New Zealand Listener Issue 24, 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: Andrew Anthony, Richard Betts, Sally Blundell, Jennifer Bowden, Colleen Brown, Russell Brown, Jane Clifton, Michael Cooper, Greg Dixon, Anthony Ellison, Nevil Gibson, Andrea Graves, Charlotte Grimshaw, Michele Hewitson, Colin Hogg, Parry Jones, Douglas Lloyd Jenkins, Danyl McLauchlan, Graham Reid, Nicholas Reid, Craig Sisterson, Gill South, Cheryl Pearl Sucher, Andy Tristram, Sarah Watt, Marc Wilson Chief Executive Officer Jane Huxley General Manager Stuart Dick Editorial Director Sarah Henry Head of Digital Melissa…

At a recent arts event, I was invited into the sponsor’s lounge. As far as I could tell, it was an exclusively white community with an officious gatekeeper, tasked with keeping the “wrong” people away from free food. I was there on a legacy basis, recognition for a decades-old contribution now only vaguely recalled. My own experience began with “are you supposed to be here?” and ended with “there’s another room for people like you”. Although, as an older gay man, the words “people like you”, still rankle, the real targets that weekend were a tall, elegant man of Indian origin, representing a foreign embassy, and my partner, who is of Persian descent from India. The latter can handle himself in any situation, so it’s not his welfare that prompts…

The New Zealand Listener’s long history is no longer just the stuff of yellowing paper lying in dusty corners. The magazine that launched in 1939 has now been uploaded to Papers Past, the online archive provided by the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa. The first batch, from 1939-59, can now be paged through week by week in your browser, starting with June 30, 1939, where the leader page announces its purpose “is to give listeners every week the best possible presentation in advance of New Zealand Broadcasting programmes and as much help as possible in using them”. The National Library plans to upload the 1960s as part of next year’s work, as well as the precursor to the Listener, Radio Record, which ran from 1927-39.…

“Where’s his muscle for mental health?” This was the caption on Marc Wilson’s Psychology column (June 14). My response is simple: it’s right here. I’m proud that Budget 2025 includes a significant uplift for mental health, totalling around $140 million. I’ve been upfront: workforce is the biggest barrier to access. That’s why we’ve delivered New Zealand’s first dedicated mental health and addiction workforce plan. We’re more than doubling psychology internships from 40 to 85 per year by 2027, increasing psychiatry registrar training places annually by more than 50% – from around 33 in 2024 to 54 from 2025 onwards – introducing a new associate psychologist role, and growing the peer support workforce. Budget 2025 also invests $28 million to support a shift from a police-led to a mental health-led crisis…

For Competition No 97, we asked for a modern proverb about Shakespeare in Schools. FINALISTS: To Bard or not to Bard, that is the question ‒ Raywyn Little, Wellington Some people discover Shakespeare; others have Shakespeare thrust upon them ‒ Chris Greenwood, Motueka Better the Shakespeare you know than the dramas you don’t ‒ David Hicks, Paraparaumu Where there’s a Will, there’s a play ‒ Eliza Reed, Whitianga To Ban the Bard is to lower the Bar ‒ Julian Wagg, Auckland WINNER: All maths and no “play” makes Jack a dull student ‒ June Krivan, Palmerston North For the next Bright Lines challenge, we have the Limerick Competition. Please write a limerick in the traditional style on the rift between Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Don’t forget to include your…

“Our national flock is declining by almost a million sheep every year and the No 1 driver is carbon forestry.” – Federated Farmers meat & wool chair Toby Williams blames the emissions trading scheme for the decline “I’m pretty sure Stephen Miller wasn’t screaming. I think it’s just his default tone is banshee. It’s what happens when oxygen molecules are desperate to exit his unholy lungs.” – TV host Jon Stewart on Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff, screaming at ICE officials to arrest more undocumented immigrants “I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.” – Trump tells his ex-friend he needs to be more grateful “Without me, Trump would have lost the election … Such ingratitude.” – Elon Musk tit for tats on X “It’s…