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PROPERTY Why housing is no PLUNGE? longer a one-way bet JULY 16-22 2022 THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP How to manage your body clock to boost your health & wellbeing MINNIE DRIVER DYSLEXIA FILM FESTIVAL Her honest, funny & A new way of looking What’s on this year’s poignant new memoir at an old problem NZIFF programme

CONTENTS ISSN 2381-9553: Vol 281, No. 4255. July 16-22, 2022 Te Kaiwhakarongo Aotearoa COVER IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES/LISTENER ILLUSTRATION CALLUM BAKER FEATURES aftermath of her first big movie role, when she differences play an essential role in human found herself stuck in the career doldrums. adaptation. by Marc Wilson COVER STORY LIFE 46 | Science Frenchman Aimé Bonpland 18 | Like clockwork proved that scientific pursuits can lead New research into circadian rhythms 38 | Health Many vision-loss problems to action and adventure. by Bob Brockie reveals the vital importance of our body could be prevented if they were picked clocks to our health and wellbeing. up and treated earlier. by Nicky Pellegrino BOOKS by Ruth Nichol 40 | Nutrition Taking calcium supplements 48 | Stacking the deck Debut crime as a part of treating kidney disease is a writer Simon Lendrum sends his private 24 | House of cards different ball game from using them as investigator tag team on a hunt for a For many generations of Kiwi investors, a dietary boost. by Jennifer Bowden missing girl, amid the gang violence, housing has been a one-way bet. But that may dodgy lawyers and risky money of be about to change, says the Reserve Bank’s 42 | Food Ottolenghi protégé Ixta Belfrage downtown Auckland. by Greg Fleming chief economist, Paul Conway. shares her inventive ingredient and flavour combinations. 51-55 | Books Crime novels by genre 30 | Fun but fierce heavyweights Karin Slaughter and Denise Deborah Frances-White’s brand of feminist 44 | Wine There are plenty of resources Mina; poetry by Briar Wood; Ian Wedde’s humour embraces frivolity but is also deadly available to further your wine knowledge Books of My Life; a new James Bond serious – and the Aussie-British comedian and enjoyment, from guides to websites. adventure; an uplifting thriller set in sees no contradiction there. by Sarah Catherall remote Australia; a historical adventure by Michael Cooper in a contaminated Soviet city; and an epic 34 | The sound of crickets family saga spanning the world wars In this extract from her memoir, Managing 45 | Psychology New research is Expectations, Minnie Driver recalls the challenging the stigma around dyslexia as a disorder, instead suggesting the cognitive COMMENTARY 14 | Politics Jane Clifton ENTERTAINMENT 94 | The Good Life Greg Dixon 3 | Upfront 60 | Film Russell Baillie 4 | Letters Plus Caption Competition, DIVERSIONS 63 | Film reviews Sarah Watt 64 | Music David Cohen, Graham Reid Quips & Quotes and 10 Quick Questions 56-59 | Diversions 66 | Television Russell Baillie, Russell Brown 8 | Bulletin Jonathan Kronstadt   & Puzzles 9 | Diary Charlotte Grimshaw 71-91 | TV programmes 11 | Life Bill Ralston p52 92-93 | Radio programmes 13 | Reality Check Stephen Davis p42 93 | Classical Elizabeth Kerr 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 16 2022

UPFRONT Selective welcome The Productivity Commission’s immigration policy report treats people coming here for family reasons as second class, writes Arthur Grimes. The Productivity Commission recently for new residents and require new residents to renew their released its report on immigration visas every six years. Eligibility criteria for this renewal would policy, Immigration – Fit for the future. include residence (such as a minimum of two years’ residence in Given its contents, a better title would the past six years), as well as other measures of commitment such be Immigration – A future for the fit. as investment, running a business or having family here. The commission is required by law to provide advice to the government Imagine you are an older “permanent resident” who is that helps support the overall wellbeing coming up for your six-yearly renewal. Perhaps you have of New Zealanders. It was asked by the current government recently lost your job or perhaps you have fallen ill and to examine our working-age immigration policies, which it worry that you will become a “burden” on the health system. defines as policies that offer potential Perhaps the family you moved to New immigrants opportunities to seek Zealand to be with have died. You wish employment, invest, or run a business to stay in the country, yet you know in New Zealand. officials will not deem you to be “highly According to the commission’s own productive” or “highly paid”. You will definition, this includes temporary not make “the greatest contribution to work visas, residence visas, student the future of New Zealand”. visas, investor visas, and entrepreneur One option is to apply to become visas. It also includes immigration that a citizen – and many will do so. is the result of working-age immigra- But others will not have this option, tion, such as partners, parents and perhaps because of restrictions in their dependent children. original country, or because of “circular We know from wellbeing studies migration”, which means they live for that relationships with family and some years in one country, then another, friends are the strongest determinants then return to the prior country. What of people’s happiness and welfare. This happens to people who are not citizens is well recognised in te ao Māori and is and who are away from NZ (perhaps ubiquitous across all cultures. How- on a philanthropic overseas posting) ever, anyone reading the commission’s when they must renew their visa? report will wonder where the recom- In 2006, the Helen Clark-led govern- mendations are regarding these vital ment scrapped rules that required older people to resit the on-road driving test It is the most vulnerablepersonal relationships. They are almost entirely absent. people – those who are sick every two years, because it recognised Instead, the report is almost exclu- or jobless – who will be the enormous stress this placed on them. targeted most intensively. But this stress is minuscule relative to sively focused on how migrants can the stress of facing potential deportation contribute to New Zealand’s productiv- ity. For example, it recommends the if one does not successfully renew one’s government improve the visa approval “permanent residence”. And it is the process “for highly productive and highly paid workers”. It also most vulnerable people – those who are sick or jobless – who will recommends the points system criteria for the skilled migrant be targeted most intensively. category be refined to better align with “good labour-market I doubt that I have ever seen a more heartless recommendation outcomes”. in any report to government as this one. It is the very antithesis In other words, the report focuses on encouraging people who of a wellbeing-focused approach. can fit as cogs into New Zealand’s productivity machine. There If the government were to accept this, it would destroy its are no similar recommendations about the treatment of migrants reputation for prioritising wellbeing. One can only hope that wishing to come to, or stay in, New Zealand for family reasons. it will reject this extreme anti-wellbeing recommendation. l GETTY IMAGES It essentially treats these migrants as distinctly second class. The most egregious part of the report is its recommendation Professor Arthur Grimes holds the chair of wellbeing and public policy that the government stop issuing permanent-residence visas in the School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington. SUBMISSIONS for Upfront should be approximately 600 words long and should be sent to [email protected]. Full contact details must be provided. JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 3

LETTERS The means to end poverty When the Welfare Expert The statistics on food banks We keep hearing about not an excuse to commit crime. Advisory Group (WEAG) and hardship grants may poverty as if it’s a new phe- My dad was the nicest report came out in February not affect most of us directly nomenon. I was brought up in 2019, I was filled with opti- but should make us feel abject poverty in the 60s as the person and he always told us mism. The recommendations ashamed about the children eldest of six children. There that education was the key were thorough, sensible and, I we are letting down. People were no food banks or Winz in way out of poverty. He went to believed, capable of implemen- are becoming frustrated by those days. My dad worked two night school and got a diploma tation over a relatively short the government’s cautious jobs and my mum worked in a in sociology and psychology. period. With the election of a incrementalism. WEAG gave factory canteen. majority Labour government us a clear roadmap to eradi- I am now a retired nurse in 2020, I expected some real cate child poverty in the short My mum was mentally chal- of 35 years. After divorcing headway to be made. to medium term and, for the lenged and I now know she my husband, I brought my moment, the government had a personality disorder. She children up on my own by Although Rebecca Macfie has the political means at its was angry and violent. I was working full-time night shifts (“Caught in the net”, July 2) disposal to achieve this. in children’s homes and foster without any help from govern- lists a number of welcome Liz Richards care and was sexually abused ment agencies. improvements, poverty (Richmond, Nelson) by a man at the home and by a and deprivation remain for priest. Yet, with all that, I never I believe people need to stop many beneficiary families. LETTER OF THE WEEK became a criminal. Poverty is having loads of kids and edu- cate the ones they have. My mum made nutritious WINNING CAPTION I loathe non-consensual Rex McGregor, Auckland patting. FINALISTS Pixel thinks: “Don’t get carried away. Without me you’re a has-Bean!” – David Scott, Gisborne Pixel: “The hair-of-the-dog belief is a myth.” – Ann Love, Nelson Pixel (thinking): Kneeeel! – Alan Belcher, Christchurch Pixel: “Oh no! Not another ‘Shaggy Dog’ story!” – Bob Richardson, Christchurch Rowan Atkinson: “Good boy. Now, where did you bury GETTY IMAGES my TV remote?” – Robert Morey, Dunedin Caption Pixel: “BEAN there! Done that!” – Kevin Boyce, competition Raumati Beach THIS WEEK’S PICTURE Caption Competition Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and the Duke taking in the action on day nine at Wimbledon. {[email protected]} TO ENTER Send your captions for the photo at right to [email protected], with “Caption Competition No 469” in the subject line. Alternatively, entries can be posted to “Caption Competition No 469”, NZ Listener, PO Box 52122, Kingsland, Auckland 1352. Entries must be received by noon, Tuesday, July 19. THE PRIZE A collection of recipes from the Tibetan Plateau written for today’s home cook, by Julie Kleeman and Yeshi Jampa. 4 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

meals out of what she could afford and taught us how to cook from scratch. A lesson for today, I think. Name and address withheld Under Milton Friedman’s “It’s a long storey.” neoliberal economic philoso- phy, it was proposed Aotearoa ore concentrate per year for people of New Zealand who and “we are still in the court- be managed as an unregulated, a period of 20 years. Based may or may not allow you to room” points to a level of market-driven business envi- on numbers quoted, this will mine it. maniacal pigheadedness. ronment. With a minimum of provide an annual income of Colin Bell state intervention, there would $US500 million to $1 billion a (New Plymouth) Some advice, Mr Eggers: be abundant wealth for all and year, perhaps much more due given that you like the sound little need for the welfare state. to the value of titanium and Thanks to Richard Woodd for of yourself as a “greenie”, how vanadium. Costs are estimated his writings about Trans- about you stop wasting your Today, it is the dire social to be around $US100m per Tasman Resources (TTR) and dollars on this ridiculous, and health consequences year. Alan Eggers’ eight-year quest old-fashioned project and start that are the hidden cost of to mine the ocean floor off the investing in projects that do the free market, supported Of course, the whole pro- coast of South Taranaki. not ravage the environment, by the taxpayer. The liquor posal is abhorrent. There are the world and the planet? industry, for example, creates plenty of iron ore deposits No one asked Mr Eggers to Lesley Olley approximately $7.85 billion a onshore in Australia and else- invest his $35 million in his (New Plymouth) year of social, spiritual, and where. Mining has a very poor mining project. Perhaps he physical intergenerational history in an environmental should have listened to his SAVINGS ROLLERCOASTER turmoil and cost, according to sense and we should fully nervousness. Alcohol Healthwatch, lever- protect our ocean by means Lawrence Watt (“The Big aged against about $1.2 billion of a complete ban on seabed Indeed, he already knew Dipper”, July 2) gives us “what of revenue into government mining in the NZ Exclusive that such investments had a advice … the experts have on coffers. These mathematics do Economic Zone. problematic history because what lies ahead” in the market not make good sense, yet are of approval delays and downturn. rarely subject to analysis. Furthermore, how much opposition. John Key and his money do Alan Eggers and his ministers are now mostly part This advice assumes we are The poverty of this thinking fellow investors need? They of Aotearoa’s history. in for a “soft landing” as this must be questioned. Its victims clearly already have more than is “just a healthy correction”. fill our prisons and access our enough if they can invest $82m TTR spending $82 million I take a different view. broken health system with without getting past arguing lifestyle ailments, coupled in their case in the courtroom. Letters to the editor {[email protected]} part with poor education and Mr Eggers claims to have spent nutrition. Good quality nour- “$82m developing and looking The Editor, NZ Listener, PO Box 52122, Kingsland, Auckland 1352 ishment is expensive. after [his] property”. News- flash, Mr Eggers, it is not your ● Letters must be under A phone number can be helpful.  ALEX SCOTT The failure of state support property. If it is anybody’s 300 words. Preference is ● Pen names or letters submitted for the disenfranchised and property it belongs to the given to shorter letters.  elsewhere are not acceptable.  causalities of the neoliberal ● A writer’s full residential ● We reserve the right economics experiment is but address is required on all to edit or decline letters a facet of the far-reaching letters, including emails. without explanation. failure of the 1991 Budget. So, too, is an ongoing poverty of thinking on the part of govern- ments to endeavour to resolve issues that have been 30 years in the making. Wol Hansen (Tauranga) SEABED MINING Richard Woodd has outlined the proposal for the mining of ironsand concentrate at a loca- tion south of Hāwera (“Stake in the sands”, July 9). The proposal is to export approxi- mately five million tonnes of JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 5

LETTERS Quips& 10Quick Quotes Questions byGABEATKINSON “Your password is too 1. In the 1990 thriller movie American Gothic, depicting motto “This is the Moment”, weak.” Well, my memory Misery, the novelist Paul a pitchfork-holding farmer which was also the title of the is, too, so please let me Sheldon is captured by Kathy with his adult daughter? event’s popular theme song? keep it. – Seen on Twitter Bates’ character, Annie Wilkes. Who played Sheldon? ❑ Grant Wood ❑ 1961 inaugural Golden Shears “I have no energy to vote ❑ Edward Hopper ❑ 1990 Commonwealth Games again. I feel I am being ❑ Liam Neeson ❑ Georgia O’Keeffe ❑ 1995 Auckland Warriors debut held hostage by small and ❑ James Caan ❑ David Hockney ❑ 2011 Rugby World Cup foul-smelling politics.” ❑ Ralph Fiennes ❑ William Hurt 5. Which of these films starring 8. True or false? Bumblebees – Israeli Maya Kleinman on Tom Cruise does NOT have at are social and often live in the dissolution of Parliament, 2. Which of these longstanding least one sequel, also starring nests with many others. triggering the country’s fifth Kiwi food brands was recently Cruise? election in four years discontinued? ❑ True ❑ Jack Reacher ❑ False “When I went to bed, ❑ Pascall Pineapple Lumps ❑ Cocktail I had my appointment ❑ Chesdale cheese slices ❑ Mission:Impossible 9. There are four countries and everything was ❑ Ernest Adams baked goods ❑ Top Gun whose English names begin set. Then today, it’s like ❑ Vogel’s bread with the letter V. Name all four. pre-1973.” – A 21-year- 6. What is the name of 3. Whose 1982 exercise the orphaned narrator 10. Complete this old English old West Virginia woman video titled Workout is and main character in after her abortion clinic one of the highest-selling the Charles Dickens novel expression: “Where there’s cancelled all appointments VHS tapes of all time? Great Expectations? muck there’s ...” what? “If you steal from one ❑ Suzanne Somers ❑ Little Nell author it’s plagiarism; if ❑ Richard Simmons ❑ Pip ❑ Brass you steal from many it’s ❑ Olivia Newton-John ❑ Sydney Carton ❑ Freedom research.” – Wilson Mizner ❑ Jane Fonda ❑ Flora Finching ❑ Luck ❑ Time “Controversy is part of 4. Who painted the well- 7. Which NZ-hosted sporting Answers on the nature of art and known 1930 artwork event featured the official page 58. creativity.” – Yoko Ono Few appreciate the signifi- of low prices at the bottom. required investment. “I write the way you might cance of the “market top” in Gary Ferguson Your story’s $250-a-month arrange flowers. Not every January. In terms of Elliott (Epsom, Auckland) try works, but each one Wave theory, it was a Grand average spending in the launches another. Every Supercycle top. The last time UNSUBSCRIBE TOOL United States on subscriptions constraint, even dullness, it happened was 1929, after alone requires a lump-sum frees up a new design.” the great bull market of the Greg Dixon’s article (“Too investment of about $75,000 Roaring (Nineteen) Twenties. much of a good thing”, June 25) on today’s investment – Richard Powers Haven’t we just experienced reminds me of a conversation returns. So if you’re relying our own bull market of the I had in 1960. I was visiting on investments for your “Skill is the unified force of Roaring (Twenty) Twenties? a wealthy Auckland income, even a modest $100 a experience, intellect and industrialist who employed month spent on subscriptions, passion in their operation.” Bull markets often retrace a part-time gardener on streaming devices and apps two-thirds of their gains. his North Shore property. requires around 300 times that – John Ruskin That’s why “buy the dip” and “How much do you think my amount to support the outlay. “increase your risk” are prob- gardener costs me?” he asked “Money is the barometer ably not sound strategies. me. I was a 19-year-old shop The return on investment of a society’s virtue.” assistant at the time, and came is just one of the save/spend I understand if the experts up with an amount that had considerations but a powerful – Ayn Rand are reluctant to panic the him smiling. “Way more than tool to unsubscribe. populace, but shouldn’t people that,” he said, but offered no Errol Underdown “It has bothered me all be warned about what could further explanation. (Nelson) my life that I do not paint happen, so they can prepare? like everybody else.” If bad times don’t arrive, It took some months and ALL SHOOK UP what’s the problem with being further hints to understand – Henri Matisse prepared? what he meant. It is something I was delighted to see your film that has stayed with me for reviewer Sarah Watt giving a “It has been my Turning our investments more than 60 years. The five-star rating to Elvis (Film, experience that folks into cash means we’ll have it to gardener was costing him July 9). I loved it, and enjoyed who have no vices carry us through the bad times the tax-paid return on the the mystical aura that Baz have very few virtues.” and be able to take advantage Luhrmann often injects into – Abraham Lincoln 6 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

