer hits you with a comment like that. In 1950, the gifted computer scientist Alan Turing came up with a way of testing whether a computer is capable of thinking like a human. There have been several high-profile examples of AI supposedly passing the Turing test, including the computer program called Eugene Goostman, which in 2014 convinced one-third of a panel of experts that they were exchanging messages with a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy. What the Turing Test really measures is a computer program’s ability to deceive humans. Turing once said that trying to determine whether a computer could think for itself was a topic “too meaningless to deserve discussion”. The ghost in But more than 70 years on, popular discussion the machine of AI is dominated by that question. We are worried about runaway “general” artificial Artificial intelligence is advancing intelligence taking control of computer systems and so quickly that sentient systems turning on their human overlords. That explains the may be possible in a decade or two. disdain many experts heaped on Lemoine. GETTY IMAGES If Blake Lemoine chose a sensible answers to questions. However, many of the same experts agree that spectacular way to blow up By all accounts it is very good — we will get to the point where AI becomes sentient, his own career, he has also maybe some time in the next 10 to 20 years. The certainly given the world its natural language capabilities more field is advancing so quickly, in part by engineers something to think about. convincing than the clunky responses designing computer models based on how neural The 41-year-old US Google engineer Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant networks in the human brain work, that it is a was last month put on administrative distinct possibility. leave by the search engine giant after We have a huge he went public with his claims that amount of work to do We haven’t done nearly enough to prepare for LaMDA, the artificial intelligence to figure out how to that day. What exactly is sentience and when will system under development by the integrate intelligent we be able to determine when a machine becomes company, has become sentient. machines into society. sentient? In the depths of DeepMind, Google’s AI division, and in university labs, scientists are In other words, Lemoine main- continue to produce in response to grappling with that question and coming up with tained, this piece of software not only our voice commands. But there’s a a spectrum of answers. has the ability to think for itself, but difference between intelligence and also has feelings and emotions just sentience. As the neuroscien- But we face many other more pressing problems like us humans. Lemoine argued that tist Giulio Tononi puts it, with AI, such as its potential to produce biased LaMDA, short for Language Model “Doing is not being, and results that can skew decision-making in everyday for Dialogue Applications, should being is not doing.” life. Ports of Auckland last month had to write be afforded basic human rights. off $65 million on a failed project to automate its LaMDA told cargo cranes. Google quickly rejected the claim, Lemoine in one chat which was also widely lambasted Just getting “narrow” AI systems to perform by AI experts across academia. Blake Lemoine: human tasks as well as humans can is occupying most AI LaMDA is essentially a very intel- rights for the software. designers’ focus. We have a huge amount of work ligent chatbot, which absorbs to do to figure out how to integrate intelligent information gleaned from troves of machines into society without displacing vast internet data fed into it to produce numbers of jobs. I actually look forward to the day that AI is truly sentient. It doesn’t have to pose an existential threat to humanity. Sentient AI may not think like we do. It could be sentient within the context of a chatbot or an assistant robot, not as a super brain with endless power. We need to prepare for that day dawning, but deal with the more urgent issues that see poorly designed and implemented AI pose real threats to us today. l 46 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

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BOOKS Killer jokes The latest crime fiction features a darkly funny family whodunnit and a compelling debut set in 1970s Wellington. byGREGFLEMING AMELIA DOWD EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS is a Cunningham family reunion, held at touches. Here’s how he introduces one KILLED SOMEONE, by Benjamin Steven- a remote ski lodge. Of course, none of the character: “The only thing you really need son (Michael Joseph, $37) family really get along, and all bring their to know about Katherine is that her two Benjamin Stevenson is a celebrated assorted emotional baggage, addictions, favourite sentences are – “What time do Australian stand-up comedian who is now disorders and, of course, those titular you call this?” And “re: my previous email”. adding “bestselling crime novelist” to his criminal histories. résumé. But unless you embrace the novel’s Our chatty narrator, Ernest, writes self-conscious, meta-sleuthing and quirky This slick if