What would you march for?

Marches, malls and more

Kia ora and welcome to The Weekend with Madeleine Chapman

When I was a junior writer at The Spinoff, Simon Wilson joined the team as Auckland editor. He’d been the editor of Metro for many years and was easily the most experienced journalist in the room. So if we both happened to be working late on stories, I’d pick his brain about his career and, eventually, his life.

One night, the topic of the 1981 Springbok Tour came up. I was not alive then and knew very little about it beyond the YA novels I’d read in primary school and occasional news articles on anniversaries of the protests. Simon was alive, and told me that he was part of a protest at Wellington Airport. In fact, he had run onto the runway. I was so shocked, mostly because I had never considered that Simon had participated in historic events, only that he had written about them.

As someone who did not grow up around protests, they always felt like another world to me. A world where people were so angered by something they were willing to paint signs, march in the streets and even get arrested to make their point. It surprised me to learn as a teenager that everyone in those protests was just a regular person who cared about something.

A lot of journalism work involves talking to people protesting something. It might be a 50,000-strong hīkoi or 100 workers striking. It could be a whole community advocating for their needs or just one family who’s been through a shocking ordeal and doesn’t want anyone else to experience what they have. Even those funny photos of residents with their arms folded, looking sternly at a cycleway, are protest shots.

Journalism is all about writers sharing other people’s protests, so it’s rather ironic that once you become a journalist it’s frowned upon to be a protester yourself. As media, it’s easy to use work as a reason to stay away from protests in a personal capacity (even things as simple as an online petition) but the sheer volume of demonstrations this year has made me wonder what I, free from the rules of the media, would paint a sign and march in the street for.

Accompanying the hīkoi this week was a 280,000-signature petition to scrap the Treaty principles bill. It was suggested that this might be the biggest petition in New Zealand history. Turns out it’s not even close. Rather bleakly, the biggest petition ever presented to parliament was in 1985 and signed by a whopping 800,000 New Zealanders (though it was later suggested to be closer to 600,000). The cause? Opposing the decriminalisation of homosexuality. 

For tens of thousands of New Zealanders, that would have been the first time they put their name in support of a cause. For many, it would also be the last. A single, public expression of opinion, their first time feeling enough fear or anger to protest.

The petition didn’t work, and I’m sure a huge portion of New Zealand was angry about it. But it’s interesting to note the sheer volume of opposition to something that would positively impact the lives of relatively few and not at all impact the lives of everyone else.

Something like the Treaty principles bill would affect every New Zealander in some way, but Māori would be impacted the most. 

A new narrative in this week’s hīkoi was the massive growth in Pākehā participation compared to the foreshore and seabed one 20 years ago. I saw people posting from the protest who I’ve never seen post anything remotely political before, let alone show up in person at a demonstration. For many, it would be their first time having a reason to march. Will it continue?

This week on Behind the Story

Last week, staff writer Lyric Waiwiri-Smith attended the Auckland event of the national apology to survivors of abuse in care. That historic event was quickly followed by another, with the nine-day hīkoi arriving in parliament to protest a number of government decisions, particularly the Treaty Principles bill. Lyric and Ātea editor Liam Rātana reported on the hīkoi as it passed through Auckland. As journalists, these were big stories, but as Māori journalists, they held an even greater weight and sense of responsibility to tell them in the right way. It’s a responsibility not shared by most other journalists in New Zealand, and one that can be hard to leave at work at the end of the day. Lyric and Liam join editor Madeleine Chapman on Behind the Story to discuss the apology, the hīkoi, and the challenge of separating work and life when your work involves reporting on your own lived experiences.

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

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New law gives up to 3,480 Samoan elders back their right to NZ citizenship

It has been Teanau Tuiono’s honour and privilege to shepherd the Citizenship (Western Samoa Restoration) Amendment Bill through the House. The bill passed on Wednesday, marking another step for Pasifika justice in Aotearoa. It addresses an injustice created by a law rushed through by the Muldoon government 42 years ago which denied New Zealand citizenship to Western Samoans. Those affected by the 1982 law will now be eligible for citizenship as of right, instead of having to go through the standard residency and citizenship application processes.

The bill was plucked from the “Biscuit Tin” in August last year, but the journey began long ago, writes Teanau.

Private vehicles, public feelings

Of all the stereotypes about poets, perhaps the most enduring cliche is that poets can’t drive. Bob Dylan said it. Jo Shapcott said it. Wendy Cope said it. Martin Amis said it, but Martin Amis doesn’t count, because Martin Amis is a novelist, and novelists lie for money. 