his other well-known films. per year in New Zealand.” raises some interesting ideas and looked at new things. Why let a little history get Elizabeth Lubbe about a container port for I feel we were the lucky in the way of a great movie? (Mt Eden, Auckland) Auckland at Marsden Point, Editor’s note: This issue was but I can’t figure out how it generations. No Facebook with Elvis’ voice, while reared comprehensively examined in could be done. which to keep up. No mad rush in the African-American the Nov 13 issue of the Listener. or Fitbit. And yes, some of us genre, was also magnificently Google tells me that the had jobs and careers. shown in a back-up recording WOMEN’S RIGHTS world’s largest container with the Royal Philharmonic vessels now carry 24,000 But as a grandparent, I am Orchestra around 2018/19. Quips & Quotes (June 18) containers, equivalent to the grateful for FaceTime with If you like a bit of blues-rock contained Jackie Kennedy’s carrying capacity of a freight those grandchildren, who can with a very stiff upper-lip favourite couturier Oscar de train 70km long. So, I’m not now explore the entire world. British orchestra, have a listen. la Renta’s observation that sure KiwiRail has figured out Betty McArthur “we live in an era of globalisa- how it could fit all these on a (Seatoun, Wellington) And as for the lead in the tion and the era of the woman. single rail line – and that’s to movie, Austin Butler, words Never in the history of the service just one ship. AUTHOR CREDIT fail me! world have women been more Janet Weir in control of their destiny.” I guess an optimist would It was gratifying to see your (Wellington) argue, “Okay, use five smaller reference to Democracy in He was on the money ships”, but the result is still Aotearoa New Zealand: A SCREEN TIME around the time of his death in 24,000 containers on one line. survival guide (Short Cuts, 2014. In recent years, though, Al Weeks July 2). You say I co-wrote the The significance of bowel globalisation has started to (Orewa) book. The other author was cancer for New Zealand reverse progress, by produc- my 21-year-old granddaugh- (Upfront, July 2) makes it all tive activity if not by tax take. VIRTUAL LIFE ter, Gwen Palmer Steeds. the more puzzling that the Her contribution was proposal by government But what is distinctly not Having just read Charlotte enormous and invaluable; water services regulator a good thing is the decision Grimshaw (Diary, July 2), it changed my perspective Taumata Arowai to increase by the US Supreme Court to I thought of prams and on many matters. the allowable amounts of unwind the clock on women’s pushchairs today – facing Geoffrey Palmer 17 toxic substances – while rights by decades. forward while the world (Mt Victoria, Wellington) excluding nitrate from rushes at the small occupant. consideration– has effectively To quote another famous Letter of the been ignored by the media. Oscar (Wilde), “All authority Once upon a time, week prize is quite degrading. It degrades prams faced the According to Greenpeace, those who exercise it and other way. Oldies In How to be a Bad the agency wants to keep the degrades those over whom like me chatted to Muslim, award-winning nitrate contamination limit it is exercised.” the baby or young NZ writer Mohamed at 11.3 mg/1. Greenpeace adds, Justin Abbiss child who was facing Hassan blends “Scientists warn that nitrate (Queenstown) us, and together we storytelling, memoir in drinking water could be enjoyed the world and non-fiction to causing 100 cases of colo- NO SAFE HARBOUR going by. Sometimes, map the experience rectal cancer and 40 deaths we even stopped of being Muslim in Kerry Wood (Letters, July 9) the 21st century. An Essential Education A Ficino School education helps your child establish important foundations during their formative years. Teacher-led learning develops the whole child as they experience academic excellence within an expansive curriculum. Ficino School’s holistic, value-based teaching grows their mind, body and spirit. Give your child a head-start in life by enrolling them in Year 0 2022 or Year 1 2023 – visit our website today! ficino.school.nz

BULLETIN FROM WASHINGTON DC JONATHAN KRONSTADT Cause for optimism Ihave a freighbour place, but the vast majority the last desperate clinging to of capitalism think people (that’s friend and neigh- of these young adults have power of a doomed but danger- of colour and the LGBTQ+ bour) who is among chosen careers and lifestyles ous bunch of old white guys. community have serious the planet’s most squarely on the plus side of I’m allowed to say this because purchasing power, because relentlessly optimistic humanity’s ledger. They and I am an old white guy. they are everywhere in organisms. She manages this their fellow millennials and advertising. On TV, almost all magically, without ever being Gen Zers are remarkably The further fact that, with white people have neighbours saccharine or making me want optimistic considering the the notable and tragic excep- of colour, which, while rare to punch her in the kneecap. tion of our Supreme Court, the in real life, is a lovely tableau to envision. Of late, amid the maelstrom Hope in the future: of misery enveloping the US, fans at the 53rd annual The fact that, incredibly, she has experienced brief but New York City Pride the most optimistic Americans indelible moments of discour- Parade last month. appear to be the aforemen- agement. It’s understandable, tioned people of colour and the as we are regressing on all the Many of the worst, most powerful LGBTQ+ community. An actual top items on any society’s letter Americans are old as cast iron and and recent scientific survey to Santa: peace, justice, safety, will die soon. revealed black, Hispanic and prosperity, happiness and LGBTQ+ respondents are mark- GETTY IMAGES goodwill. nightmare they’ve inherited. nation is becoming markedly edly more optimistic about Although their youthful ideal- less religious. With organised their and the nation’s future There seems to be an almost ism may fade, if the past six religion being responsible than whites. If these folks, for endless supply of fear, anger, years haven’t rendered them for more than its fair share of whom the horrid past has con- bitterness and mistrust, and incurably cynical, I don’t want suffering and death, this is a sistently been prologue, can it’s all way cheaper than petrol, to imagine what could. big-time boon. elicit some positivity, it would so the folks we’ve mistakenly be unseemly for the rest of us chosen to lead us keep throw- The fact that many of the Diversity, equity and inclu- not to get on board. ing gallons of it on to the fire worst, most powerful Ameri- sion (DEI). Systemic racism they started. cans are old as cast iron and is one of our most stalwart Plant-based protein, and will die soon. That might be national qualities, but it’s start- compostable seaweed straws. The parade of apocalyptic harsh, were their lives not ing to fray around the edges, The US hosts many of the most news is unavoidable, and while responsible for the deaths of in part because it’s negatively exciting innovations in the “doomscrolling” may be one so many innocent and younger affecting our beloved bottom realm of planet-saving sus- of the most viscerally accurate people. Few humans have line. My decidedly unscientific tainability. And, thankfully, words of the new millennium, ever ceded power politely, personal survey reveals that many of the world’s smartest, it’s not a particularly healthy and what’s happening now is the United States’ captains most innovative humans still neighbourhood in which to want to come here. hang. So, if the drumbeats of depression can’t be avoided French politician Alexis de or silenced, the best option is Tocqueville wrote in 1835 that to counter them with, let’s say, Americans “have all a lively oboes of optimism. Okay, the faith in the perfectibility of metaphor clearly needs work, man”. Given the potency and but the sentiment is sound, deviousness of the forces so here goes. I am optimistic aligned to retard or reverse about: progress in every corner of US life these days, optimism is The future. If my kids, their a heavy lift. Then again, there friends and the kids of my is – quite literally – strength friends are any indication, in numbers. l once we baby boomers disap- pear, the world will be in good Jonathan Kronstadt is a hands. It’s an admittedly small freelance writer working in sample from an admittedly Washington DC. progressive and privileged 8 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

DIARY CHARLOTTE GRIMSHAW Five ordinary women I’m thinking of five by family members and with Roe v Wade”. This seemed death associated with the state Auckland women, three in one family and many will be young girls. to suggest the decision would enforcement of their “morals”. two of their friends, one in her eighties, When National MP Simon have an influence. If they’d been American one 70, the others in their fifties. Three have more than O’Connor broadcast his Republican and Democrat politicians, this is the mass one tertiary degree, four have husbands. One was raped pleasure at the decision, his senators are now complaining human-rights violation they under the age of 16. Between them they have had 12 healthy Facebook post decorated with that Justices Brett Kavanaugh would have voted for. children, four miscarriages and seven abortions. triumphant love hearts, he and Neil Gorsuch lied in their I wonder how pro-lifers The miscarriages of caused a problem for his party confirmation hearings about like O’Connor deal with the wanted pregnancies were devastating; the abortions and National MPs rushed to were not. The abortions were a clear choice, and once reassure women. That storm Between them they have had 12 they’d been performed, the may have passed, but we healthy children, four miscarriages emotion was relief, although were left contemplating the the woman in her eighties was forced to have a backstreet disturbingly large number of and seven abortions. abortion that nearly killed her. The abortions were not MPs, on both sides, who voted an “agonising” decision, and there were no regrets. against the decriminalisation These are five ordinary of abortion. their intentions for Roe v question of the 12-year-old New Zealand women, and this is a perfectly normal In particular, there was a Wade. Perhaps, if you believe rape victim. After the sexual reproductive history over a lifetime. The idea that worrying statement in May you’ve got God on your side, abuse of a child, are they anyone would interfere in their choice of healthcare is by National’s health spokes- you might be as willing as perfectly okay with authorities abhorrent to a majority of New Zealanders, and our person, Dr Shane Reti, whose those US justices were to lie prolonging the physical and current laws reflect that. anti-abortion voting record to achieve what you want. psychological torture of a little But can we be sure the position won’t change? The seems more radical given he’s a The problem for our girl by forcing her to carry decision of the US Supreme medical doctor. Reti didn’t rule pro-life MPs is that we the pregnancy to term? This Court to overturn Roe v Wade out changes, took no position are about to witness isn’t going to be a theoretical has rocked that country, and added, “but we are mind- issue in parts of America. To almost immediately denying abortions to women in half of ful in watching what happens the barbarity, injury and what extent does their stance the nation. The only option is to travel out of state, which perpetuate the original crime? effectively makes the deci- sion a war on America’s poor. They should think about that. Many women who need to travel don’t have cars, credit Maternal mortality and cards, adequate ID or money. Some could have been raped injury will rise in the US, because that’s what hap- pens in primitive theocratic societies where religion trumps health policy. Women will be impoverished; educational opportunities will be lost and children and all of society will suffer. In El Salvador in May, a woman was sentenced to 30 years in prison after having a miscarriage. This is sick and brutal and a completely logical outcome of criminalising abor- tion. O’Connor’s “love hearts” demonstrate that old adage: sentimentality and cruelty go ANDY TRISTRAM “We moved to this area because hand in hand. l it has the best schools.” Charlotte Grimshaw is an Auckland author and critic. JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 9

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LIFE BILL RALSTON Taking wounded into battle Being tucked down House, addressing Nato, Chris Hipkins, Megan Woods usual. Yet the rise of another in a corner of the having her hand almost and Kiri Allan stand out for Covid variant and continued South Pacific, shaken off by an otherwise their competence, there are mass infections, illness and New Zealanders friendless Boris Johnson, and plenty of others in Cabinet who death have resulted in some tend to keep an hanging out with Anthony are struggling in their roles. public-health experts warning ear cocked for what the rest of Albanese in Australia, Ardern Issues such as remodelling that the country may have to the world is saying about us. is a near-perfect ambassador the health system, fixing the go back into the “red setting”, A few days back, I read an for our country. Talented, article on the New York Times articulate, empathetic, caring The wider Cabinet reshuffle the PM site headlined that while and genuine are words has pledged needs to bring in a higher Jacinda Ardern is a star abroad, often applied to her and, at home “she’s losing her shine”. I think, correctly. But there is level of decision-making competence.It was later published on obviously something deeply the NZ Herald website and, by wrong in the engine room the time I saw it there, it had of her Labour government. country’s water problems with involving more lockdowns attracted a huge 559 comments Deputy Prime Minister Three Waters, continued child and controls. That would before the editors locked down Grant Robertson, after poverty and a sense among prove almost impossible the feedback. his own failure to win the many that the government to implement because the It was written by Pete top job, actively promoted is “soft on crime” are rapidly public mood has dramatically McKenzie, a Kiwi freelance Ardern into the role of leader, eroding its support. Inflation changed from 2020/21. It journalist who has written recognising her skills as the and rising interest rates are would crush support for the for the Times, Guardian and “face” of Labour. His job, it also having an effect. government faster than it a host of local news outlets, seemed to me, would be to A fter more than two would crush the virus. including this one. With a run the government smoothly years of Covid-19 Knowing that Ardern and recent Fulbright scholarship, from behind the scenes while restrictions, it is McKenzie, son of actress Ardern took care of the public Robertson would value my sage advice (yes, that’s a joke), Miranda Harcourt and brother relations. It hasn’t quite worked obvious that New Zealanders I suggest the wider Cabinet of rising star Thomasin out that way. urgently want to get back to reshuffle the Prime Minister McKenzie, comes from a family Although ministers such as something close to business as signalled ahead of the election of high achievers. next year is urgently His article tracked needed, to bring in a for Americans what higher level of decision- had happened in making competence. New Zealand to erode You cannot carry your Ardern and Labour’s walking wounded into popularity from the an election battle. election-winning 50% of Labour needs to the vote to recent polls drop the unpopular showing the party on an reforms it is struggling average of about 35%, to impose, as they with National on 40%. have become bogged We had seen similar down in detail that stories in our media, will further strangle but having it beamed support. in from abroad obvi- Actually doing ously brought the something about point home to at least problems such as child those 559 commenters poverty would help, PARRY JONES on the Herald. “It’s like, so easy! All you do is google ‘How to walk’.” too. It needs to avoid Meeting with Joe spin and rhetoric and Biden in the White do something. Fast. l JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 11

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REALITY CHECK STEPHEN DAVIS In search of enemies The British to do with asylum seekers – Take the case of Osman the same facts, and separated government has but to manufacture outrage. Kavala, who has and rejoined case files accus- a plan to ship already spent nearly ing him of bogus offences.” asylum seekers This is not an isolated idea, five years in jail on made-up to Rwanda. in the UK or elsewhere. We are charges of subversion and Before the sentence was The rather dubious idea is used to politicians lying, but in April was sentenced to life handed down, Kavala said by that all those desperate people now we have schemes to create imprisonment without parole. video link from prison that he risking a dangerous crossing fake outrage, or to whip up was subject to “assassination of the English Channel in boats support from the voter base Kavala, a philanthropist and by the use of the judiciary”. in search of a better life will be by creating fake enemies. civic activist, founded Anadolu discouraged by the prospect Kültür, an organisation that Turkey refused to heed of ending up in a faraway Human-rights lawyers and promotes diversity, culture a demand by the European African country. the European court are not, of Court of Human Rights to free Kavala. The scheme is clearly Similar attitudes: designed to shore up support Boris Johnson The court is now a useful for embattled Prime Minister and Recep pretend enemy for Erdoğan, Boris Johnson by appealing Tayyip Erdoğan. who can whip up his base to his own anti-immigrant of voters by complaining right-wing MPs and tabloid In 2021, the rule of law was seen to about foreign interference newspapers, described by be deteriorating in 74% of countries, in Turkey’s affairs, just as insiders – I am not making this home to 85% of the global population. the Johnson government up – as a “red meat” strategy. complains about the court’s course, enemies of the state, and human rights. He was interference in the internal GETTY IMAGES But when the first flight but it is useful for Johnson’s arrested in 2017 and accused affairs of the UK. Even after scheduled to take asylum seek- government to pretend other- of attempting to overthrow Brexit, Johnson is still looking ers to Rwanda was cancelled wise. In this, he is acting no the Turkish government. for European “enemies”. before take-off, after multiple differently from dictatorships legal challenges and a ruling masquerading as democracies, Human Rights Watch con- Johnson is not Erdoğan, but from the European Court of such as Turkey and its Presi- cluded that Turkey was “using both are contributing to the Human Rights, a source close dent, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. domestic court decisions to worldwide decline in the rule to government thinking made prolong Kavala’s detention of law. a startling admission. They There, human-rights law- and extend the life of baseless never expected the flight to yers are fighting a lonely battle prosecutions. The courts have The World Justice Project, take off. In fact, provoking as Erdoğan invents enemies issued sham release orders, a Washington-based char- opposition to the idea was as an excuse for jailing judges, initiated multiple criminal ity, publishes an annual Rule part of the plan. journalists and activists. proceedings against Kavala on of Law Index, covering 139 countries or jurisdictions. The source told the New It is compiled from tens of Statesman: “The point of the thousands of responses from exercise was to create divid- households, legal practitioners ing lines ahead of the next and experts. election, which is going to be fought, in part, on a manifesto The latest report makes pledge to leave the European grim reading. In each of the Court of Human Rights and four years from 2018 to 2021, repeal the Human Rights Act.” more countries recorded It was all about “annoying the declines than improvements right people” – people such as in their rankings. judges, human-rights lawyers and the liberal Guardian In 2021, the rule of law was newspaper. seen to be deteriorating in 74% of countries, home to 85% of So this was a policy designed the global population. l not to solve an issue – what Stephen Davis is a Dunedin- based investigative journalist, educator and author. JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 13