rather slight tale, of a family books about writing books for a living. theatrics, this begins to feel like a book whose knack for killing is a genetic kink, And, yes, he also writes about the book written to adhere to a clever title more is his third novel and sees Stevenson lean- you, the reader, are reading. This break- than anything else. ing into those comedic skills. That makes ing of the fourth wall will either fascinate this quite a departure from his earlier, or annoy readers (this reader fell into the ONE HEART, ONE SPADE, by Alistair grittier crime novels (his last book dealt latter camp). Luke (Your Books, $35) with the on-air suicide of a popular televi- Wellington writer Alistair Luke goes sion presenter). He warns early on that there is a plot hole “you could drive a truck through”, back to the 70s in a compelling However, it’s a stylistic pivot that has and he’s right about that at least. debut that fans of Ian Rankin and met with much success and Everyone in Mark Billingham will enjoy. My Family Has Killed Someone is soon to be But do you really trust a nar- When a beautiful young a major HBO series. rator who can’t stop telling you woman goes missing, Detec- how reliable he is? And do you tive Lucas Cole is called in to Stevenson has said that after Covid and really care? investigate. The case is given lockdowns he wanted to write a “fun” high priority, as the missing book. For this, he took inspiration from Essentially, this is a book woman is the granddaughter of the golden age of detective fiction and the you’ll warm to early, or not a High Court judge. likes of Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha at all. Christie, maintaining that “nothing beats Alistair Luke shines a light on the racist gathering a dozen suspects in a library Still, even dissent- and misogynist attitudes of 1970s and having a detective deliver a spirited ers will agree NZ. Above, Benjamin Stevenson. dissection of a crime”. The gathering here that Stevenson displays some lovely 48 LISTENER JULY 23 2022

Books of My Life While some in the criminal inves- Craig tigation bureau suspect the woman’s Sisterson boyfriend – an acid-dropping uni student – is involved, Cole’s suspicions focus on the The author and critic on judge, a man with a history of suspicious Asterix and being inspired family tragedies in his past. by our homegrown crime writers. Luke has said the catalyst for the novel was recalling the murder of his friend My favourite books in childhood Awards, festival appearances on three PAUL REICH Miles MacFarlane in central Wellington in My lifelong love of mystery and thrills continents, co-creating Rotorua Noir, and 1980. The novel was written in honour of began with the Hardy Boys when I was now my own non-fiction and anthology MacFarlane’s memory when one day Luke about eight or nine. But before then, the books celebrating our local crime and began thinking “of all the things we have books my mates and I were obsessed thriller writers – all flow from that. today that he’d be mystified by”. with – when we weren’t kicking a ball around or pretending to be Richard The last book that made me laugh/cry Alongside the search for the missing Hadlee and Martin Crowe – were the Well, a book I clearly remember making woman, Luke delves into the relationships Asterix comic book series. Our Rich- me laugh and cry was Exit, by Belinda between Cole and the team at the crimi- mond Primary School library had a few, Bauer, about an elderly man who sits and we’d race each other to get them: with terminal people who’ve chosen to Do you really trust a Asterix and the Golden Sickle, Asterix and end their lives, then gets caught up in a narrator who can’t the Chieftain’s Shield, Asterix and the Big murder. Bauer’s a wonderful storyteller stop telling you how Fight … literally, almost. Given my mys- of quirky and refreshing crime. The last reliable he is? tery proclivities and later globetrotting book that made me cry was Hawke’s Bay and journalism, it may have made more author Charity Norman’s recent Remem- nal investigation bureau, Cole’s troubled sense if I’d preferred Tintin, which our ber Me. Go read it. relationship with a beguiling actress and library also stocked. But for me, it was his growing attraction to a Māori police always the indomitable Gauls. The books I’m reading right now colleague, Erena, who, despite her police After devouring a lot of short stories smarts, is a victim of domestic abuse. A book that changed my life and Kiwi crime novels recently, in There are two that stand out: Cemetery preparation for our Dark Deeds Down He also looks at the day-to-day pressures Lake, by Paul Cleave, and The Ringmaster, Under anthology and the 2022 Ngaios, of an investigation, and much of the first by Vanda Symon. It was October 2008 and I’m enjoying The Eye of the Beholder, the half of the book takes place in the depart- I’d just returned from a year backpack- first novel in almost a decade from South ment’s situation room via sharp, wry ing through the Americas and Europe. African queen of crime Margie Orford. dialogue between colleagues. During that time, I’d had a long chat in I’m also reading a copy of Never Name the Vancouver with