The cliche satisfies because it confirms all our deepest suspicions about poets, which is that they’re a congenitally useless demographic who have chosen to live in a state of suspended childhood. From a public safety perspective, it makes sense not to let such people behind the wheel. Hera Lindsay Bird investigates whether poets really are a bunch of passenger princesses.

Banks are grappling with a scam ‘crisis’ while Facebook profits from it

This week’s chunky Cover Story is written by none other than our founder Duncan Greive. The spark for the story would have been dystopian a few years ago, but is now routine, almost unremarkable. A pensioner sees an advertisement starring prime minister Chris Luxon, encouraging investment in cryptocurrency. Within weeks she transfers over $200,000 through a series of accounts and exchanges. She’s been caught by sophisticated scammers.

Running scams on Facebook featuring a fake celebrity has been a huge business for years – in 2018, it was often Facebook founder Mark Zuckerbeg himself with the favoured currency iTunes gift cards. These ads are part of a vast scam ecosystem running in New Zealand, one which the government’s New Zealand Cyber Security Centre estimates costs us $3.8m per week, close to $200m per year. So why does the social giant not receive any scrutiny or expectation from the government?

The stories Spinoff readers spent the most time with this week

• Following last week’s incredible ranking of Christchurch malls, we finally decided it was now or never on doing the mammoth ranking of all the malls in Auckland. Published yesterday, it’s already the story readers spent the most time with this week

From malls to hīkoi, the rest of the top five this week:

• My opinion on who gets to have an opinion on the hīkoi and who must remain ‘impartial’

• Our live blog from the day of the hīkoi Live updates: Hīkoi concludes as attention shifts to inside parliament

• Lyric Waiwiri-Smith catalogues the best signs from the final day of the Toitū Te Tiriti hīkoi

• Toby Manhire outlines how Luxon’s position on the Treaty Principles Bill has changed over time

Recommended reads for your weekend

• It’s a shambles, but it’s not too late to halt the death spiral of our public health system, argues health sector expert Dr David Galler.

• Let Jean Teng show you how to do yum cha right in her beginners guide.

• This week the three opposition parties showed a united front, writes Toby Manhire, but what about at election time?

• A group of long-time Māori activists have handed over the baton of protest. Liam Rātana takes a peek behind the Toitū Te Tiriti hīkoi.

• Stewart Sowman-Lund chats to acclaimed British journalist, podcaster and documentarian Jon Ronson about conspiracies and cycleways.

• Our resident advice columnist Hera Lindsay Bird weighs up a niceness problem.

• A new campaign is targeting Kiwisaver funds with investments in Motorola, a company that supplies Israel’s military. Gabi Lardies assesses investments and divestments.

• As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders relationship with money, a clothes-mad 20-something who walks everywhere explains her approach to spending and saving.

• Stewart Sowman-Lund consults a handwriting expert to find out what our politicians’ signatures tell us about their personalities.

• Joel MacManus lays out the findings from two significant new surveys about drugs in Aotearoa released this week. We’re drinking and smoking less, but most other recreational drugs are becoming cheaper.

Reader feedback of the week

• On All 33 malls in Auckland ranked from worst to best

"Thoughts:

I felt sad to see the Plaza at the beginning (last place) of the list but fully understand why.  The roadworks ensure people can’t tell how to get in and I’m sure many think it’s already shut.  Always sad to see an old fave in a death spiral.  

While Manukau is mostly a very good mall, the thing it really lacks since Whitcoulls pulled out is a book/stationery shop.  It’s close to my work and convenient in every other way.  I thought mention was due to the Japan Mart and Rivendell, an odd little shop selling crystals and incense and tarot cards which has been there since I can remember (early 90s?).  I cannot believe how it just keeps hanging on.  If it ever closes I will wail. I don’t even buy anything there.  I just need it to be okay."

• On Was the hīkoi New Zealand’s largest-ever protest?

"After the hikoi I asked my 10 yr old son to  share me his reflections this is what he text me: 'Mum this is my reflection on how it was today.'

What it was like to be at the hikoi:
So many people from other countries where supporting the hikoi to protect our culture from being destroyed tahi rua toru wha seymore is a hoha hoha hoha. I really enjoyed it although my legs were really tired but lots of respect for those who did the longer walk. It was really important to do this for future generations."

Thanks for reading.