POLITICS JANE CLIFTON Trading insults Our recently signed free-trade deal with the European Union has upset the dairy and beef sectors. Was a better deal left on the table? A sacountry, industries to get significantly there was an unseen poker developing parts of Africa may we’ve just better entry, but they don’t hand. Each superpower wants be fruitful, but we’re definitely flunked pay the lion’s share of New New Zealand more on-side with talking delayed gratification that test Zealand’s bills. it than the other, for geopoliti- there. psycholo- cal and reputational reasons gists set for In folding its hand on greater first, with trade a secondary It’s possible Europe, now small children, offering them access for this country’s biggest consideration. probably more protectionist one marshmallow now, or two export earners, meat and dairy, than ever, would never have if they wait five minutes. the government has made sev- Now, unless some genius given us a better deal, and that eral problems worse for itself. negotiator can get us an “in” what one economist described Prime Minister Jacinda The most serious is, it no longer with the notoriously FTA-shy as the “chicken feed” of this Ardern decided delayed gratifi- has the same trade and political India – a feat with similar odds FTA is better than nothing. cation wasn’t the right strategy for the much-anticipated While the potential existed that the But this is one of those European Union free-trade EU might make us a better trade “marshmallow” times, when agreement (FTA) and returned deal than either the US or China, waiting in hope is at least better from her travels with just the there was an unseen poker hand. politics than getting a disap- one marshmallow. pointing answer straight away. leverage with China and the as peace in the Middle East – we That’s certainly how the farm After a couple of days’ hearty United States. The govern- have no alternative big-daddy sector sees it, regarding the talk about how marvellous ment is rapidly recalibrating trading partner. We’re now FTA as a sell-out. the deal was, Trade Minister relationships with the super- firmly wedged in the Sino-US Damien O’Connor conceded, powers, including by trying crevice, hoping that our big- THE VOTE KILLER “It’s probably fair to say that to reduce trade dependency gest customer, China, doesn’t no one likes it, so we probably on China. collapse our export market, or The government’s relation- have it about right.” that our American buddy will ship with agriculture is at Acceptance of this FTA give us greater export entry an especially tetchy juncture. The trouble with settling for betrays how little alternative if, or preferably before, China Farmers are waiting to see if the bird in the hand in interna- our economy now has. A coun- starts pulling the rug out. it will accept the recommenda- tional trade is that it leaves all try this size has little enough tions from the primary-sector the other, plumper birds in the to bargain with, but while the With the US unlikely to climate-action partnership bush for one’s competitors. potential existed that the EU talk FTAs with us seriously He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) on might make us a better deal anytime soon, China can now a pollution-charging regime. This FTA means, according than either the US or China, see itself further entrenched as A furious minority are against to the Dairy Companies Asso- the proposed measures, and GETTY IMAGES ciation of New Zealand, that a customer New Zealand can’t this FTA let-down may further 98.5% of Europe’s dairy market afford to do without. There’s reduce support. However, remains closed to many of also the possibility that the HWEN plan is a vital this country’s products. And the US economy will soon truce among vested interests the continent will accept only make a hard landing, put- facing peril. 10,000 tonnes a year of our ting its beneficence even beef for its 6.5 million-tonne further from our grasp. Mutual hostility between annual market. Efforts to open up South- farmers and Labour is an ancient fact of our politics, Wine, kiwifruit and east Asia and the rapidly but climate change and food seafood are among smaller security make that enmity a cynical luxury. Hard sell: Jacinda Ardern and Damien O’Connor. New Zealand will struggle 14 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

to meet its emissions targets – once something for the Inter- will end before China goes Tauranga by-election vote. without farmers’ HWEN-style governmental Panel on Climate DIY with food – something it’s It turns out while one party goodwill. The alternative – Change to nag about but not of gearing up for – or whether the government forcing some immediate concern to the EU’s New Zealand will be left with is keen, the other … not so much. production out of business mostly wealthy countries – has ever greener produce and ever NZ First leader Winston Peters with less carefully calibrated rocketed to the top of the worry says he has not talked to Destiny, charging – would simply list, thanks to the pandemic and export emissions and make the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Food security has rocketed country considerably poorer. to the top of the worry list, Never mind emissions reduc- Were logic to apply, this thanks to the pandemic and tion: that would be a vote killer. would be the ideal time for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. New Zealand, which produces Meanwhile, the govern- high-quality protein more fewer customers. The memory and no formal talks between CHRIS SLANE ment’s decision to fold on the sustainably than any competi- of that first marshmallow his party and any other have FTA remains a puzzle. It can’t tor, to receive greater market may be rendered somewhat taken place. have been just for some skitey access. bittersweet. photo ops to tickle up the sag- He’s owed my apology, ging polling at home. The deal Instead, EU countries are CLARIFICATION because, while I predicted he has inevitably been greeted as looking towards more self- wouldn’t have a bar of any the trade equivalent of getting sustainability – aka, greater Last month, this column putative new alliance, I also socks and undies for Christmas protectionism. After decades excitedly portended merger overlooked a defining character- – no, really, you shouldn’t have! of battling such do-it-yourself talks between, among others, istic of Peters’ leadership. Expectations had been doused, food nationalism, New Zealand New Zealand First and the so few would have been trade negotiators know how Destiny Church’s political arm, If there’s one thing he has disappointed to see Ardern this plays out. Consumers in the wake of the Destiny- always been consistent about, come back empty-handed, end up paying more than they friendly Outdoors and Freedom it’s not entering into coali- since this may be the toughest would for imported tucker, and Party getting close to 5% of the tion talks or deals until after environment ever for trade bitterly resent it. each election. l negotiations. Food security From here, it’s a race to see whether this protectionist cycle JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 15

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SPONSORED CONTENT Keeping your cool in volatile markets Behavioural economics teaches us why we don’t always make the right investment decisions. The human Chris hit rock bottom and the same brain evolved Di Leva thing played out. Investors who for fight or switched in early 2009 from flight, not went into free fall. Thousands of around 20 days’ worth of growth to conservative took on complex investing. As New Zealanders listened to the switches in 2019,” says Di Leva. average four years to recover a result, even smart loss aversion voice in their heads their losses. If they’d stayed in people can make and switched to conservative “Unfortunately, many of the growth, the recovery time was irrational investing funds at the very bottom of the switches were to lower-risk less than two years. Investors decisions. market, locking in their losses. funds and those investors largely who switched from growth to missed out on the subsequent cash took about a decade to The cognitive bias of “loss recover losses. aversion” is often behind Even the smartest people make mistakes these decisions, says Chris Di when it comes to investing. Built-in TO AVOID BECOMING a Leva, portfolio manager at cognitive failings are the cause victim of loss aversion and other Harbour Asset Management. cognitive biases, the best thing First identified by behavioural A report by the Financial bounceback.” From the March to do is revisit why you’re in a economists only a few decades Markets Authority (FMA) found 2020 lows to the end of that year, particular investment such as ago, loss aversion is a bias that that seven times the number of the New Zealand sharemarket conservative, balanced or growth makes the pain of losing money people switched their KiwiSaver rose 55%. People who had before making any decisions. twice as strong as the pleasure of in March 2020 compared with switched from growth to “Even as professional investors, gaining the equivalent amount. the same month the previous conservative in March locked in we write down the reason for year. “On the 22nd of March, a their losses. buying certain investments. If LOSS AVERSION is at its day before the market bottomed, an investment goes up or down worst when our investments there were 6,156 KiwiSaver DIAL BACK FURTHER to 50%, you can look at it and ask: suffer big falls, as they have this switches. The equivalent of the GFC when markets also ‘Is the fundamental reason I year. At the time of writing, the invested still there?’ New Zealand sharemarket had fallen 16% so far this year, and “Maybe you’ve picked the equivalent world markets had growth option because you’re dropped roughly 19%. not going to touch your money for the next 10 years. That’s a It’s illogical, but these big very good reason to stick the falls are twice as painful course that you’re on.” psychologically as the equivalent gains were joyful last year. Even with periodic falls such as 1988, 2008-9, and 2020, the “We know many investors US sharemarket has returned are asking themselves, ‘Is now 6.8% per annum, in real the time to get out?’” says Di terms (that is, after the impact Leva. “A better question is, ‘How of inflation) over 50 years, long is my time frame?’” Patient according to a study by Credit investors who can wait for the Suisse. That’s a very good reason rebound will find that share- to hold your nerve when your based investments are more brain screams sell or switch. profitable over the long term. Harbour provides a range of Anyone in doubt should local and international funds for look back to what happened to investors. This article does not KiwiSaver investors in March constitute advice to any person, 2020, when their investments past performance is not indicative of future results.

THE BODY CLOCK Like clockwork New research into circadian rhythms reveals the vital importance of our body clocks to our health and wellbeing. by RUTH NICHOL If you want to sleep well, get a That is what happens to people whose dog. Those early morning walks eyes are destroyed because of an accident provide regular exercise, which of some kind. As a result, they lose the we know is good for sleep. But specialised cells in the retina called pho- as Russell Foster, a British neu- tosensitive retinal ganglion cells (pRGCs). roscientist who specialises in These cells provide vital information about the study of circadian rhythms, the overall amount of light around at dawn points out, they also expose you to the and dusk to a part of the brain called the early morning light we all need to keep our suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Without internal body clocks – most of which run at pRGCs, our bodies have no way of knowing about 24 hours and 10 minutes – aligned or where we are in the light-dark cycle and “entrained” with the 24-hour day. the result is a complete loss of any kind of The result: better, more 24-hour rhythm. regular sleep. “People who A former soldier whose own a dog have been shown eyes were destroyed in to have better sleep, and combat told Foster, “I am you might think, ‘What’s at my wits’ end, suffering that all about?’ Of course, from variable bedtimes it’s because they have to and wake times, and I am take their dog out in the very often sleepy during morning and that’s where the day and awake all night. they get their photon I’m slowly becoming iso- shower – their entraining lated from my family and light,” says Foster, author friends.” of Life Time, which looks Interestingly, people at how our bodies are British neuroscientist who go blind but whose governed by a 24-hour cir- Russell Foster. eyes are still intact don’t cadian clock. experience this disrup- Without that early tion. They may not be able morning exposure to light – preferably to see light, but their eyes can still detect probably every cell in our body. They all have their own 24-hour cycle, which keeps at least 30 minutes outside where light is it and send the appropriate information time with the master clock. However, once we start doing things at times our bodies much brighter, although sitting inside by to the SCN. don’t expect us to – such as eating or being awake – the clocks no longer work together a window is acceptable if it’s raining – our Foster, who is professor of circadian and the results can be serious: heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, as well as poor cog- internal clocks would eventually become neuroscience at the University of Oxford, nition and irritability. misaligned with the external clock. We describes the SCN as the body’s master “The SCN is rather like the conductor would start to go to bed about 10 minutes clock. It helps to keep all the other biological later every night and eventually our sleep- processes that take place inside our bodies wake pattern would be totally out of synch on track. This includes what happens in the with the 24-hour day. liver, the muscles and the pancreas – in fact, 18 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

of an orchestra; it provides a time signal People who work evening, as is the case now. Our bodies are GETTY IMAGES that co-ordinates the rest of the body,” says night shifts are up designed to metabolise food better earlier in Foster. “Without the SCN, everything drifts to six times more the day. Eating later appears to be a contrib- apart. So, instead of a symphony, you have likely to get divorced uting factor in metabolic problems such as a biological cacophony and a failure to do than those who work obesity and type 2 diabetes. “In the course of the right thing at the right time.” during the day. three or four generations, we’ve moved our eating habits, and they’re now misaligned Even seemingly innocuous changes can with when our biology is regulating our have unexpected consequences, such as metabolism,” says Foster. “That’s the worst moving our main meal from the middle of possible scenario that anybody could have the day, as was the case in the past, to the 19 JULY 16 2022 LISTENER

