New Zealand Listener Issue 18, 2025

NEW ZEALAND LISTENER Te Kaiwhakarongo Aotearoa Editor Kirsty Cameron Chief Subeditor Geoff Cumming Managing Editor Ruth Brown Art Director Derek Ward Books Editor Mark Broatch Entertainment & Arts Editor Russell Baillie Digital Editor Dionne Christian Content Producer Louise Barnes Subeditors Richard Betts, Bevan Rapson Assistant Art Director Shane Kelly Senior Designer Richard Kingsford Editorial contact listener@aremedia.co.nz Contributors this issue: Richard Betts, Jennifer Bowden, Steve Braunias, Russell Brown, Sarah Catherall, Jane Clifton, Michael Cooper, Ken Downie, George Driver, Peter Elliott, Anthony Ellison, Peter Griffin, Phil Fogle, Charlotte Grimshaw, Michele Hewitson, Stephanie Johnson, Jonathan Kronstadt, Danyl McLauchlan, Chris Moore, Kelly Ana Morey, Emma Neale, Graham Reid, Anna Rogers, Chris Slane, Erica Stretton, Lawrence Watt, Marc Wilson, Lindsay Wright Chief Executive Officer Jane Huxley General Manager Stuart Dick Editorial Director Sarah Henry Head…

My mother died recently, aged 92. “A good innings,” people said, as though she’d spent her life playing cricket. In reality, almost all of her life had been involved with homemaking and child-rearing. That was her career and she was good at it. She had been rewarded with four children, a slew of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was matriarch to dozens. She began as a bush girl from the forests of the West Coast, the daughter, sister and friend of teams of bushmen. Men who felled tall trees with axe and saw before the clatter of chainsaws filled the forest. Vegetables were harvested from her parents’ huge garden to supplement the venison, wild pork, eel and whitebait that they lived on. In quiet times, my grandfather would take his gold…

Danyl McLauchlan’s Politics column (May 3) is damning. This bill [an amendment to the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act] is a constitutional outrage. What is proposed is that Parliament should intervene in the class action against ANZ and ASB banks to secure victory for the defendants. This case has been before the courts since 2021. The plaintiffs, New Zealand taxpayers, sue on the basis of existing law. If enacted, the amendment will retrospectively change the law to take away the basis of their claim. The defendants – Australian banks – must know they will lose unless the law is changed. Nothing like this has happened since 1607, when King James I tried to decide a civil dispute. The thunderous rebuke administered to him by the judges has echoed down…

For Competition No 91, we asked for a modern proverb about rising electricity prices. FINALISTS: A dry summer does not a cosy winter make. – Ann Love, Nelson All that flickers is not cheap. – Kevin Boyce, Kāpiti Watt goes up, doesn’t always come down. – Chris Bossley, Lower Hutt There is a light at the end of the tunnel for those who can afford it. – Paul Kelly, Palmerston North Bright lights burn at a costly return. – Graham Parsons, Palmerston North WINNER: Many more coins needed to make light work. – Fiona Knight, Wellington For the next Bright Lines challenge, we have the Limerick Competition. Please write a limerick in the traditional style on the outcome of the Canadian election. Don’t forget to include your address with entries.…

1. Who was the US president when Alaska was purchased from the Russian Empire? ❑ Abraham Lincoln ❑ Andrew Johnson ❑ Ulysses S Grant ❑ James Buchanan 2. Which is older, the word “posse” or “posh”? ❑ Posse ❑ Posh 3. Where would you typically encounter coloratura? ❑ Painting ❑ Opera ❑ Advertising ❑ Sociology 4. The decibel, generally used as a measure of loudness, was named after telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell. ❑ True ❑ False 5. What was military leader Bernard Freyberg’s common nickname in NZ? ❑ Iceberg ❑ Tiny ❑ Affray ❑ Benny 6. Which city has the world’s longest metro system? ❑ London ❑ Shanghai ❑ Paris ❑ Moscow 7. In English, what is the equivalent of Frühling, printemps and primavera? ❑ Autumn ❑ Summer ❑…

“It has been a dramatic couple of years but that’s because change, transformation and perhaps a couple of decisions I wouldn’t make again have caused a lot of noise.” “The first time, I had two things to do – run the country and survive … and the second time, I run the country and the world.” “The good news is, when [Pete Hegseth] gets booted from the Pentagon, he’ll be able to get a job at Sephora.”  “It was the ‘anybody-but-Conservative’ factor, it was the Trump tariff factor and then it was the Trudeau departure...”  I see @catherinechidgeyis desperate for attention again and doesn’t care who she drags through the mud. Sad, really. I expected better of the @nzlistenermagthough.“  “I bent down to pick it up thinking it was a…