New Zealand Listener Issue 31, 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  Senior Designer Richard Kingsford Editorial contact listener@aremedia.co.nz Contributors this issue: Philip Armstrong, Russell Brown, Greg Bruce, Sarah Catherall, Jane Clifton, Henry Cooke, Michael Cooper, Greg Dixon, Anthony Ellison, Greg Fleming, Sam Gaskin, Andrea Graves, David Harvey, Michele Hewitson, Bernard Lagan, Amelia Linzey, Danyl McLauchlan, Nicky Pellegrino, Graham Reid, Alex Scott, Chris Slane, Aaron Smale, Fiona Terry, Sarah Watt, Marc Wilson Chief Executive Officer Jane Huxley  General Manager Stuart Dick  Editorial Director Sarah Henry  Head of Digital Melissa Walsh  Senior Digital Content Producer Katie Delany  Sales Director…

I’m a geographer and chief executive. I’m not a ruler. It’s true that brutal acquirers of territory have often had an unrefined sense of geography – think Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan. However, the discipline of geography is much more than territory. Although physical environments are a key preoccupation of geographers, the human and cultural elements of societies are equally influential, if not foundational. Today, geographers are what I call “holistic weavers”, bringing a total-systems view to the table. Rather than invaders, geographers are integrators of facts and views. The scientific method is based on measurable data – hard facts that are impartial and consistent. It’s essential, for example, when you are calibrating a 1000-tonne tunnel boring machine to cut its path exactly as intended. The geographic method starts…

Danyl McLauchlan (Politics, August 2) highlights the sweeping reforms the Minister of Education has overseen, all in a few heady months. If a review of education ministers’ performances similar to the recent Listener finance ministers review was done, Stanford would end up in the Roger Douglas No 1 position – for the same reasons Douglas somehow occupies that slot. Overseeing rapid and meaningful change, all done with dogged determination that the path is the correct one regardless of critique. Although the abandoning of arguable failures such as open-plan classrooms is just one link in what seems to be a failing education chain, it would appear that another more important change is about to come with NCEA clearly in Stanford’s sights. And therein lies the conundrum. NCEA, with all its warts,…

For our Haiku Competition, we asked for a haiku about damaging floods in the Nelson region. FINALISTS: Only yesterday it was a house and a home Gone, like tears in rain ‒ Chris Greenwood, Motueka Dreams covered in muck Nature’s force reshapes the land Resilience stretched ‒ Paul Kelly, Palmerston North Of all the rescues A safe digger’s bucket ride Does not come to mind ‒ Hans Zindel, Palmerston North Deluge broke unbound Mud blanketed livelihoods Apples reached the sea  ‒ Eliza Reed, Kuaotunu Much liquidity Not some cashed-up equity More washed away dreams  ‒ Michael Smythe, Auckland WINNER: It rained a lot, twice There was no need. There had been too much already  ‒ Ann Love, Nelson For the next Bright Lines, we have the Modern Proverb challenge, topic:…

“Trying to think of how many violinists I’ve met so far in my life, maybe 10,000? 15,000? Of all those, Michael was without question the most sincerely passionate about the violin.” “If you’re going to get into discounting by product – this is not a game that we’re playing.” “New Zealand’s support for rainbow communities is grounded in the core human rights principles of equality, dignity and non-discrimination.”  “We should start calling Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis Fisher and Paykel – they’ve got more spin than a front-load washing machine.”  “Oh, Mr Nash, why so rash? Is the Rugby Union so hard up for cash? Though you talk about the Māori, In your phrases sweet and flow’ry, I’m afraid you’ve missed the point, Mr Nash.” …

1. The NZ ensemble Tiny Ruins is led by which singer-songwriter? ❑ Hollie Fullbrook ❑ Bic Runga ❑ Nadia Reid ❑ Benee 2. Nicola Six is a character invented by which author? ❑ Martin Amis ❑ Lionel Shriver ❑ Kurt Vonnegut ❑ Joseph Heller 3. In which film is New York’s Statue of Liberty NOT destroyed? ❑ City of Men ❑ Oblivion ❑ Planet of the Apes ❑ The Adjustment Bureau 4. The “unholy trinity” of 1970s British hard rock and heavy metal traditionally comprise Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and which band? ❑ The Who ❑ Deep Purple ❑ Pink Floyd ❑ Queen 5. Whose tribute known as Towel Day is marked on May 25? ❑ Terry Pratchett ❑ PG Wodehouse ❑ Iain Banks ❑ Douglas Adams 6. Hierophobia is…