THE BODY CLOCK Timing is for type 2 diabetes, obesity and all the rest everything of it, because we’re eating when our biology is not ready for it.” Taking medications at the optimal time of day can increase their effectiveness. INVASION OF THE NIGHT Drugs to treat conditions such the day. Taking antihypertensive drugs But what is really driving many of our cur- as high blood pressure and in the morning, at the same time as this rent health problems is what he calls the heart disease are prescribed to rise occurs, means that their effective- “invasion of the night with light”. Although hundreds of thousands of New ness peaks after the surge is over. for millennia we had no choice about when Zealanders every year. But could the time we got up or went to sleep, artificial light people take them affect how effective they Taking them at night, on the other means we can now stay up much later – or are? hand, can help reduce blood pressure as even all night if we want to. It has also made it starts to rise the following morning. British neuroscientist Russell Foster says “In the course of three because everything Aspirin is commonly prescribed to or four generations, in our body is tied to prevent strokes we’ve moved our eating the finely balanced by reducing the habits. We’re eating rhythms of our body ability of platelets when our biology is clock, there’s an ideal to clump together not ready for it.” time to take many and form blood drugs to make them clots. Foster says it possible for us to create a society that is more effective. This we make about 100 dependent on having people working at includes blood- billion new plate- night, from healthcare workers to truck pressure medication, lets in the evening, drivers and supermarket shelf packers. anti-clotting drugs so it makes sense such as aspirin and to take aspirin For millions of us, this has resulted in some statins, which then to deactivate what Foster calls sleep and circadian rhythm slow down the these just as they’re disruption. It can be caused by insomnia, jet production of “bad” being formed. lag, getting too little sleep, sleeping at the cholesterol that can That helps reduce wrong time, or simply staying up too late contribute to heart the likelihood of on a regular basis. attacks and strokes. having a stroke the following morning, At the heart of it, Foster believes, is a The chances are which is when most failure to appreciate the vital role that that right now you’re strokes occur. sleep plays in keeping us healthy. He says not taking these drugs at the optimal time. getting about 7½ to 8 hours of sleep a night With statins, the timing of when we (it can be more or less depending on the Many doctors suggest taking antihy- take them depends on whether they are individual) isn’t an optional extra: we need pertensives and aspirin first thing in the short-acting (4-6 hours) or long-acting it so our bodies can undertake the essen- morning, and from a practical point of (20 -30 hours). Short-acting statins tial biological activities that allow us to view, that makes sense: you’re probably should be taken around bedtime so they function during the day. Sleep is a time to more likely to remember to take them are available at the same time as we start consolidate our memories, clear toxins and when you first get up, and it also gets them to produce higher levels of cholesterol. rebuild metabolic pathways – all of which out of the way for the day. The timing of long-acting statins doesn’t are essential to maintaining, physical, cogni- matter as they will always overlap with tive and emotional health. “In short, during But in terms of how they act, taking higher levels of cholesterol production sleep, the body performs a broad range of them at night often makes a lot more at night. essential functions without which perfor- sense. A Spanish study of 20,000 people mance and health would fall apart rapidly.” with high blood pressure, published in Foster warns that it’s important to the European Heart Journal, found that talk to your GP before changing when The way things fall apart once those those who took their pills in the evening you take any of these drugs. “They functions no longer take place are much had almost half the risk of cardiovascular may not know about this, but they are more wide-ranging than you may imagine. death, including heart failure and stroke, capable of looking at the evidence. And I Women who work night shifts or experi- over the next six years. think the key thing is that we as patients ence frequent jet lag, for example, are more need to nudge our practitioners into likely to have disrupted menstrual cycles It’s thought the reason for this difference giving us the answers to the questions and abnormal levels of reproductive hor- is that our blood pressure rises sharply we ask.” mones. This makes it harder for them to between 6am and noon as we prepare for get pregnant. Those affected by disrupted sleep also pay a price in their personal lives. People who 20 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS 09.00 10.00 NOON 1300 14.30 1400 HIGH TESTOSTERONE HIGHEST 1200 BEST SECRETION ALERTNESS COORDINATION 08.30 1100 1000 BOWEL MOVEMENT 0900 1500 15.30 07.30 FASTEST MELATONIN REACTION TIME SECRETION STOPS 0800 1600 17.00 06.45 1700 240700 1800 GREATEST SHARPEST BLOOD CARDIOVASCULAR PRESSURE RISE 0600 EFFICIENCY & MUSCLE 04.30 STRENGTH LOWEST BODY 0500 HOURS 1900 18.30 TEMPERATURE 0400 2000 0300 2100 HIGHEST BLOOD PRESSURE 19.00 HIGHEST BODY TEMPERATURE 0200 2200 0100 2400 2300 MIDNIGHT 21.00 MELATONIN SECRETION STARTS 02.00 22.30 DEEPEST BOWEL MOVEMENTS SLEEP SUPPRESSED work night shifts are up to six times more happened at 1.23am. Worryingly, now that older. The reason may be that, according GETTY IMAGES/LISTENER ILLUSTRATION likely to get divorced than those who work many of us are about to resume interna- to recent research, sleep helps to clear the during the day. “In addition to all the physi- tional air travel, the cognitive problems brain of a protein associated with Alzhei- cal health problems associated with chronic mer’s called beta-amyloid. “Even one night tiredness among night-shift workers, you’ve Lack of sleep has of no sleep has been shown to increase got lack of empathy, you’ve got impulsivity, been associated with levels of beta-amyloid within the cerebral you’ve got failure to consolidate memory industrial accidents: the spinal fluid and deep within the brain,” and you’ve got irritability. So, it’s as if the Chernobyl explosion says Foster. person you married and decided to share happened at 1.23am. your life with has turned into a monster.” The lesson from that finding, he says, is found in night-shift workers have also been that it’s important to protect sleep in the The lack of sleep experienced by night found in long-haul airline pilots and aircrew. middle years. “I wouldn’t say poor sleep shift workers also puts them at greater risk causes dementia, but I think in those of having a car accident on the way home MIDDLE GROUND vulnerable individuals it might be a con- from work. Foster says one study, pub- tributing factor.” lished in the medical journal Anaesthesia, There’s also growing evidence that short- showed that 57% of junior doctors in the UK ened and disrupted sleep during the As for celebrating the hard-driven busi- had either had a crash or a near miss on the middle years increases your chance of ness people who apparently survive on journey home after a night shift. developing Alzheimer’s when you are just a few hours’ sleep a night, Foster says that is a complete folly. They may seem to Lack of sleep has also been associated with be coping but it’s almost certain that their a number of notable industrial accidents: it’s rigorous, sleep-deprived schedules will no coincidence that the Chernobyl explosion take their toll eventually. JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 21

THE BODY CLOCK Getting regular Disruption of daily routines can exacerbate depressive symptoms in some people. The Covid-19 lockdowns of the and have some effect on it. Aspects of “The analogy I use is that it’s a bit like past two years will provide social rhythm significantly changed for driving a car. You go into first gear and many opportunities to look at 80% of those in the study.” you’ve got that wonderful acceleration. You the effect that unusual changes go, ‘Wow, this is amazing.’ But then if you to our daily routines have on sleep and This early finding suggests that steps keep the engine in first gear you’re going to circadian rhythms. There’s growing need to be taken to help people with destroy the engine. It’s fine short term, but evidence that the lockdowns changed our mood disorders better regulate their if you carry on and on and distort biology sleeping patterns. For example, many circadian rhythm and help prevent a outside the norm, if you override it con- people reverted to a more “natural” sleep drop in mood should we have any more stantly, then you’re heading for problems.” cycle, which involves two or more periods lockdowns. In the meantime, Porter of sleep interspersed with periods of and others working in the field have put “Part of the mental wakefulness. together a list of tips on how to regulate decline in the nursing- our rhythms during unpredictable home environment An international study, published times. They include: may be the result of a recently in the Canadian Journal of ■ Setting up a routine for yourself weak light-dark cycle.” Psychiatry, involving 997 people with mood disorders such as depression and while you are in quarantine or bipolar – 521 of them from New Zealand working from home. Routines help – has found that 40% reported moderate stabilise body clocks. to severe depression during our 2020 ■ Getting up at the same time every lockdown. day. A regular wake time is the most important input for stabilising your The researcher for the New Zealand part body clock. of the study and head of the department of ■ Making sure you spend some time psychological medicine at the University of outdoors every day, especially in the Otago, Richard Porter, says the greater the early morning. Your body clock needs disruption to their normal daily rhythm, to “see” light in the morning to know the more their mood was lowered. “when” it is. If you can’t go outside, try to spend at least two hours next to He says people with mood disorders are a window, looking into the daylight, particularly susceptible to disruptions to and focusing on being calm. their circadian rhythm, and while this is ■ Exercise every day, ideally at the same largely regulated by our exposure to light, time each day. social cues such as when we eat, when ■ Eat meals at the same time every day. we exercise and when we interact with If you’re not hungry, at least eat a other people also play a role. “These social small snack at the prescribed time. events help to structure our daily rhythm MITIGATING THE HARM Foster accepts that when it comes to our 24/7 society, we can’t put the genie back in the bottle. But we can find ways of mitigat- ing its more serious consequences, by, for example, providing junior doctors with a simple vigilance app that goes on the dash- board to measure eye-roll or head-nod and alert somebody that they’re falling asleep. Similarly, employers could provide protein-rich, easy-to-digest small meals to their night-shift workers, rather than high- fat, high-sugar foods that are even more 22 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

Upsetting the rhythm: left, using devices at night puts us into a state of alertness; right, women who work night shifts are more likely to have disrupted menstrual cycles. likely to make them gain weight if they eat We do know for sure that these devices three times higher than those who were vac- GETTY IMAGES them during the night. have an alerting effect on the brain and cinated in the afternoon. Similar research that will, indeed, delay sleep onset.” is now being carried out on the timing of For older people living in rest homes, Covid-19 vaccinations, to see if administer- simply exposing them to higher levels of MAXIMISING THE GAINS ing them in the morning provides greater artificial light during the day could help protection. improve their cognition. One American Our growing understanding of how cir- study found that older people in this envi- cadian rhythms work isn’t just focused The timing of when we take certain medi- ronment were exposed to only 10 minutes on what we’re doing wrong. It’s becoming cations can also make a difference to how of 2000 lux of light a day (2000 lux is equiv- clear that we can use that understanding effective they are (see box on page 20), and alent to the light you would get outside at Foster says that harnessing the power of midday on an overcast day). “If you turn the clock the body clock may also result in new treat- back on in a cancer cell, ments for cancer. “Part of the mental decline in the nurs- you can hugely reduce ing-home environment may be the result tumour progression, “It seems that the circadian clocks in of a weak light-dark cycle, which leads to which is a potential cancer cells are turned off because the a slide into poor memory, poor sleep and, treatment for cancer.” clock acts as a break on cell division. If you therefore, reduced cognition.” turn the clock back on in a cancer cell, you as a force for good. can hugely reduce tumour progression, One of Foster’s slightly more contentious We now know, for example, that we have a which is a potential treatment for cancer.” views is the impact of the blue light that better immune response during the day, as comes from devices such as smartphones, that’s when we are out and about and more Other possibilities include develop- laptops and e-books on our sleep. The con- likely to encounter pathogens such as bac- ing new drugs that will correct circadian ventional view is that this light affects our teria and viruses. The immune response rhythm disruption in the profoundly blind, circadian rhythm, which then affects our starts to wane as the day progresses, which or in those who have genetic or develop- sleep, so these devices should be avoided has implications for the timing of vaccines. mental disorders that affect their circadian before bed. Foster agrees that they should rhythm. be avoided before bed, but not because of A 2016 study published in the journal the effect of the blue light they emit, which, Vaccine found that elderly people who “I can see this whole new area opening he says, is too low to affect our body clocks, were vaccinated against the N1H1 flu virus up,” says Foster. “It’s such a privilege to but because they put us into a state of alert- in the morning had an antibody response work with my younger colleagues who ness. “The key thing is that it’s not the light will carry the torch forward and transform from these devices, it’s the alerting effect medicine. your smartphone has, where you’re switch- ing between emails and social media and “I genuinely believe that, in the next 10 the news and maybe even a YouTube video. to 20 years, we will have brand-new thera- pies and brand-new interventions to attack some of our most ferocious diseases.” l JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 23

HOUSING MARKET House of cards For many generations of Kiwi investors, housing has been a one-way bet. But that may be about to change, says the Reserve Bank’s chief economist, Paul Conway. H ousing matters because reasonably affordable to being scarce and everyone needs a place prohibitively unaffordable for many, with to live – it is fundamental house-price inflation here among the high- to our wellbeing. It also est across OECD countries in recent years matters because hous- (see graph 1, page 26). Although this has gen- ing is by far the most erated strong returns for house owners, it common and most valuable investment for has also increased the wealth gap between many New Zealanders. New Zealanders who own houses and those On the flip side, rent and mortgage who do not. Kiwis who own houses – often costs are also the biggest expenses for older New Zealanders – have increased many households. Building houses is a big their wealth, while those who do not own source of jobs in our economy, too – tens of houses have seen accommodation costs thousands of people earn their livelihoods steadily increase, with many prospec- working in residential tive younger first-home construction. buyers struggling to buy The housing market is a home of their own. At the extreme, the “Excess demandalso a key link between the real economy and led to New number of families living the financial system in Zealand’s in emergency hous- New Zealand, with home experience with ing such as motels has loans dominating the bal- some of the increased strongly and ance sheets of commercial the OECD reports that banks. So, understand- highest house we have one of the high- interest rates create extra buyer demand est rates of homelessness by allowing people to service a bigger ing how the New Zealand across member countries. mortgage with the same repayment. The way returns from housing are taxed also prices relativehousing market works is influences housing demand. really important for us to income in Even though the market Housing stock has not kept up with popu- has recently turned, with lation growth – the number of dwellings per at Te Pūtea Matua, the house prices down over person in our country fell from 2011 until the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic (see the world.”Reserve Bank of New graph 2, page 26). In contrast, dwellings per person increased in most other OECD coun- Zealand. Recent changes the first half of 2022, tries over this period. GETTY IMAGES/LISTENER ILLUSTRATION to the remit for monetary house prices remain at In part, this reflects very strong popu- lation growth in New Zealand until the policy – which tells us what we need to pay very high levels in absolute terms and rela- beginning of the pandemic. Since the attention to in making interest rate deci- tive to incomes. sions – also require us to assess the impact of our decisions on house prices. WHY PEOPLE BUY HOUSES One thing seems clear from the get-go: Shelter is a critical human right. So, having housing demand has tended to outstrip morepeopleimpliesaneedformorehouses. supply in New Zealand. As a result, hous- But population growth is not the only driver ing has gone from being abundant and of housing demand. For example, lower 24 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

global financial crisis (GFC), New Zealand mortgage rates mean people can borrow course of the business cycle. Central banks has experienced almost the highest rate of more for a given level of income, making control inflation by moving policy interest population growth across the OECD, in large it easier to fund a house purchase. This rates either side of the so-called neutral part off the back of a migration boom. Since stimulates a higher demand for better-qual- interest rate to “lean against” the business we have failed to build enough houses for a ity properties, pushing up prices if more cycle – that is, to slow things down in a boom growing population, it is not altogether sur- supply does not come on stream. and to stimulate activity in a slump. prising that we have had the largest increase in house prices. Interest rates fell steadily after the GFC, The neutral rate is the interest rate both in New Zealand and around the world. at which inflation is low and stable and This reflects one of the underlying issues For example, while a new bank customer in employment is at its maximum sustain- that New Zealand faces: our supply of new New Zealand could lock in a two-year mort- able level. The long-term decline in the cost houses has not kept up with the demand for gage at almost 9% in 2008, they could get the of borrowing reflects a drop in the neutral housing coming from a growing population. same mortgage for just under 4% in 2021. interest rate over the course of decades However, this is by no means all of the story. rather than over the business cycle. A wide range of factors influence interest Interest rates are another key driver rates. Monetary policy has short-term, tem- Best estimates of the neutral rate show of housing demand. For example, lower porary impacts on interest rates over the it has fallen across OECD economies over JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 25

HOUSING MARKET GRAPH 1 Nominal house prices many decades, and the GFC triggered an even sharper dip. Here in Aotearoa, Reserve Bank estimates of New Zealand’s neutral rate Index shows a three-percentage-point drop since the mid-2000s. 300 There are a host of possible reasons why neutral interest rates New Zealand have fallen in recent decades. For example, with people living ––250 longer, savings have increased to pay for longer retirements. Also, – USA Australia the hardships that followed the GFC caused people in many coun- –200 UK Canada tries to spend less, building up precautionary savings to insure against income uncertainty. 150 –– Ireland With relatively weak productivity growth since the GFC, the 100 returns on investment and demand for investment funding have been low. Overall, these and other forces buoyed global savings REINZ; OECD 50 “The housing market has become 0 the default savings vehicle for many New Zealanders, and the key source 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 of collateral for borrowing.” STATS NZ; RBNZ GRAPH 2 Dwelling availability in NZ rates, creating vast pools of capital that have flowed through liber- alised international financial markets to finance investment needs. –400 Dwellings per 1000 inhabitants In short, a worldwide savings glut is likely to have lowered neu- 395 tral interest rates. As global neutral rates declined, borrowing costs dipped to historic lows, and house prices increased in many 390 countries. In New Zealand, as in many other countries, falls in the global neutral interest rate played a dominant role in the long-term 385 increase in house prices, dwarfing the effects of changes in shorter- term interest rates and rents. 380 This is not to say that temporary cyclical interest rate changes 375 driven by Reserve Bank monetary policy are not important. The New Zealand experience is that a temporary easing of monetary 370 policy, for example, leads to a temporary increase in house prices. However, the more persistent upward trend in our house prices is 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 mainly driven by the persistent decline in the neutral interest rate, which has, in turn, been affected by global forces. GRAPH 3 Marginal effective tax rates on investments in NZ (2018) Our tax system may have also contributed to higher house prices in recent decades. In 2018, the Tax Working Group showed that the 60% 55.7% 55% TYPE OF CAPITAL tax system has historically favoured housing as an investment asset a. Bank account (see graph 3, left). Capital gains on housing are often not taxed, 50% 47.2% b. PIE, superannuation fund whereas other forms of income are. c. Foreign shares (fair TREASURY; IRD 40% Imputed rent (the rent owner-occupiers effectively pay them- dividend ratio method) selves) is not taxed, whereas other forms of investment income are. Marginal effective tax rate 30% d. Owner-occupied And GST is charged as a lump sum when a house is built, rather than on the flow of housing services as they are consumed, be that housing – equity via rent or owner occupation. e. Rental property – equity These tax distortions that favour housing become more potent 29.4% when interest rates are low, amplifying the effects on house prices. So, as interest rates fell between 2002 and 2021, it is likely that the 20% upward impact of tax settings on house prices increased. 11.3% If the tax system had been more “neutral” in its treatment of hous- 10% ing, house price increases would have been milder over the two decades to 2021 as interest rates fell. 0% a. b. c. d. e. Of course, a fully non-distortionary neutral tax system is merely an economist’s fantasy; indeed, there are practical considerations 26 that influence the design and implementation of tax systems. None- theless, understanding the impacts of tax distortions – and their interactions with other relevant factors such as interest rates – on the housing market is important for understanding house price dynamics. LISTENER JULY 16 2022