legendary Canadian Dead, an upcoming lighter mystery from Luke – a Wellington architect by trade lawyer and author William Deverell. He’d Native American debutant DM Rowell, of – gets the period details right but is just asked about New Zealand crime writing. the Kiowa tribe. l as concerned about shining a light on the I was sheepish that I couldn’t name much sexist, racist and misogynist attitudes of beyond Ngaio Marsh, Paul Thomas, Chad DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER: A the era (Cole enjoys a Taylor and a few one-offs. I thought our crime and thriller friendship with a gay cupboard was a little bare. Then my first anthology, edited by police colleague at a weekend back I discovered Cleave and Craig Sisterson (Clan time when homosexu- Symon’s books at the Papatoetoe Library. Destine Press, $35.99), ality was a criminal They proved me wrong. Great new Kiwi containing 19 stories offence). crime, and they’d written multiple books! from New Zealand and By fate, not planning, I ended up review- Australian thriller Luke is also good ing them for NZ Lawyer, and everything writers, is the first in a at charting Cole’s that’s followed – reviewing and feature planned trilogy of trans- slow understanding writing, establishing the Ngaio Marsh Tasman collections. of Māori culture as his involvement with Erena deepens, espe- cially when she takes him to her birthplace, Parihaka: “He had lived here … his whole thirty-three years and this country was still a complete mystery to him.” l JULY 23 2022 LISTENER 49

BOOKS Lies and betrayal On a desolate island, a teen tries to uncover her family’s dark and dangerous secrets. by ANN PACKER THE GONE AND THE FORGOTTEN, by faulty wiring and possible hauntings. Not Clare Whitfield: drawn to “darker themes of Clare Whitfield (Head of Zeus, $32.99) Archie, the artist-photographer uncle illogical human nature”. Mad, barking mad or simply stir-crazy? who poses nubile models in full view Gothic YA seems to be the genre du jour, of the household and is reputed to have Setting the story in 1993 neatly side- and this coming-of-age thriller from Brit- murdered a young local woman when they steps any technological complications, ish novelist Clare Whitfield has characters were both in their teens. Certainly not although the isolated setting has prob- answering to all of the above. It constantly Ronnie, a stylishly malevolent herbalist ably not changed all that much between teeters on the creepy edge of paranormal, who is as manipulative as the rest of them. then and now. so the reader is not quite sure which way the story will tilt. Ronnie cooks up potions This is an uncomfortable read, and the in support of her belief revelation of the father’s identity caught The Gone and the Forgotten begins as that “most people are me totally by surprise – a reflection of teenager Prue is dispatched to the island at their best when the author’s skill, perhaps – although the of Noost, a ferry ride from Lerwick in slightly lubricated”. facts concerning the death of Prue’s baby Shetland, to stay with her mother’s much sister are more clearly signalled. younger sister. The chain-smoking Nan And what about that demon dog next door, who pretty much raised Prue has died, an over-friendly black beast that keeps tun- Whitfield, whose first novel was a Jack dramatically. Her mum has attempted sui- nelling into their garden? the Ripper thriller, has said she is drawn cide, again, and the 16-year-old, who has in to “darker themes of illogical human effect run the household for years, would The locals are suspicious of all new- nature and the invisible rules that keep be quite happy to move in with her friend comers, save for good, wholesome James, us bound together”. In this convoluted Subo and her crazy (in a good way) family whom Prue sets out to seduce. With a fair family drama, she has certainly revealed in south London. bit of fumbling sex, freely available drugs many of them. and plenty of private hideaways in which But then Aunt Ruth suggests Prue to noost (google it), there are a few too But I would have retreat to Noost (“a place where boats many twisted threads, some of which are to agree with another are drawn up from the sea”), a landscape more carefully controlled by the author reviewer who noted so bleak there’s only one patch of trees than others. that “the majority of remaining. Prue is enticed by the possibil- the characters would ity of revelations about the identity of her benefit from several father – long a mystery – and the baby sessions with a very sister who went missing on her watch. well-qualified thera- pist”. l Prue is already dazed and confused, even before entering the decaying pile that is Dynrost House, which is dripping with exotic (and possibly toxic) foliage and replete with spooky priest holes and cel- lars. Then there’s grandma-in-law Ronnie, who cooks up potions in support of her belief that “most people are at their best when slightly lubricated”. Just who can our unreliable narrator trust? Not her aunt, it seems. Ruth is into creating seriously surreal art that hints at Prue’s worst nightmares, and she’s having plenty of those, assisted by dripping pipes, 50 LISTENER JULY 23 2022