New Zealand Listener Issue 46, 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: Sally Blundell, Jennifer Bowden, Steve Braunias, Helena Wiśniewska Brow, Russell Brown, Sarah Catherall, Donna Chisholm, Jane Clifton, Michael Cooper, Sarah Daniell, Anthony Ellison, Nevil Gibson, Peter Griffin, Charlotte Grimshaw, Michele Hewitson, Jonathan Kronstadt, Danyl McLauchlan, Graham Reid, Josie Shapiro, Craig Sisterson, Chris Slane, Alice Tappenden, Tim Upperton, 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…

Two decades ago as a Year 12 student in Christchurch, I made the best decision of my school years. A compulsive overachiever, I had been placed in the statistics class a year early and asked if I could sit the scholarship exam. When the answer was “not until Year 13” I figured there was no point in taking the class twice. After brief consideration I switched to the only other available subject in the same time slot: art history. It ended up being a move that would shape my future studies and career. On my first day I sat in a dim classroom as Blair Johnson – a man many will remember as the best teacher they’ve ever had – set up an old-school slide projector. The carousel clunked and…

Rebecca Macfie’s inspiring and relentless pursuit for workplace truth, accountability and justice since the Pike River mine exploded is an example of journalism at its best and made for a truly gripping Listener feature (“Doing without the canary”, November 15). There is so much present, past and future sadness wreathed through her words. That sadness is only increased by the knowledge that the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety, Brooke van Velden, will never read the article. Peter Beyer (Auckland) NEW GENERATION One of the things that has concerned me about the government’s focus on renewing gas exploration is the fact there are alternatives that are not being explored. Recently I attended a presentation by Rod Carr, the former climate change commissioner. This was particularly interesting because many of the…

For Competition No 119, we asked for a haiku about President Trump’s White House ballroom. FINALISTS: The wrecking ball strikes! Behold the new edifice For holding Trump’s balls  ‒ Jim McGregor, Papamoa Ballroom turned bullhorn every boast clad in gold leaf History winces  ‒ John Miller Crawford, Auckland When dreams of empire fade, add more gold leaf, that is how you hail the chief  ‒ John Bluck, Pākiri Trump has all the moves His pants dancing loose and free With ballroom to spare  ‒ Paul Kelly, Palmerston North East wing demolished Dining room for oligarchs Reaps gold-plated guilt  ‒ Stephen Timperley, Carterton WINNER: If it ain’t baroque don’t fix it, but in its place build the new Versailles  ‒ Chris Greenwood, Motueka For the next Bright Lines, we have the…

“Of course these profits don’t signal a stronger economy. They highlight just how bad New Zealanders are being treated by their banks – especially in terms of how little interest they received on their deposits.” “It’s not surprising. [Winston Peters] has been here for 50 years for goodness’ sake. He has a lot of different views on a lot of different things that are pretty entrenched.”  “Because they’ve failed to run the economy properly, they want to go to the assets of a time when the country was run properly ... and to start to flog those off.”  “Today, Democrats are walking around with a spring in their step like a divorced mom in her 40s whose new haircut just got her carded at two different bars.”  “Best book I’ve…

1. Who in 1992 famously referred to their “annus horribilus”? ❑ Tony Blair ❑ Queen Elizabeth II ❑ George HW Bush ❑ Helmut Kohl 2. In which TV show of the past does a line in the title song ask “Who can turn the world on with her smile”? ❑ The Mary Tyler Moore Show ❑ One Day At a Time ❑ Alice ❑ The Golden Girls 3. Statesman Henry Kissinger was a dedicated fan of which sport? ❑ Baseball ❑ Soccer ❑ Basketball ❑ American football 4. There is a planet around a distant star named after the tūī. ❑ True ❑ False 5. Pain from a stimulus that normally does not cause it is called what? ❑ Dysphagia ❑ Allodynia ❑ Epistaxis ❑ Horripilation 6. Which number in…