Affordability Inquiry also showed build- ing costs were high here relative to other countries. Despite being high already, con- struction costs have increased faster in New Zealand than in other countries since the GFC. This all strongly suggests that house building in New Zealand is an expensive business. There are no doubt many reasons why building costs are so high here. Part of the reason could be that the manufacture and distribution of building materials – which “Housing market dynamics in future are unlikely to be the same as in the past. This will be a huge change.” CONSTRAINED SUPPLY Kiwis hold account for almost half of construction NZME a relatively costs – take place in industries that are Higher housing demand will have a large share of dominated by one or a small number of much smaller impact on house prices if their wealth in large firms. In addition to weak competi- new homes are built quickly to meet that housing. tion, some building supply businesses are demand. For example, our analysis shows likely to be relatively unproductive and to that house prices are less sensitive to tem- hand, when there is space available for new produce below minimum efficient scale. porary changes in interest rates in areas of housing, increased demand will see more the country where new homes are built rela- houses being provided with more modest What do these and other fundamental tively more quickly to meet demand. impacts on prices. drivers of the housing market mean for house prices? To help answer this question, A recent report by the New Zealand Modelling by the Infrastructure Commis- Reserve Bank researchers have estimated Infrastructure Commission finds that the sion in 2022 shows that changes to urban the level of “sustainable” house prices con- response of house prices to population planning policies that constrained land sistent with market fundamentals, such as growth between the late 1970s and the late supply explain much of the acceleration the cost of alternatives to owning a property, 2010s was about four times lower than it was in house prices in recent decades. Similar the longer-term outlook for interest rates from the late 1930s to the late 1970s. It would results on the effect of land-use regulation and expected future supply-and-demand seem that, consistent with rapid house are echoed in studies of a number of cities conditions. price inflation, the supply of housing over in New Zealand. recent years has been slower to respond to Not surprisingly, given weaknesses increased demand. Previous work for the Ministry of Busi- in our ability to provide enough space ness, Innovation and Employment and the for new housing for a rapidly expanding There are two key components to hous- Ministry for the Environment showed that population, the tax system, and the decline ing supply: the house itself and the land land within the urban boundary can be in neutral interest rates internationally, on which it is built. Land markets in New $200-$300 per sq m more expensive than “sustainable” house prices have increased Zealand are critical in explaining high surrounding rural land. The steep differ- strongly in New Zealand over recent years. house prices. If the space for new housing ence in prices across the urban boundary [The bank defines sustainable house prices – both up and out – is restricted or difficult shows that land-use regulation has an as the level that house prices should move to access, increased housing demand gets important impact. towards based on factors such as incomes, captured as changes in the price of land, population growth, housing supply, tax rather than as more houses. On the other CONSTRUCTION COSTS settings and interest rates.] This increase reflects the fact that market fundamentals World Bank data shows that construction have been key in pushing up actual house costs in New Zealand were 16% higher than prices over the past few decades. in Australia and about double the OECD average in 2017. In 2012, the New Zea- Actual house prices can and do deviate land Productivity Commission’s Housing from “sustainable” house prices as a result of short-run influences, such as monetary policy and the “animal spirits” of market participants. Monetary policy influences how house prices evolve around the JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 27

HOUSING MARKET $’000 GRAPH 4 Comparing actual prices to the sustainable level but is unable to keep house prices persistently estimated sustainable levels above or below their sustainable level. BRUNTON 2021 2019 900 Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, actual house prices have been above their sustainable level (see graph 4, left). Exception- 800 ally low interest rates coupled with a “fear of missing out” would have contributed to this cyclical surge in house prices. In turn, –– Medianhouseprice stronger house prices supported consumer spending over this period through a wealth effect. This additional support to aggre- 700 Sustainable price (estimate) gate demand and spending in our economy played a key role in 600 helping us avoid the worst effects of the pandemic on employment and income. 500 Importantly, “sustainability” and “affordability” are very differ- 400 ent concepts. While sustainability is determined by fundamental 300 “Investing in housing in the hope of perpetually higher prices may lead 200 to a misallocation of resources that generates little economic value.” 100 drivers in the housing market, affordability is about where the cost 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 of purchasing a house sits relative to the income of the homebuyer. Unfortunately for many New Zealanders trying to buy a home, the GRAPH 5 Composition of New Zealand current level of sustainable house prices – determined by market fundamentals – is still by no means affordable. household assets Currency and deposits SAFE AS HOUSES? 5% 8% – Portfolio With strong demand and constrained supply, rapid house-price 30% assets - equity, growth over the past 20 years or more has meant that residential 57% property, as an investment asset, has delivered strong financial – investmentfunds, returns for buyers. With prices having been seemingly always on RBNZ bonds the up, it is no surprise that New Zealanders hold a relatively large share of their wealth in housing (see graph 5, left). Housing & land value (including The proportion of housing wealth in total wealth appears to be relatively high in New Zealand compared to other developed econo- – rentalproperties) mies. Given large house price increases, research based on portfolio Life insurance & investment theory shows that investing in residential property has been the logical choice for many Kiwis. – superannuation funds In New Zealand, given policy settings, it has been rational for investors to flock into the housing market. Because housing can be GRAPH 6 Bank lending for residential leveraged, the flip side of strong investment in residential property property, selected countries is that mortgage lending makes up a larger proportion of commer- cial bank balance sheets compared with other OECD economies Share of mortgage lending in aggregate lending (see graph 6, left). – –70% NewZealand Canada UK Although investing in housing has been rational, the implications – –Australia USA of channelling a very large share of our savings and debt obligations –– Ireland into housing goes beyond optimal portfolio theory. The housing market has become the default savings vehicle for many New Zea- 60% landers, and the key source of collateral or security for borrowing by households and small and medium businesses. 50% It may also be that investing in housing in the hope of perpetually 40% higher house prices may ultimately lead to a potential misallocation of resources that generates relatively little economic value. HAVER ANALYTICS, OECD 30% WHERE TO FROM HERE 20% Over the years, the demand side of the New Zealand housing market 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016 2019 was boosted by strong population growth, steadily declining neutral interest rates and a favourable tax system. The supply side, however, 28 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

has been held back by strict land-use regulations and a construction Hard to predict sector prone to boom-bust cycles while carrying very high building costs. Excess demand led to New Zealand’s experience with some of For decades now, New Zealand has been named by the highest house prices relative to income in the world. overseas analysts as one of the world’s most vulner- able countries for a major housing downturn. To the A sense of ever-increasing house prices – along with a lack of chagrin of first-home buyers, they’ve proved to be other quality local investment alternatives – may have also dis- false alarms. torted the investment options of New Zealanders. The share of housing on household balance sheets is very high and commercial According to local property gurus, that’s because such banks hold a high share of mortgages on their balance sheets. predictions are merely wishful thinking. The only trend Rapidly increasing land prices may have also led to a transfer of wealth from landless younger people and future generations, who that matters, they say, is the long-term one, which shows that have to spend more to buy land, to people who owned land as prices were rising. This means that landless younger people and future although house prices do tend to be cyclical in New Zealand, generations save less, reducing the amount of alternative capital they own and possibly lowering lifetime consumption and incomes. they have rarely plunged in any meaningful way. Are these dynamics likely to continue in future? Since August Many expect that trend to continue for at least another couple 2021, the Reserve Bank has been tightening monetary policy, lifting the Official Cash Rate, to rein in inflation. This will likely see actual of decades, as affluent Boomers pass their accumulated wealth house prices move back towards “sustainable” levels that are more in line with market fundamentals. Indeed, in the May Monetary on to their kids. Sceptics like to note, however, that housing is Policy Statement, we forecast a 15% decline in house prices from their peak, which would bring them roughly back to sustainable now so unaffordable in New Zealand that nothing short of inter- levels. generational home loans will help Over a longer time frame, there are reasons to think that some of the core market fundamentals that determine sustainable house keep the pyramid scheme going once prices may also be changing. the Boomers’ money starts to run out. On the demand side, as the pandemic slowly recedes and inter- national travel restrictions unwind, many New Zealanders are The Reserve Bank prefers to talk heading overseas seeking new experiences. On the other hand, immigration is unlikely to return quickly to pre-pandemic levels, about “sustainable” prices. So how contributing to slower population growth overall. seriously should we take its latest In the tax space, the removal of interest deductibility and the introduction of a capital gains tax on sales of residential [invest- forecast that the average Kiwi home ment] property owned for less than 10 years – the “bright-line test” – will have closed some of the gap between the effective tax rate on is likely to fall in value by 15% from housing and other asset classes. its most recent peak? According to At the same time, urban planning rules are being freed up to unlock more housing supply. The Resource Management Act is REINZ data, the national average has being replaced and the National Policy Statement on Urban Develop- ment directs councils to remove overly restrictive planning rules already dropped by almost 8%, and and to enable higher housing density, which is a critical part of the solution. in Auckland it is down by around Reserve Bank chief 12%. But economist Brad Olsen is economist Paul Conway In the construction sector, the Commerce Commission is carry- not holding his breath. Olsen’s firm, ing out a market study into whether competition for residential building supplies in New Zealand is working well and, if not, what Infometrics, recently analysed Treasury and Reserve Bank can be done to improve it. forecasts over the past two years, and found most of its predic- These changes are consistent with more houses being built and currently high building consents translating into more actual tions about house prices were wildly wrong. houses. They also imply that housing market dynamics in future are unlikely to be the same as in the past. Given the importance of In May 2020, for example, Treasury predicted the average housing in our economy and national psyche, this will be a huge change. price of a Kiwi home would fall from about $700,000 to around For several decades, we have traded houses among ourselves $630,000 by March this year. In fact, it topped $1 million. at ever-increasing prices in the belief that we were creating pros- perity. But the tide may well have turned against housing being a Olsen isn’t necessarily blaming the government’s number- one-way bet for a generation of Kiwis. We need to keep building a new approach to housing and economic prosperity in Aotearoa- crunchers – private forecasters, including his own firm, were New Zealand. l also left with egg on their faces when house prices shot up This is a speech Paul Conway gave to the National Property Conference on June 30. during the pandemic. However, it does beg the question of how reliable our economic models are, and how they can be improved, he says. “There are so many different aspects to factor in, like interest rates, and new housing development, and banking regulations, and population changes, and emotion. But if the government’s own forecasts are going to be out by literally hundreds of thou- sands of dollars, we need to have a conversation about it, and what the consequences are.” The Reserve Bank’s chief economist, Paul Conway, notes forecasting was especially difficult at the beginning of the pandemic, when the outcome was so uncertain. “If this worst- case health and economic crisis had happened, house prices would have almost certainly declined. Fortunately, we averted this scenario,” he says. The central bank has since carried out “extensive work” to better understand the key drivers of the housing market, says Conway. “While forecasting house prices will always be challenging, this work has improved our under- standing of the housing market.” — Karyn Scherer JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 29

CALLUM BAKER PROFILE 30 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

Fun but fierce Deborah Frances-White’s brand of feminist humour embraces frivolity but is also deadly serious – and the Aussie-British comedian sees no contradiction there. bySARAHCATHERALL ‘I’mafeministbut…’ feelings about the world. “For me, exfoliat- Along with the jokes, Frances-White is London-based ing the guilt is important,’’ she says on a used to speaking out on topics she cares comedian and writer Zoom call from Australia, where she was about. Over the years, she has invited Deborah Frances-White born and grew up. various celebrities to share the stage uses this line to start with her, including actors such as Emma every live show, which is Frances-White is bringing her live show Thompson, Lily Cole and Susan Wokoma, then turned into a pod- back to New Zealand in late July – she journalist Mary Ann Sieghart and fellow cast episode. So far, there have been more performed here in 2018 and 2019 – as part comedian Hannah Gadsby. than 300 instalments of her hit series, The of her first global tour since the Covid-19 Guilty Feminist. pandemic struck. She’ll wear a sequinned She and her guests explore contem- cape and share the stage with Kiwi come- porary concerns facing women: being In the podcast, she shares with her safe on the streets, apologising too much, audience her failings and foibles: she’s “It feels like an the Sarah Everard murder trial and the a feminist but she wears make-up; she’s uphill battle all the police’s role in it, the risks of online dating, a feminist but she lies about her weight; time. It feels like and cheating and being cheated on. Roe she’s a feminist but she once left her we’re losing. This is v Wade will obviously now be a talking eyelash extensions on too long; she’s a fem- Galileo territory.” point. inist but she once enjoyed being whistled at when she walked past a building site. dian Cal Wilson, along with a line-up of “No words, this is such devastating yet-to-be-announced guests. These may or news,’’ she later posts on The Guilty The Guilty Feminist has certainly struck may not include Prime Minister Jacinda Feminist Instagram site, sharing her views a chord and now boasts 100 million Ardern. “Can you help me get her on my with her 126,000 followers. A day later, downloads. Frances-White’s frequently show? Can you?’’ she asks, laughing. I’m The Guilty Feminist website has links to repeated story is that she started it in 2015 not entirely sure whether she is serious. where people can send money to support after she popped into a department store pro-abortion protesters. during a women’s rights march and got In keeping with the spirit of the times, distracted trying out face cream. When she jokes, she wants the show to feel joyful, She tells the Listener: “The overturning she returned, the march was over. She positive and proactive, “and allow people of Roe v Wade is a travesty that feminists wanted to be a fourth-wave feminist but to find a community, an army, and allow globally must fight. The Supreme Court wasn’t sure she’d make the cut. them to feel the spirit. It feels like you’re taking this decision to force birth on part of something when you go to it, and I women, and other people who can give Older women may question whether think that’s a lot of its success.’’ birth, is frightening. Eighty-five per cent she is trying to have her cake and eat it, of Americans think abortion should be too. But her many fans don’t seem both- It probably won’t, however, be the kind legal in some or all circumstances so this ered by any seeming contradictions. To of show where you go to forget your wor- is wholly undemocratic. them, The Guilty Feminist explores serious ries for an hour or two. On the morning themes, while also allowing women to be we speak, the US Supreme Court has just “The hard-right members of the hypocritical and insecure: they can shave overturned the Roe v Wade decision on Supreme Court have declared that birth their legs and watch the bridal shop real- abortion rights. Frances-White is angry. control and equal marriage are their next ity TV show Say Yes to the Dress without “Nothing is safe any more.’’ She shakes her targets. Access to birth control is the larg- feeling like traitors to the feminist cause. dark bob, glaring behind her signature est factor in determining a higher quality glasses. “It feels like an uphill battle all of life for women and a more success- Remarkably, 20% of her audience are the time. It feels like we’re losing. This is ful, resourced society. Taking it away is men. And over the years, she has dis- Galileo territory,’’ she says. unthinkable.’’ covered that she is far from alone in her It’s hard to tell, but Frances-White Deborah Frances-White: expect her to have appears to be a different generation plenty to say about the US Supreme Court from the women who usually identify overturning Roe v Wade. with the fourth wave of feminism, which JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 31

