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Thank you, Aaron Smale (“Whose privilege is it anyway?” December 7), for exposing the real intent of David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill. Of course, Act, and it seems the coalition government, have always been more focused on removing obstacles standing in the way of corporate exploitation of resources – natural, social and human – than ensuring equity for families and peoples. As te tiriti guaranteed ngā hapū the authority to nurture the natural world, their people and the newcomers, Seymour wants it to mean something that sounds good but does not obstruct those wishing to plunder such resources. It was good to know he hadn’t fooled everybody. Here’s hoping many more of us will see past the weasel words and rally to protect te tiriti as our primary defence against…

The Letters I Have Not Sent was written long ago by American Amos Russel Wells: “I have written them, keen, and sarcastic, and long, with righteously wrathful intent”, etc. But fortunately for the Listener, some letters are sent –we receive many daily –and full of wrathful intent they often are. But the Listener has never run shy of a passionate missive. It’s been my privilege to look after the letters pages for the past two years, and while emotions sometimes run high in the email inbox, you can always be sure of an intelligent response from Listener readers. Sometimes they make us laugh, some impress with a nice turn of phrase and sometimes a short, pithy one says more than one that seeks to defy our…

For the next Bright Lines competition, please send us a haiku on summer heat waves, using 17 syllables set out in three lines of five, seven and five. Don’t forget to include your address with entries. TO ENTER: Send your entry to brightlinescompetition@ aremedia.co.nz with “Bright Lines 74” in the subject line. There are no Bright lines results this week and, due to Christmas deadlines, we have a shorter timeframe for this next challenge. Entries must be received by 10am, Thursday, December 19. THE PRIZE Kai, by Christall Lowe won the Judith Binney Best First Book at the Ockham NZ Book Awards in 2023.…

1. The narrating magpie in Catherine Chidgey’s novel The Axeman’s Carnival is called what? ❑ Rata ❑ Tama ❑ Manu ❑ Kaka 2. The spiked helmet worn by German troops, especially in WWI, was called what? ❑ Fahrvergnügen ❑ Pickelhaube ❑ Stachelwalze ❑ Gesamtkunstwerk 3. Who wrote the novel Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? ❑ Mary Shelley ❑ Charles Dickens ❑ Thomas Hardy ❑ Robert Louis Stevenson 4. Who are the two main child protagonists in Spike Milligan’s Badjelly the Witch? ❑ Ben and Wendy ❑ Tim and Rose ❑ Simon and Sue ❑ Ken and Heather 5. Escamotage means what? ❑ Exciting incident ❑ Cosmetic treatment ❑ Escapology ❑ Trickery 6 What is the meaning of breba? ❑ Early fig ❑ Tar pit ❑ Skin marking ❑ Alcoholic mixture…

“This government is levelling the playing field whether the bureaucracy likes it or not. Come to think of it, it’s probably better if they don’t.” “It certainly seems like the world is going a little crazy right now.” “This would be very sobering news for Pete Hegseth if he wasn’t shitfaced right now.” “How do I feel? Overwhelmed. We all feel like we’ve been under water, literally, for 13 years, and we all just took a breath.” “I suppose there’s kind of an association with tea as an old person’s drink.” “Don’t tell the Prime Minister but I have been [pulling sickies] a little bit. I was meant to be at work yesterday but I snuck away for an hour.” “A lot of insects hear ultrasonic, and a lot of…

The announcement struck the university sector like a thunderbolt out of a clear blue sky, hurled not by Zeus, Thor or Tāwhirimātea but by the coalition government’s nearest equivalent, Judith Collins, Science Minister and goddess of storms. Without warning, she announced that the criteria were changing for grants from the Marsden Fund – the government’s largest, most prestigious research awards, worth $77.7 million this year. Grants would be available to only “core scientific research that helps lift our economic growth and contributes to science with a purpose”. Humanities and social science projects would no longer be eligible. The reaction was swift and vehement. One academic lamented that the government had “defunded the mind”. Most of the blame should go to the Royal Society’s funding panels, which eagerly sealed their own…

Could a fish decide an election? The Maugean skate –an ancient stingraylike creature found only in Tasmania’s brackish estuaries –will be a mystery to most New Zealanders. Just 36 years ago, it was unknown to the world, until its belated discovery. Today, mainland Australians would be hard-pushed to identify the unlovely, flat-bodied, bottom dweller whose lineage goes back to the era of dinosaurs. Yet, the future of Australia’s Labor Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, may well ride on the bony back of the threatened fish that supporters call the thylacine of the seas. Populations of the skate have crashed since 2014 in their remaining habitat, Macquarie Harbour, a shallow fjord on the island’s wild west coast. The surviving skates are estimated to number fewer than 1600. Intensive caged salmon farming in…

Five years ago, in time for the last summer before the pandemic upended us all, the young New Zealand Samoan musician David Feauai-Afaese released a digital EP called Ghost Roads, under the name LEAO. LEAO’s music blended the sunny Samoan pop Feauai-Afaese had grown up with into something like the indie guitar music a Flying Nun fan would love. A couple of weekends ago, a room full of people swayed and smiled to those songs while sheets of drizzle flopped and flapped around Auckland’s Karangahape Rd. It wasn’t so much shelter from the storm as the fun of sharing an umbrella. The occasion was The Others Way, the K Rd precinct’s annual multi-venue music festival. The one-night event has seen some challenging times – it fell prey to Covid lockdowns…

Although running a criminal organisation is still officially frowned upon in Europe, it need not disqualify anyone from helping run the continent. One convicted racketeer served in the European Parliament from behind bars and another gang boss just narrowly missed out on election to the Irish Parliament. Ioannis Lagos, serving 13 years after convictions for running a criminal organisation, received his salary as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and worked, shall we say, from home: a cell in a Greek prison. And last month, it barely troubled hundreds of voters that Gerard “the Monk” Hutch is head of what police regard as Ireland’s second-mostdangerous crime family. He came heartstoppingly close to getting a seat in the Oireachtas, despite being on €100,000 bail, with both the Irish Gardai and…