MEDIA AND DIGITAL DEMOCRACY WAYNE HOPE is an associate profes- sor in the School of Communication Studies, AUT University. A stirring parade of political villains

No Left Turn: The distortion of New Zealand’s history by greed, bigotry and right-wing politics, by Chris Trotter. Auck- land: Random House, 2007. 384pp. ISBN 9781869418090

HE mid-1980s was a turning Tpoint in New Zealand’s eco- corporatised and, subsequently, sold nomic and political history. Under to private corporations. the fourth Labour government the The magnitude of these changes corporate sector was convulsed by enabled business leaders, governing finance driven takeover activity. elites and compliant journalists to Finance Minister Roger Douglas, rewrite history. New Zealand had other senior cabinet ministers, Treas- been, apparently, a decrepit, over- ury and the Reserve Bank unleashed regulated economy; a Polish shipyard a far reaching new right policy agen- with insufficient restaurants and da favourable to corporate and finan- poor coffee. This stark recollection, cial interests. Banking and finance tempered by a condescending wistful- were deregulated, the New Zealand ness for ‘old’ New Zealand, became dollar was floated and a goods and embedded within popular culture. services tax introduced. Meanwhile From Te Papa Museum to the state energy, telecommunications Holmes Show modern history was and railway infrastructures were mulched into nostalgia for the ‘golden

PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 13 (2) 2007 211

PJRSept07.indd 211 10/4/07 4:03:38 AM MEDIA AND DIGITAL DEMOCRACY years’ and the ‘way we were’. The traders and small farmers combined net result has been amnesia. Beyond to elect a succession of Liberal academia, public debate about New Reform governments. Their long Zealand’s history has been intermit- term achievements were the introduc- tent at best. tion of a modern pastoral economy Against this background, Chris and the inauguration of a full, citizen- Trotter’s No Left Turn is a passionate based franchise. attempt to stir up historical argument Consequently, previously exclud- and cause political trouble. Accord- ed economic and social perspectives ingly, the book’s frontpiece subtitle, began to inform government policy. ‘the distortion of New Zealand’s his- A raft of labour and social reform tory by greed, bigotry and right wing legislation signified the beginnings of politics’ is superimposed upon a long, a welfare state and industrial relations blood red droplet. Underneath, is a system. Trotter outlines these deve- cover photo of a 1950s street confron- lopments and traces the subsequent tation between protesting workers and emergence of class-based unionism baton wielding police. in New Zealand. Over subsequent chapters, During the early 1900s as real Trotter explains how key phases of wages declined, worker militancy New Zealand history were shaped rose, especially among miners and by institutionalised power and po- watersiders. With characteristic litical struggle. Along the way major verve, Trotter recounts the rise of villains are identified, paraded and the Red Federation led and/or sup- held to account. During the colonisa- ported by the likes of , tion phase we observe how Edward Pat Hickey, , Wakefield’s land speculation schemes and Harry Holland (eventual founding overruled the customary rights of leader of the New Zealand Labour Maori and exploited the aspirations Party). The class interests at stake of lowly settlers. Similarly, Thomas in the Waihi miner strike of 1912 Russell, commercial lawyer and and the great strike of 1913 are well founder of the Bank of New Zealand described, as are the confrontations is vilified for on-selling confiscated involving protesting workers, police Maori land to settlers and legalising and vigilante farmers. the process. From here, Trotter lays out an During the late 1880s and 1890s oppositional version of early to mid- urban workers, manufacturers, small 20th century New Zealand politics. In

212 PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 13 (2) 2007

PJRSept07.indd 212 10/4/07 4:03:38 AM MEDIA AND DIGITAL DEMOCRACY his chronology of tales we learn how government, the mainstream media World War One turned New Zealand and the Federation of Labour ex-com- soldiers into Imperial cannon folder, municated dissident union leaders. At despite local resistance to the draft, this point one could argue, from a left how conservative politicians closed perspective, that New Zealand was down popular, dissenting voices indeed a state-regulated society; anti- during the great depression and how strike legislation allowed the govern- the first Labour government founded ment to arrest citizens and search a modern social democratic political property without warrant, prohibit economy upon agriculture, import public meetings, censor publications protected manufacturing, credit crea- and prosecute anybody offering food tion, infrastructural development, full to strikers. employment and welfare provision. Meanwhile, better off New In emphasising the progressive Zealanders entered a safe world of nature of these latter accomplish- suburbanising materialism centred ments, Trotter undercuts the familiar around private property, motorways New Right retrospective of burgeon- and the automobile. In a fascinat- ing regulation and declining eco- ing chapter entitled ‘The Auckland nomic freedom. Although this critical that never was’, Trotter argues that task has already been performed by another future was possible. left political economists and histori- Drawing upon the urban his- ans it needs repeating for a popular tory research of Chris Harris Trotter readership. The same can be said of reveals how a small group of émigre the 1950s, a decade much rebuked for visionaries in the Ministry of Works its Cold War hysteria. and the Department of Housing fash- At the time of writing, one re- ioned a detailed blueprint for greater actionary New Zealand journalist Auckland premised upon the devel- has labelled a certain long-deceased opment of public housing and public scholar-diplomat along with a former, transport corridors. Their vision prominent civil servant as Soviet was extinguished by a right-leaning spies without supporting evidence. Labour government from 1946 to Nowadays, McCarthyism is a retro 1949 and by the McCarthyite National curiosity. However, as Trotter reminds government of 1951. Thus, New us, it was once official doctrine. Zealand’s largest city became what During the 1951 waterfront lock- it is today; a low density, suburban out, Holland’s National dystopia of traffic jams, shopping

PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 13 (2) 2007 213

PJRSept07.indd 213 10/4/07 4:03:38 AM MEDIA AND DIGITAL DEMOCRACY malls and real estate speculation. political elites. This case could have The following chapter, ‘Savage’s been strengthened further with refer- children’ has less analytical focus. ence to Jane Kelsey`s work on state Capitalist restructuring, party politics restructuring, globalisation and ‘third and union struggle are intermingled way’ politics. with the emergence of new social Trotter’s epilogue contains a movements focused upon the environ- summary tirade against the purveyors ment, nuclear proliferation, apartheid of ‘economic exploitation and social South Africa and United States impe- injustice’. In effect, New Zealand rialism. Trotter recalls these tumultu- villains of the 19th and early to ous times without asking the central mid-20th century are lined up with question; were labour-left ideals their New Right descendants. Thus, reconciliable with those of the new Edward Wakefield stands alongside social movements? Ruth Richardson (New Zealand’s In this respect the growing Maori Far Right finance minister 1990- struggle for the reparation of land, 91). Contemporary problems of language and culture deserved special political agency and coalition build- consideration.Under a new generation ing within a branch economy are left of leadership tribal, urban-based and unaddressed. nationwide forums rejected the ‘col- Then again, with the parade of ony to nation’ story as a distortion of villains on display, a more enjoyable history. Here, one should ask: to what task presents itself. Let’s all give them extent is this perspective compatible a good kicking. with a left-labour reconstruction of the national past? Over the final two chapters the causes and consequences of the new right policy agenda are well consid- ered. Trotter knows this territory well, as a former political activist with the breakaway New Labour Party and as a partisan journalist. He also draws skilfully from the writings of Hugh Oliver, Brian Roper and Bruce Jesson to illustrate the collusions of interest among corporate, public servant and

214 PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 13 (2) 2007

PJRSept07.indd 214 10/4/07 4:03:39 AM