PROFILE has been around for only a decade or so. she also took up comedy. These days, From left, Frances-White wins gold at the Some websites put her age at 54, but she she has a multifaceted career in the arts: 2020 British Podcast Awards; recording live insists that “everything on the internet is along with her live shows, she writes and at the 2020 London Podcast Festival; with wrong”. She will say only that she has “a produces for radio and film, does stand- Emma Thompson, who has been a guest birth mother with good genes’’. up comedy, and is an ambassador for on her show. Amnesty International. She is also writing She was born in Australia and adopted a TV script and has a play coming out in We need to get in rooms and start talking when she was 10 days old. She grew up in the UK later this year. to each other.’’ Brisbane, but her birth mother, Devon, moved to New Zealand and now lives in A new book, Six Conversations We’re Home is a house in London she shares Mt Maunganui. Her half-sisters live in Scared to Have, is due out next year and with three cats and her husband of 14 Auckland and Tauranga, and another half- will reveal her concerns about cancel years, who also produces her shows. She sister lives in Scotland. has talked publicly about how they wanted “It’s not up to black children but had difficulties conceiving. Frances-White discovered her bio- and brown people to They went through IVF before deciding to logical family a decade ago after some solve racism and it’s not abandon it. sleuthing on the internet. Hers was a up to women to solve happy reunion that has since led to dozens sexism. We need help.” Around the time of the first Covid-19 of meetings and a compelling one-woman lockdown in Britain, she came out as bisex- play, Half a Can of Worms. After more than culture and the impact of the internet. “It’s ual. She asked her husband about having two years of being separated from them by about how we talk to each other, about an open relationship, and again, has talked closed borders, she is looking forward to how we build bridges to each other, how candidly about his response. She tells the seeing them again while here. we’re becoming polarised, and how we Listener: “I’d recommend [an open rela- need to start having better conversations tionship] if it’s something that people feel Her adopted family are Jehovah’s Wit- with each other.” they want to explore. It’s not for everyone. nesses, an experience she wrote about in I wanted to explore my bisexuality. It’s her 2018 book, titled (surprise!) The Guilty Too many people, she believes, are been really helpful to come into my own Feminist. She refers to “escaping” the spending too much time online these days as a full, rounded human being.” religion, which she describes as a “high- being self-righteous. “Globalisation and control” group obsessed with the “purity” the internet make us very polarised, and She is, she says, suspicious of monog- of its members’ speech and actions. “There we end up having blazing rows on Twitter. amy. “Most people would like to be open to are ways of thinking in some feminist sexual encounters with other people but circles right now that remind me of being monogamy is the price we pay because in a cult,’’ she wrote in her book. we can’t stand thinking about our partner having a nice time without us … It can be Eventually, she moved from Australia to really great to explore other facets that study English at Oxford University, where maybe your partner isn’t into. But you 32 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

have to stay emotionally connected with see “what the enemy was up to”. After 18 “It’s being whipped up as a culture war GETTY IMAGES your partner as well. It’s a balancing act.’’ months, he was won over. in the UK. It’s extremely damaging and sad. People who are trans are living in the When she was on stage with “I asked him, ‘Why did you keep listen- margins. It’s a much more difficult life Susan Wokoma, Frances- ing for 18 months, even though you hated because of the way society makes assump- White opened the show with: it?’ He told me: ‘Sometimes what you say tions about people.’’ “I’m a feminist but I’ve been objectifying annoys me, but keep saying it because it’s Susan Wokoma backstage … because she’s working.’ When I shared that on the show, She scoffs at those who argue that men wearing a pink fluffy jumpsuit and the I had so many other men write to me and are transitioning so they can access female sort of boots Twiggy would have worn.’’ say: ‘I’m also Lawrence, too.’’’ spaces. “That associates trans people with predators.” As the audience laughed, she continued: That kind of feedback has proved to be “I’m a feminist but I just want to be an very motivating, she says. “If everyone is It was the same in the 80s when straight object for an hour a week. I know it’s not men claimed they felt threatened by gay right but objectify me, please, for just an “I don’t think the world men in the gym, she says. The same fears, hour a week.’’ is going to change she believes, are responsible for people if people wear high feeling threatened by refugees. You’ve got to laugh or you’d cry, right? heels or not. What “There’s a real power in laughing and matters is justice.” “When we ‘other’ people, we often being the one that makes the joke and project criminalisation on them. That is being in on the joke,” she says. “There’s a laughing, we can all acknowledge things something I really hope we can change magnetism towards a space where you that maybe we do or think or say, and minds on. It’s so important.’’ own the laugh.” together we can acknowledge those pat- terns without having to defend ourselves. Like other Gen X women, she grew She is “thrilled’’ that men enjoy the If everyone is laughing, then we’ve all up during the so-called second wave of show, too. “It’s unapologetically a space for experienced it. I think it’s won over a lot of feminism, when women were battling women and people of minority genders. men and I’m really proud of that.’’ for equal rights in the workplace and I’m delighted when men come, and I equal pay, along with better access to want them to be there. I don’t think that The Guilty Feminist is a trans-inclusive contraception. feminism is just a problem for women. It’s space and Frances-White has trans not up to black and brown people to solve friends. Behind her microphone, she “Yes, feminism is much less prescrip- racism and it’s not up to women to solve promotes trans rights. tive now,” she agrees. “But we need to look sexism. We need help.’’ at what is really important. Roe v Wade has been overturned. Nothing is safe. I She says a man called Lawrence once don’t think the world is going to change if wrote to tell her he started listening to people wear high heels or not. What mat- her podcast only because he wanted to ters is justice, representation and closing power gaps.’’ l JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 33

BOOK EXTRACT The sound of crickets In this extract from her memoir, Managing Expectations, Minnie Driver recalls the aftermath of her first big movie role, when she found herself stuck in the career doldrums. ALAMY The apartment I lived in look different. How could all of that excite- “Great. I expect you’d like a nice rest.” above my dad’s garage was ment, all of that adventure and creativity, “No, not really. I’d quite like another 520 square feet. Newly not have conga-lined its way off the set and returned from Ireland after into my real life? Jesus, I thought, wanting job, actually.” eight weeks of shooting my to do this job is insane. “Ah, yes. Well, I’ll definitely call you first movie, Circle of Friends, I sat on the small sofa and stared at my huge suitcases. You don’t just have to win the lottery, if anything like that comes up.” There were so many of them. What had I you have to keep winning it again and “Is there anything on the horizon?” packed for – a roaring social life after film- again and again, and who the f--- is going “Oh well, there’s always something on ing for 12 hours a day in a small village in to have that much luck? southeastern Ireland? The village did have the horizon – though who knows how a diverse ratio of post-work activities, with “You know the scene close it will actually get.” nine pubs, two churches, and a grocery where Meg Ryan fakes store (that was also the post office), but an orgasm? Okay, eat “Well, you will presumably?” that shop closed at 4.00pm. a piece of chocolate “Yes, fingers crossed.” and do that.” We hung up. I thought that if the sooth- I had purchased quite a lot of sweaters. sayer in my life was crossing fingers and Everybody’s auntie or granny or hard-up The ten grand I’d been paid for Circle of that I was a lottery winner who needed to friend (“Sure he left her with the four Friends had seen off the mountainous debt win again then I should probably just tuck children after robbing all their piggy I’d accrued. It also bought four new tyres in, here on my Easter Island sofa with my banks and moving in with some floozy, for the Ford Fiesta, which at this point was Moai suitcases, and wait for the future to bogtrotter from Clonown”) knitted more piñata than party: the aftermath happen. sweaters for cash. They saw me coming: of a Fiesta, a mechanical hangover on The phone rang. chapped lips, chilly, purple knuckles, and wheels. I’d loaned the car to my friend Isla “Ah!” It was my agent again. “You must a sizeable bosom that they might have seen while I’d been gone, and I think she might have magical powers.” as their spiritual duty to help conceal. have actually lived in it and thrown some I looked at my suitcases. Their sweaters kept me nice for God. memorable parties. “They want to see you for a commer- cial tomorrow. Don’t think it’s a very I’m not sure what I had expected upon The suitcases loomed like relics, good commercial and hardly any money my return. Phones ringing off the hook, monuments of a recent past, their even if you did get it, but it’s an audition, I suppose, thick ivory cards on top of semicircle giving off serious and you’re great at those, so onward my non-existent fireplace inviting me Druid vibes, reminding me I was in need and upward. I’ll call you back with the to parties in Cannes. Barely having time of a soothsayer. address.” to unpack all my Aran sweaters before My suitcases shrugged their luggage heading off to do another movie with I called my agent. tags as she hung up – an audition is not a a handsome, floppy- haired actor like “Ah, you’re back,” she said cheerfully. job and a commercial is not a film, but hey! Hugh Grant, if not the actual Hugh Grant. “There are no small parts, only small actors,” said someone brilliant like Maggie One leading role in a movie and I Smith or Stanislavski. “I am good at audi- thought the shape of life would suddenly tions,” I said triumphantly, standing up from the sofa. “I shall go to that audition 34 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

Minnie Driver, in 1996: “Jesus, I thought, wanting to do this job is insane.”

BOOK EXTRACT ALAMY and I shall get that shitty job!” wide semicircle, every seat taken by a man Ithought about all the girls waiting I called Isla. “We are going to the in a suit, mostly with their jackets over the outside. All of us vying for an oppor- back of the chair and their ties loosened. tunity that was actually humiliation pub to celebrate!” “Oooo, what are we A stool stood in front of the semicircle and dressed up in a pick me! outfit. I wanted to celebrating?” next to it was a tall receptacle, like you run out there and warn them. I wanted to see next to the sofas in a hotel lobby – you tell them we were better than this, better “Mediocrity, but on a grand scale.” know, an ashtray – but it was filled with than being lunchtime entertainment “I will dress appropriately,” she said pieces of chocolate. for a bunch of pervy execs, their pervi- solemnly. ness sanctioned by this being considered “Okay, lovey,” said the bored director, “work”. But of course I didn’t, because the Two days later, I hurried down “pop your coat off and just leave it on the fire was lit and it required fuel, and any Brewer Street in Soho, found the floor as we’ve run out of chairs. These fuel, however troubling, will burn just casting office for the audition, gentlemen seated behind me are from the the same. and signed my name on the clipboard ad agency, and I’m Martin, your director.” in the anteroom. The room was already He half bowed with a wan flourish. The chocolate was revolting, a feat filled with girls. There’s a strange feeling of cocoa avoidance and ersatz sugar. when you walk into a casting call full of “Have a seat,” he said, gesturing to the actresses; everyone’s nice, but it’s slightly stool. “Mmmm. mmmm, mmmm,” I said, serrated. throwing my head around like Meg Ryan “Is that an ashtray?” I asked, pointing to in Katz’s Deli. I attempted her cries of Each girl was in her best pick-me! outfit the tall receptacle filled with chocolates. “YES! YES! YES!” but there were a few subcategories of approach in general. Some had already “Not currently.” “NYESH! NYESH! NYESH!” I gurgled, on given up, having noted that the girl sitting There had been no script provided, so account of the gumming agent used in the next to them had got the last three jobs I wondered what exactly they needed me chocolate. they had both gone up for. Some appeared to do. to be completely disinterested in the “Okay, so what we’re selling today is “That’s it,” said Martin Scorsleazy, whole process and indicated that they chocolate. You’ve seen the movie When “really show us what that chocolate can had much loftier things to be getting on do for you.” with: another script that they must busily I knew I’d now been highlight, a loud inquiry to the casting marked, branded with Beyond gagging, there was not much. assistant about how long this might take the scarlet “D” that I attempted a few more groans and as there were four more auditions to get often comes with saying seizures and then, realising there was to that morning. The smiley chatterbox ‘no’ as an actress. nowhere to spit out the chocolate, I did who asked you where you’d bought every what so many women do in the name of single thing you were wearing and inter- Harry Met Sally? pleasing men, and I swallowed. spersed each question with an “I’m never “Yes.” gonna get this”. The steel in her eyes said “You know the scene where she fakes “Okay, lovely, that was indeed lovely. she actually thought she might. Now, let’s see it again, but remember this an orgasm?” time do it bigger for the Dutch.” I swiped Eventually my name was called and I “Yes.” my tongue across my teeth, trying to was ushered into a large room with more “Okay. Eat a piece of chocolate and do remove the vestiges of chocolate, to accom- people in it than I had expected. Usu- modate round two. The chocolate had ally at a casting, it’s the casting director, that.” shellacked my teeth with a hard, sweet, an assistant operating the camera, and “Fake an orgasm?” presumably brown finish. sometimes the director. This room was “Yes. Unless you fancy having a real filled with almost two rows of chairs in a one.” He chuckled odiously. “I don’t think I can do it again,” I said. The 17 ad executives leaned The room snickered as one. slightly forward in their chairs. “Course you can, love, that’s the best bit “I’ll need you to do it twice, about being a girl!” came a voice from the once just normally, then ad-men cabal. make the second one bigger – that’ll be used for the I tried to keep my lips over my teeth as Netherlands market.” I tried I began to speak but then realised the audi- to digest this information. ence actually deserved to see what they “Um, do the Dutch really were promoting. My ambitious fire, that –” needed fuel, would have to go unfed. “Look, just get on with it, will you, lovey? Tick-tock, et “No, what I meant to say was I won’t cetera.” do it again because I will throw up.” They thought I was talking about the chocolate, Meg Ryan’s famous fake orgasm but it was really my shame at having gone scene in When Harry Met Sally. along with the whole grotesquery. And the f---ing chocolate. Scorsleazy sneered and rolled his eyes. “Well, all of the other girls have apparently very much enjoyed this.” I gathered the good coat I’d worn off the floor, smiled mightily, and said, “They were faking it.” 36 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

As exits go, it wasn’t bad. What Full of promise: Driver and shipped them down here. Willy says ALAMY was bad, I thought, as I walked with co-star Chris we are going to make a killing.” back down Brewer Street, was the O’Donnell in the 1995 appearance of this line that would always movie Circle of Friends. Willy was my sister’s boyfriend, be there. I could choose to cross or not an Argentinian of few words with an cross, but either action would have practi- I needed to get away enormous golden retriever called Ouata cal and moral consequences. You speak from who I wasn’t, here (Wat-ah). I remember the dog more than up – they won’t hire you. You don’t speak in London. I was going him. Ouata was one of those creatures who up – you actually feel the good part of you to go and be a seller of were clearly right on the verge of speak- begin to erode. jeans in South America. ing when you talked to them. The kind of dog who would grab your sleeve and There was a message on my answering was something of an ordeal, as she and lead you to the stove when it was on fire machine when I got home. “Oh, dear. Not her boyfriend had moved from New York or save your life when you were lost on a very good reviews from the chocolate ad. down to a small village outside Punta mountain pass by wrapping themselves They said you were difficult. Do call me del Este in Uruguay. I had to call the post around you through the night. The kind and tell me what happened.” My agent office and leave a message for her to call of dog that inspired myth. Willy, reflected was lovely, she would always give me the me back; it sometimes took a few days. The in the light of his dog, came out very well. benefit of the doubt, but I knew I’d now phone line crackled the following evening, been marked, branded with the scarlet and I could hear ambient Spanish in the “Is Ouata down there with you?” I asked “D” that often comes with saying ‘no’ as background and the sound of crickets. Kate. an actress. “Where exactly are you?” “Yeah, of course. He’s right here talking The next few weeks were lean and “In this village called La Barra. It’s to the lady who sells watermelon. How’s spotted with other commercial auditions. lovely; we’re opening a shop.” My sister everything going in London?” There was one for dog food. And for deo- sounded dreamy, which was very unlike dorant. Hands up if you use Sweat Guard. her. “Pear-shaped.” Hands down if you don’t! “What sort of shop?” I asked. “I’m never exactly sure what that means. “A jeans shop.” I like pears.” She was back in dreamland. The wind had dropped, the sails “A what?” “It means everything has sunk to the drooped, and the doldrums looked like “A jeans shop. A shop that sells jeans. bottom. It means it’s all sinking, and that they stretched to the horizon and even Are you thick in the head?” The dreami- it’s heavy, and that shit’s going DOWN.” beyond. All the momentum gathered in ness had been dispatched. It was unkind to want her to wake up to making Circle of Friends seemed to have “Willy had this great idea to get out my gloom, but unfortunately it’s written disappeared. I’d been the lead in a much- of New York for the winter and to come into the contract between sisters that if loved story and now I couldn’t even book down here and sell Levi’s to all the rich at any time, one party has grown too far a fake orgasm. The winter was getting Argentinians who show up in Punta apart from the other in terms of outlook, under way, and I’d had a terrible dream del Este for the summer. We went and balance must be redressed by the happier I was married to my heating bill. I called bought up all the used jeans in Brooklyn one getting yelled at. I don’t make the my sister to tell her about it. Calling her rules. “Why don’t you come down here?” she said calmly, refusing to be pulled into the abyss of my gloom-pear. “You can work in the shop, and it’s so cheap to live down here, and you can ride horses on the beach …” She drifted off, and I magnanimously let her. It sounded like a good idea. Eve- rything was upside down where I was, so going to a place where it was summertime during the winter made sense. I needed to get away from who I wasn’t, here in London. F--- that whole, wherever-you-go- there-you-are philosophy. I was going to “pull a geographical” and go and be a seller of jeans in South America. I used my last two hundred pounds to buy a plane ticket to Montevideo and said adios to London for the winter. l Extracted from Manag- ing Expectations, by Minnie Driver (Manilla Press, $36.99). JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 37

LIFE HEALTH by Nicky Pellegrino sBpliontd Many vision loss problems could be prevented if they were picked up and treated earlier. GETTY IMAGES If you are blessed with good vision, then eye “At the moment, about the state of the country’s eye health might not be something you think we are relying on health to develop a population-spe- you need to give much thought to. How- Australian data to cific plan. ever, as we get older, our risk of developing estimate the situation common eye conditions increases. Some in Aotearoa.” “At the moment, we are relying on – such as glaucoma, which damages the optic nerve Australian data to estimate the situa- and is estimated to affect about 91,000 New Zealand- years from 50 and every two years tion in Aotearoa and I’m not confident ers – can go undiagnosed and result in vision loss. from 60 to pick up any problems that we are directing our services where they need to be.” Leading ophthalmologist Justin Mora says in this might need treating and prevent country we tend to follow the recommendation avoidable vision loss. In 2016, Australia conducted its of the American Academy of Ophthalmology that first National Eye Health Survey, even those with no eye problems or Mora, a spokesperson for Eye which found that a large percentage risk factors should go for baseline Health Aotearoa, adds that, poten- of vision impairment and blindness eye disease screening at age 40. tially, Māori and Pasifika people is preventable or treatable. The most If everything is clear, then Mora should be getting assessed earlier common problem was uncorrected advises having an eye exam every and more frequently, but we simply refractive error – the shape of the eye five years from 40, every three do not have enough information prevents light from focusing on the retina, resulting in blurred vision. Justin Mora: public eye health services This is easily treated with a pair of are struggling. glasses. Other causes were cataracts, age-related macular degeneration, 38 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

with a high cost, Mora says. When your sight is HEALTH BRIEFS impaired, you are more likely to fall and suffer a fracture, for instance. Rates of depression FOUR JABS BETTER and anxiety are elevated among those with vision impairment. And the World Health A fourth dose of the Pfizer Organisation estimates the annual global cost Covid-19 vaccine gave aged-care of productivity losses associated with vision residents good extra protection impairment from untreated short-sightedness against hospitalisation and alone is US$244 billion. death from the Omicron variant compared with only three doses, “At the moment, we’ve got little snippets and moderately improved of information about the situation in New protection against infection, Zealand but nothing that tells us what is going researchers at Tel Aviv University on on a national basis, what the needs are and in Israel found. The study found what should be put in place to address them,” that 17.6% of four-dose residents Mora says. contracted Covid compared with 24.9% in the three-dose group. “These are things where However, the number of people screening and early hospitalised in the four-dose treatment can make a big group was less than half that of difference and our system the three-dose group, and had doesn’t cope well with that.” less than half of the number of Covid deaths. diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. A study of 1260 patients in the Waikato GETTY IMAGES region, cited in a New Zealand Medical Journal POT’S ACCIDENTAL RISKS Eye Health Aotearoa is lobby- article in April, found that cataract-related ing for a similar national eye vision loss is up to two times more prevalent in Using cannabis may increase your health survey here in New Māori, that they require surgery six to seven chances of needing emergency Zealand. It would be a major under- years earlier than non-Māori and get treated care, according to research from taking, agrees Mora, but we can be when they have more advanced disease and the University of Toronto, Canada. guided by the Australian experience worse vision. The study found cannabis users and expertise. had significantly greater chances Mora confirms that public eye health “We would need to target about services in this country are struggling of an emergency room visit 6000 people and they would have and people who need treatment aren’t or hospital admission for a fairly comprehensive eye assess- always getting it. ment,” he explains. “With an exercise any cause. Respiratory like this, if we find people with a “The chronic age-related conditions health was the second need for glasses or a health issue like like macular degeneration, glaucoma and most common glaucoma, then we have to be able to diabetic retinopathy, these are things where reason after provide them with access to care.” screening and early treatment can make a acute trauma. big difference and our system doesn’t cope The estimated cost for all that is well with that,” he says. TELLING $5 million. Although it is a large sum, BALANCE preventable vision loss also comes There is some good news. This year’s health budget included the provision of nearly The inability to $7 million over three years for the opera- stand on one leg tion of 20 portable retinal cameras in for 10 seconds in mid areas that don’t currently have them to later life is linked to to screen premature babies at risk of an increased risk of blindness from untreated retinopa- death from any cause thy – abnormal blood vessels that within the next 10 can damage the retina. years, according to research published in “It is really important to pick the British Journal of them up and we can certainly prevent Sports Medicine. Balance these babies from going blind if we can find tends to be reasonably them and treat them. But the numbers are tiny well preserved until compared to people going blind from diabetic the sixth decade of life, retinopathy and macular degeneration,” when it starts to wane says Mora. l rapidly. The researchers suggest a simple balance test could be included in routine health checks for older adults. JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 39

LIFE NUTRITION by Jennifer Bowden Buffer zone Taking calcium supplements as a part of treating kidney disease is a different ball game from using them as a dietary boost. Question: While most think maintain and regulate our body’s I take calcium carbonate medication twice daily with of the kidneys as the internal balance, interacting with meals because of chronic disease – diabetes, kidney organs that produce multiple organ systems, including our failure, a heart problem – and I’m visually impaired. urine, the truth is heart, and controlling blood pressure The calcium carbonate absorbs the phosphate- more complex. and bone health, says Professor Rob phosphorus in my diet to keep it away from the kidneys. Walker, director of the University of However, in the April 2 issue, you noted that calcium but as a binder to prevent your Otago’s Kidney in Health and Disease supplements might increase the risk of a heart attack. body absorbing phosphate Research Network. Thus, damaged So, is calcium carbonate increasing my risk of heart from your diet. kidneys have far-reaching effects on failure, or does it help me with my kidney function? While most people our health, such as increased cardio- think of the kidneys as vascular disease risk (heart attacks). CAnswer:alcium supplements are no the organs that produce longer widely recommended urine, the truth is more In chronic kidney disease, changes in modern medicine, due to complex. Our kidneys occur to the normal regulation of various risks associated with bone metabolism. “Firstly, the kidneys Rob Walker: kidney function are responsible for the formation of GETTY IMAGES their use. However, current is complex. the active form of vitamin D. But with impaired kidney function, there is a treatment protocols for chronic kidney reduction in vitamin D production,” Walker says. Vitamin D is a key that disease often recommend calcium carbonate unlocks the gateway to calcium being medications, not as a dietary supplement 40 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

properly and levels of it therefore stay high, NUTRITION BITES this keeps the parathyroid hormone levels high, too, in a never-ending loop. Moreover, the low SATISFIED STUDENTS concentrations of vitamin D and calcium caused by kidney failure also cause the parathyroid US college students experience hormone levels to increase. food insecurity at a rate four times higher than the general As the kidney failure becomes more population. Given this, the State severe, the altered balance of calcium, of California provided funding phosphate, vitamin D and parathyroid for the University of California hormones all increase the risk of calcium and to install emergency food pan- phosphate being deposited in blood vessels, tries on all campuses by 2018. which contributes to an increased danger of A new study published in the cardiovascular disease (heart attacks) along Journal of Nutrition Education and with other abnormalities, Walker says. Behavior revealed that access to these pantries directly improved “If the dietary absorption students’ perceived health, of phosphate is reduced reduced the number of depres- in individuals with sive symptoms they experienced, chronic kidney disease, increased their sleep sufficiency this may be of benefit.” and boosted food security. absorbed from our gut. Without “To manage these changes, individuals with THE SOONER THE BETTER GETTY IMAGES sufficient vitamin D, the body cannot chronic kidney disease are prescribed vitamin absorb calcium from the gut. Con- D. This increases the calcium concentrations Early introduction of common sequently, calcium is then removed to a more normal value. The correction of the allergenic foods to babies at three from the bones for use elsewhere. calcium and vitamin D concentrations results months of age reduced the risk in more normal levels of parathyroid hormone,” of the infants developing food “Secondly, the kidneys closely regu- says Walker. allergies by 36 months, Swedish late the body’s balance of phosphate. researchers confirmed in a new With impaired kidney function, less In addition, “it has been thought that if the study published in the Lancet. phosphate is excreted in the urine, dietary absorption of phosphate is reduced in Infants randomly assigned to and so it accumulates in the body.” individuals with chronic kidney disease, this receive common allergenic Usually, our kidneys tightly regulate may be of benefit. So calcium carbonate is pre- foods were given peanuts, cow’s phosphate levels, says Walker. scribed for this purpose.” milk, wheat and egg. The team therefore recommend the early “Thirdly, the parathyroid glands This is why you are taking the calcium introduction of such foods as a safe respond to the concentrations of carbonate medication. However, Walker notes means of preventing food allergies. calcium, phosphate and vitamin D.” that there is no clinical trial evidence to show that However, because the levels of calcium, taking these phosphate binders actually reduces UNHEALTHY REALISTS phosphate and vitamin D are altered the risk of cardiac disease (and, on the other hand, due to kidney disease, this results in we have trials showing that calcium supplements Only a small percentage of US changes in function. For example, increase the risk of heart attacks in individuals adults can accurately assess the because phosphate isn’t excreted with normal kidney function, as outlined in this healthiness of their diet, according column in the April 2 issue of the Listener). to new research presented at the annual meeting of the American So Walker and colleagues are conducting a Society for Nutrition. Research- trial in Australia and New Zealand to determine ers compared collected data whether lowering phosphate levels reduces the on participants’ typical dietary risk of cardiac disease. intake and asked them to rank the healthfulness of their diet. They anticipate results from the trial being About 85% of people inaccu- released in 2024. Until then, however, it would rately assessed their diet, most be best to follow your prescribing doctor’s overrating how healthy it was. advice, as they can also manage other important cardiovascular health factors such as your Interestingly, people blood pressure and cholesterol level with unhealthy diets and ensure you have good control of the diabetes. l produced the most accurate Email your nutrition questions to assessments, [email protected] ranking their personal diet as poor. JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 41

STUART SIMPSON LIFE This recipe is almost FOOD completely hands off and requires very little Mix & match prep; all you have to do is rinse rice, crush Ottolenghi protégé Ixta Belfrage garlic, julienne ginger and chop shares her inventive ingredient spring onions. Both the rice cake and flavour combinations. and the tomatoes bake in the oven at the same time and don’t need to 42 be stirred or basted, leaving you to get on with other things. Leftover rice cake slices are great pan-fried the next day, in a little oil, until crispy. This dish is vegan as it is, but I love it with crispy fried eggs, too. STICKY COCONUT RICE CAKE WITH TURMERIC TOMATOES RICE CAKE 400g Thai sticky rice (glutinous rice or sweet rice), rinsed and drained (see notes) 400g can of full-fat coconut milk (at least 70% coconut extract) 250g water 2 small cloves garlic, finely crushed 2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger 2 spring onions, very finely chopped 1½ tsp fine salt TURMERIC TOMATOES 400g sweet, ripe cherry tomatoes 15g fresh ginger, peeled and julienned 15g fresh coriander, stalks and leaves 3 cloves of garlic, peeled 70g olive oil 2 tsp maple syrup or honey ½ tsp ground turmeric 1¼ tsp cumin seeds ½ tsp fine salt TO SERVE 2 spring onions, finely sliced 5g fresh coriander 1 lime, cut into wedges Preheat the oven to 230°C fan/250°C. Line a 23cm x 23cm baking tin (or a similar sized ovenproof dish) with non-stick parchment paper. Whisk all the ingredients for the rice cake together, making sure to get rid of any lumps of coconut milk. Pour into the prepared tin and flatten the top. For the tomatoes, put all the ingredients into an ovenproof dish that’s just big enough for them all to fit snugly in a single layer. Put both dishes in LISTENER JULY 16 2022

the oven – the tomatoes on the top Whipped yogurt with shelf and the rice on the bottom shelf. roasted strawberries and Bake for 30 minutes. The tomatoes peanut fudge sauce; left, should be soft and slightly charred sticky coconut rice cake and the rice should be cooked with turmeric tomatoes; through and golden brown on top. below left, Ixta Belfrage. Remove both dishes from the oven. Cover the tomatoes to keep them warm. Leave the rice to rest for 20 minutes. Turn the oven grill to its highest setting. After 20 minutes, lift the rice cake on to a flat baking tray with the paper. Tear away any overhanging parchment that could burn under the grill. Grill for 5-8 minutes near the top of the oven, or until the rice is crisp and golden brown on top (all grills are different so this could take more or less time). If you have a blowtorch, use it to crisp up and lightly char the surface a little more. Leave to cool for 5 minutes before slicing into squares. Serve with the warm tomatoes and garnish with the spring onions, coriander and lime wedges. Serves 6. NOTES each other. Bake for 20 minutes, be delicious the next day, heated up. To heat, either stirring halfway. Set aside to cool. pan-fry, or place the slices on a tray in a cold oven, Check the instructions on the side of turn the temperature up to 150°C fan bake/170°C the packet, as the rice may need to be Place the mascarpone, yogurt, and warm for about 10 minutes. Serve with plenty soaked overnight. vanilla paste and maple syrup in a of butter on the side. large bowl and whisk together until WHIPPED YOGURT WITH ROASTED completely smooth. Keep the bowl BROWN BUTTER CURRIED CORNBREAD STRAWBERRIES AND PEANUT FUDGE in the fridge until ready to serve. SAUCE 140g unsalted butter, plus extra to serve For the fudge sauce, whisk all 500g frozen corn kernels, defrosted and patted dry ROASTED STRAWBERRIES the ingredients together in a small 150g Greek-style yogurt 300g frozen strawberries, defrosted bowl until smooth. You may need 2 large eggs 50g caster sugar to add more water or maple syrup, 1 Scotch bonnet chilli, finely chopped (optional, juice of ½ lime depending on the thickness of 2 cinnamon sticks, roughly broken your peanut butter. You’re looking see notes) WHIPPED YOGURT for a smooth, thick but pourable 1 spring onion, finely chopped 150g fridge-cold mascarpone consistency. 5g fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated 200g fridge-cold yogurt 1½ tsp medium curry powder ½ tsp vanilla bean paste In individual glasses, layer 1½ tsp finely grated lime zest 1 tbsp maple syrup the chilled yogurt with the warm 100g quick-cook polenta PEANUT FUDGE SAUCE strawberries and the fudge sauce 80g plain flour 50g smooth peanut butter and serve. ½ tsp fine salt 1½ tbsp cocoa powder 6 tbsp maple syrup, plus extra for drizzling 75g maple syrup Serves 4. TO SERVE 1 tsp soy sauce (or tamari) ½ tsp baking powder 1½ tbsp water CORNBREAD IS USUALLY a sup- ½ tsp baking soda porting act, but this version is good flaked salt, to serve Preheat the oven to 200°C fan enough to take centre stage at the bake/220°C. For the roasted dinner table and will probably end Preheat the oven to 200°C fan bake/220°C. strawberries, place all the up being the dish around which you Grease and line a 20cm cake tin. ingredients in an ovenproof dish just plan the meal. The corn that bejew- big enough to fit the strawberries els the surface is best just out of the Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over in a single layer. They should oven when it’s a little crispy from a medium heat for 5-6 minutes, stirring often be snug, but not piled on top of the butter and a little sticky from the until the butter foams and then turns a deep maple syrup. That’s not to say you golden brown. Add the corn and bubble away for need to eat it all in one go; it will still JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 43

LIFE WINE by Michael Cooper Wine journey There are plenty of resources available to further your wine knowledge and enjoyment, from guides to websites. Brown butter curried cornbread. 4 minutes, stirring every so often. Remove Do you enjoy Waipara’s to communicate better what is in from the heat and leave to cool for 10 minutes. pinot noirs and rieslings? the bottle” and “help consumers in Joëlle Thomson, author a retail shop or cellar door decide While the corn and butter mixture is cooling, of A Guide to Touring New which wine they are going to enjoy”. put the yogurt, eggs, Scotch bonnet, spring Zealand’s Wineries (New Holland, onion, ginger, curry powder, lime zest, polenta, $50), certainly does. She writes: “Hop Jessica Wood, of Wine-oji, says, flour, salt and 3 tablespoons of maple syrup into on a plane, in a car or, better still, on “Anyone who understands what a a food processor, but don’t blitz yet. a bicycle, and discover the greatness green apple is in New Zealand would of North Canterbury in the flesh. But be the same in Japan or the Nether- Once the corn is cool, set aside 140g of the don’t be deceived by the vast vine- lands … So we are using the concept mixture in a small bowl to use later. Add the yards along the main State Highway. of a visual language to describe remaining corn and butter to the food processor, It’s the small, family-owned opera- wine, which means it’s a universal then add the baking powder and baking soda. tions that give this region its beating concept.” Pulse about 3-5 times, just until the mixture heart and its earthy, grounded, excit- comes together. Don’t over mix; you want a ingly soulful wines.” Individual wines and regional textured batter with small chunks of corn, wine styles are rated by Wine-oji not a smooth batter. The book targets “everyone who’s from 0 to 5 for their “sweetness”, keen to cycle, eat, drink and walk “acidity”, “body”, “oak” and “finish”. Transfer the batter into the prepared tin, their way through Aotearoa New Other emojis depict aromas and then spoon the reserved corn and butter Zealand”. For each wine region, flavours (such as pineapple, mint evenly over the surface. Thomson lists her favourite places and black pepper) and potential food to buy coffee, wine and food, places matches. You can buy a pack of 31 Bake for 20 minutes, then evenly drizzle over to stay, the best bike rides and other Classic Wine Styles of New Zealand the remaining 3 tablespoons of maple syrup and “must do” activities. There are brief cards for $30. Wine-oji’s graphics bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until crisp winery profiles, with contact details, are also being trialled on shelf-talk- and golden brown on top. and lists of recommended “afford- ers at the New World supermarket able” and “top” wines. in Island Bay. l Leave to cool for 15 minutes. If you have a blowtorch, use it to char the corn in places. The hardcover book’s main draw- Michael Cooper’s books and website are Drizzle over some more maple syrup (I like back is what is missing – there are no published by Upstart Press, which recently a lot!), sprinkle with flaked salt and serve with regional wine maps, photo captions or purchased New Holland NZ. a slab of butter alongside. an index. Matakana, which promotes itself as “Auckland’s best wine desti- WINE OF THE WEEK Serves 6. nation”, is oddly absent from the text. Trinity Hill Hawke’s Bay Syrah 2020 NOTES Promising “no fluffy language, Made to be enjoyed young, this GETTY IMAGES I use a whole Scotch bonnet, and its flavour no difficult words, noth- attractive red was aged mostly and heat are quite ing intimidating”, Wine-oji in tanks, rather than oak barrels. dominant. I love that, bills itself as “an image-based wine Deeply coloured, with a floral but you can, of course, guide” that describes wines without bouquet, it is medium-bodied, add less, removing the using words. The website, created with strong, ripe plum, berry and pith and seeds, or just by a team of sommeliers at Wel- spice flavours. A fresh, smooth add a pinch of regular lington’s Noble Rot Wine Bar, is wine that pinot noir fans would chilli flakes for milder designed to “help the wine industry enjoy. (13% alc/vol) $20 heat. l Extracted from MEZCLA, by Ixta Belfrage (Ebury Press, $65). 44 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

PSYCHOLOGY boy. Thus began the quest to understand (and thereby remediate) developmental dyslexia. by Marc Wilson Dyslexia is a peculiarly divisive label. As we had discovered, there is sometimes an ideologi- cal opposition to the idea that there is even such a thing. Which is not to say that identification and labelling of dyslexia are either easy or, indeed, well understood. Different “experts” assess for dyslexia differently, but this can reflect that the disorder has a number of facets. Destiny’s child Fast forward to 2022, and this is what we know. Dyslexia is cross-cultural and found New research is challenging the stigma everywhere in the world. As many as 20% around dyslexia as a disorder, instead of people experience dyslexia to some degree, and suggesting the cognitive differences play about 60% of dyslexia occurrence is genetic. As it an essential role in human adaptation. happens, our boy has family with strong dyslexic traits on both sides. Ilove reading. It has been a that labels can be really handy when GETTY IMAGES significant part of my life, my trying to get appropriate support and Shaywitz notes that an inability to read fluently wife’s life and my daughters’. intervention. often acts as a shorthand for assumptions of lower In fact, children can recognise intelligence, thus stigmatising those with dyslexia. about half the alphabet by Sally Shaywitz, a famous scholar And this is a bit odd, for several reasons. First, age three and know it all by about on the subject, attributes the first as Morgan noted, young Percy was as capable as four. Our boy, though — sure, he got his peers in all ways except his difficulty reading. the hang of the alphabet okay, but in Innovators, whether Second, why would there be a disorder specific to his second year of primary school, he they be artists, reading and writing – something that has become wasn’t making gains like other kids. In engineers or a widespread practice only in the past hundred or fact, he seemed to be going backwards. entrepreneurs, are so years? disproportionately He didn’t enjoy reading, either, and dyslexic. Two UK-based scholars, Helen Taylor and I selfishly worried that he just didn’t Martin David Vestergaard, have just summarised love books the way I did. Thinking we labelling of what came to be in the journal Frontiers in Psychology what we were doing the right thing, we made known as the developmental know about dyslexia – both strengths and “weak- an appointment with his teacher, and disorder of dyslexia to UK nesses” – and argue that we’ve been getting it all then the principal. I vividly remember physician Pringle Morgan. wrong. Given the relatively recent development that second meeting – the principal Morgan described “word- of reading and writing, what strengths has the physically recoiled when we haltingly blindness” in Percy F, an dyslexic brain been adapted for or prepared for suggested the “D” word – dyslexia. otherwise-capable 14-year-old through nature and evolution? Surely we psychologists (actually, only my wife is a registered psycholo- Dyslexia scholar: Sally Shaywitz. Taylor and Vestergaard make a compelling case gist) appreciated the stigma that goes that we need the people we call dyslexic for their along with labels? ability to “search”. That’s to say, most of us are built to exploit what we know about the world around Yes, actually, we do understand the us, but the people we call dyslexics are designed risks of labelling. We also appreciate to explore. Exploiters can narrow their focus onto things we already know (alphabets, writing, and suchlike) while our explorers’ strengths are seeing the big picture. Among other things, Taylor and Vestergard note that innovators, whether they be artists, engineers or entrepreneurs, are disproportion- ately dyslexic compared with exploitative areas of practice. There’s a balance to be struck between exploiting what we know, while also exploring to discover new possibilities. So we got our lad to Speld NZ, which provides support for those with dyslexia and other specific learning disabilities. They gave him a set of tools to help circumvent his dyslexia, and now he’s studying engi- neering. Destiny, or maybe something that evolution prepared him for. l JULY 16 2022 LISTENER 45

LIFE SCIENCE are now Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Mexico. In the Andes, they climbed by Bob Brockie Mt Chimborazo, then thought to be the tallest mountain in the world, narrowly avoiding death on its icy slopes. They mapped the headwaters of the Amazon River in Peru. Equipped with modern scientific apparatus kept in velvet-lined wooden boxes, they measured everything, collecting vast amounts of meteorological, physical, geographic, oceanic and botanical information. In Mexico, they visited many mines and carefully copied Aztec writings or “codices”. A life botanic Bonpland returned to Europe with 20,000 plants and seed specimens, including Frenchman Aimé Bonpland 6000 species unknown to Europeans. In proved that scientific pursuits recompense for donating plants to Paris’ National can lead to action and adventure. Museum of Natural History, Napoleon Bonaparte gave Bonpland a 3000-franc annual pension. GETTY IMAGES Most botanists lead the headwaters of the Orinoco River placid lives, but in Venezuela, mapping its every Because she did not bear him any sons, Napoleon Frenchman Aimé tributary. Wanting to examine annulled his marriage to Empress Joséphine. Her Bonpland was an electric eels, they drove horses into joy was her huge estate and garden on the edge exception. an eel-filled lake. The eels killed some of Paris, Malmaison. She employed Bonpland to During the French Revolution of the horses, thereby draining much manage the place on a grand scale, growing exotic and Revolutionary Wars, Bonpland South American, African and Australian plants. served as a surgeon in the French In the Andes, they They built a heated orangery large enough for 300 army and navy, but his real interest climbed the 6263m pineapple plants and, five years later, a glasshouse lay in botany, which he studied with Mt Chimborazo, heated with a dozen coal-burning stoves. Artist leading scientists in Paris. Being narrowly avoiding Pierre-Joseph Redouté famously created hundreds something of an adventurer, he death on its icy slopes. of illustrations of the roses at Malmaison. There, longed to visit remote countries and Bonpland spent 10 happy years writing botanical study their flora. of their electricity. However, while accounts of his American explorations. He was on dissecting them, Bonpland was nearly very close terms with Joséphine, and was present at Fortunately, the King of Spain electrocuted. her deathbed in 1814. found him a dream job – explor- ing the unknown interior of South The pair saw how curare- The same year, Bonpland travelled to Buenos Aires America. In the 1700s, most of that poisoned arrows were made, where he was elected a professor of natural history. continent was part of the Spanish identifying the plants from He taught there for six years before leaving to start Empire, with its colonies dotted which it was extracted. growing the crop yerba mate (used to make a herbal round the coasts, but little was known tea that is popular in South America to this day) on about its vast interior. The King com- Bonpland and Humboldt the remote and ill-defined frontier with Paraguay. missioned Bonpland and the Prussian spent four years in what But the Paraguayan dictator, José Gaspar Rodríguez polymath Alexander von Humboldt de Francia, who wanted to monopolise yerba mate in to explore the geography, flora and Never a dull moment: Aimé that area, had Bonpland arrested as a French spy and fauna, and economic prospects of his Bonpland. Top, Alexander von held him in custody for seven years. The botanist colonies. Humboldt. was allowed some freedom of movement and served as a doctor to the poor and fellow prisoners. In 1799, the young pair paddled canoes or rode horses 2500km to Freed in 1829, Bonpland returned to Argentina and, aged 58, married a local woman. They set up a farm at Corrientes in 1853 and grew many crop plants new to Argentina. The Argentinian state rewarded Bonpland with 10,000-piastre pension the country. Two hundred years after his death, streets. His name is associated with 75 plant species. Even in New Zealand, Mt Bonpland rises above the Queenstown- Some botanists have all the fun. l 46 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

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BOOKS Stacking the deck Debut crime writer Simon Lendrum sends his private investigator tag team on a hunt for a missing girl, amid the gang violence, dodgy lawyers and risky money of downtown Auckland. byGREGFLEMING THE SLOW ROLL, by Simon Lendrum considered the height of bad etiquette, categorise myself as a recreational poker (Upstart, $39.99) revealing a winning hand just as another player,” Lendrum says modestly when While many of us were perfecting our player begins to scoop in their chips, “It’s a asked about his own card habits, but it’s a sourdough recipes or bingeing Tiger King good metaphor for the twists and turns of game he has been playing in various loca- over the 2020 lockdown, longtime ad man a crime story.” tions for 20 years. Simon Lendrum was fulfilling a long-held ambition inspired by years of reading It’s a tale that reaches into all levels of Indeed, he describes the book as a Robert Crais, Walter Mosley, James Lee New Zealand society, from gang pads to homage to two of his passions: his time Burke and others: writing a crime novel. corrupt lawyers’ offices to high-stakes spent at poker tables and his love of detec- “I had the title and the name of the central tive novels. character in my head for about five years It’s a tale that reaches into and I had tried to write the first page all levels of society, from Lendrum first got hooked on the game multiple times over that period, to little gang pads to corrupt during a trip to Las Vegas 20 years ago, success.” lawyers’ offices to high- where one of his opponents was arrested stakes poker games. mid-hand for cheating at the table. It turns And then lockdown happened. “Lock- out he’d been hiding aces under his shoe. down was a perfect coming together of poker games, all told in wry, engaging “Suddenly casino security arrived and events. I thought, if this isn’t the time to prose. dragged him away and that was a wonder- give it a crack there never will be a time, ful introduction to a world that is full of so I set myself a daily target and pretty The manuscript was picked out of a drama,” he recalls. much stuck to it. Lockdown gave me the pile of unsolicited manuscripts by local opportunity to invest time in it without publisher Upstart Press after Lendrum “But it’s undoubtedly the best game in feeling guilty that it was taking time away had tried international publishers, with the world, and one with a rich literary from making a living and putting food on limited success. history. There are some great non-fiction the table.” accounts of the poker world: Anthony Much of the success of the Holden’s Big Deal, Al Alvarez’s The Biggest Five months later, he had a finished book is down to Lendrum’s Game in Town, Colson Whitehead’s The manuscript. charismatic lead character, a Noble Hustle. That intersection of gam- part-Irish, part-Polynesian self-appointed bling and crime offers lots of potential for Although Lendrum has been involved private investigator named O’Malley. He’s a crime writer.” in advertising at a high level – he is chief a troubled man (he suffers night terrors executive of the Commercial Communica- and will often wake to find his bedroom However, Lendrum didn’t want to tions Council – it has always been in the furniture destroyed) following a rough write another “white saviour” PI novel. “I management rather than the creative side upbringing and a stint in prison, but he’s think there are enough of those already. and he hadn’t written any fiction before. intent on making up for his past trans- O’Malley’s background emerged because “It really was a case of finding my way gressions through his “detective” work. there has got to be a core reason for why through. I had no rules to follow, and I had he does what he does. After all, being a PI no idea what the process was after writing O’Malley makes a rather good living is not his profession; he’s not benefitting the book, so I just wrote and each charac- playing poker, often at Auckland’s Sky financially from it. Therefore, he has got ter emerged as the plot called for them. City – a place Lendrum is no stranger to be driven by something else, and that is I don’t know whether I followed a good to, either – with his private-investigator ultimately a search for redemption, aided process or a bad process, but I got there.” work a redemptive side hustle. “I’d in no small part by his girlfriend, Claire.” He certainly did. The Slow Roll is a stun- A lthoughO’Malley’simposingphysi- ning crime-fiction debut that can stand cal presence and abilities succeed proudly beside those of his crime-fiction in getting him out of most scrapes, heroes. Named after a move in poker that’s it’s Claire, a tattooed psychology student 48 LISTENER JULY 16 2022

Poker face: Simon 49 Lendrum pays homage to his passion for card games and detective stories in a thrilling debut novel. JULY 16 2022 LISTENER

BOOKS Poetry that keep him on the right side of In the trouble and save him along the deep end Satellite City way.” Dark family secrets by Briar Wood As O’Malley observes in the confront Karin book, “Who needs a pretend detec- Slaughter’s novice Every way you look is unfinished tive when you’ve got a wise woman US Marshal. business, raw at the seams, edges pressed to hand?” by CRAIG SISTERSON together, ongoing homemaking, Lendrum notes that it’s also a hangismoke, whenua-eating bulldozers healthy relationship, not some- GIRL, FORGOTTEN, by Karin Slaughter thing you find a whole lot in crime (HarperCollins, $35) making parkways in backyards. fiction, or elsewhere in The Slow Atlanta author Karin Slaughter takes Paper roads feeding incessant plans, Roll. “There’s a deep and mutual readers into a small town full of secrets respect there, and that goes to the and crimes, past and present, in her new suburban hamumu of personalised pou, redemptive power of good relation- novel. However, in Girl, Forgotten it’s not hui and clanjamfrie. Summer gusto, ships within the book, where there the main character’s hometown but that are many examples of bad ones. In of her estranged and extremely danger- cattle truck ruckus, rock ruckle, ferntang, the book we see the impact of those ous father. After surviving the events and chop suey at the cornershop. relationships, especially around of Pieces of Her (recently made into a hit the bad behaviours of fathers and Netflix series starring Toni Collette), Still a service town at heart when how that affects their children.” Andrea Oliver began training to become the sporty dust-clad cars of housewives, a US Marshal. Newly graduated, her first assignment is to protect Esther Vaughn, dressed up in Saturday best A longwithanengagingstory a Reagan-appointed federal judge who for a day and night in town, park outside of a runaway daughter, has been getting death threats. Secretly, murder, corruption and Andrea is also given a mission to solve the post office while teenagers scrawl money laundering, The Slow Roll the 40-year-old murder of the judge’s pregnant teenage daughter, graffiti in the dusty windows. Wabi-sabi. also presents readers with a brilliant Emily. Powerful people are hoping that could depiction of contemporary Auck- keep Andrea’s father, cult leader Nick Harp, in Eating sushi with wasabi dressing. land. It’s a city full of verve, intrigue prison. Slaughter keeps the Mudscrums scattered across sportsgrounds. and its own kind of dowdy glamour. revs high as Andrea must sink or swim in her new role, Day mists in the matuaiwi, kohukohu Although he points out in the partnered with unforget- clearing, light outlines Maungatapere book that much of downtown table mentor Catfish Bible, Auckland would fit within a single hitting many obstacles as she tries to protect a garden of transformed desires New York block, Lendrum’s por- the judge and solve energising, vitaline, spirit wires, trayal of his home city – he grew up a cold-case murder. in the north of England and came Memories, prejudices and outright lies and a spangle of nightlights on the hillside here in 2004 – is unerring but also cloud the issue. An wingrush rotorblade whoosh heartfelt and sympathetic. excellent, page-whir- ring read that gives When this is pointed out, he Denise Mina. Above, aims for red rama on the rooftop laughs. “I set out trying to write Karin Slaughter. landing another wairua safely. the book without being specific to a location, in the hope that I wouldn’t from A BOOK OF RONGO AND TE be narrowing my audience. But it RANGAHAU (Anahera Press) didn’t work. I soon discovered that, as I think you’ve picked up on, the book really needed to be grounded and barmaid who often steps in and steers in a place. Once I established that Auck- him right. She even lends him her VW for land was going to be the location, I just a stakeout when required. wrote about the city I see and experience Lendrum says Claire was inspired by all every day.” the strong women he has been around in The good news for crime-fiction fans is his life. “It’s those little nudges that Claire that Lendrum is already mid-way through gives O’Malley that help him to the right the next O’Malley and answer, without removing his agency in Claire book. it. But he knows that she’s one step ahead “This time around of him. They sort of play a happy game I’m juggling real life, around who is the brains in the relation- so it’s weekend work ship. And the pair just evolved from there. and it won’t be quite as GETTY IMAGES “There are certain situations where his economical timewise. physical strength is going to come to the But I think they’ve got fore and other situations where it’s those some more adventures small strategic leaps that Claire makes in them.” l 50