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"Early in 2014 Nicky Hager was leaked a large number of email and online conversations from Cameron Slater's Whale Oil blog. Many of these were between Slater and his personal allies on the hard right, revealing an ugly and destructive style of politics. But there were also many communications with the prime minister's office and other cabinet ministers in the National Government. They show us a side of Prime Minister John Key and his government of which most New Zealanders are completely unaware. Key has constructed an easy-going and relaxed public image, declaring to the public that 'there's no room for negative campaigning in New Zealand'. The reality is very different. His government has...
The 'war on terror' in Afghanistan and beyond has been the longest foreign war in New Zealand history, yet most New Zealanders know almost nothing about their country's part in it. For ten years, nearly everything controversial or potentially unpopular was kept secret, and obscured by a steady flow of military public relations stories. Based on thousands of leaked New Zealand military and intelligence documents, extensive interviews with military and intelligence officers and eye-witness accounts from the soldiers on the ground, Nicky Hager tells the story of these years. New Zealand was far more involved than the public realised in this crucial period of world history. He tells how the military and bureaucracy used the war on terror to pursue private agendas, even when this meant misleading and ignoring the decisions of the elected government.
'Surveillance is confusing. Should we give up on expecting privacy because we're all being watched, or stop worrying because it's all exaggerated? Actually, neither of those is right. A much better idea is to find a book that is sane, well researched and easy to read, so you understand, don't fear needlessly, and can do something about the things that are wrong. A book like this one.' Nicky Hager Revelations about the nature and extent of global surveillance programs have shocked many. But what are their implications in the long term – and for New Zealand? Mapping New Zealand’s role in international intelligence-gathering from the Second World War to the present day, Kathleen Kuehn asks probing questions about the behaviour of both the state and corporations in our current ‘surveillance society’. Ultimately these questions force us to confront the way we value our individual privacy and civil liberties, for – as we often hear – why should any of this matter if we have nothing to hide?
In August 2010, a New Zealand soldier died in a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan. In retaliation, the New Zealand SAS led a raid on two isolated villages in search of the fighters they suspected were responsible. They all knew the rules. Prior to firing weapons, their freshly issued orders said, `the commander approving the strike must determine that no civilians are present.¿ If they could not assess whether civilians were present, firing was prohibited. But it all went horribly wrong. None of the fighters were found but, by the end of the raid, 21 civilians were dead or wounded. Most were children or women, including a three-year-old girl who was killed. A dozen houses had been burnt or...
What can Americans concerned about the environment learn about a campaign to promote clearcutting in New Zealand? This book offers a playbook for a PR effort that could take place anywhere -- and demonstrates the lengths logging firms and governments will go to get what they want. It's a blueprint for an end run around democracy in New Zealand, in Europe, in the United States.Most of us have no way of knowing what goes on behind the news: what isn't true, what we are not being told and who is pulling the strings. This book changes that. Using the example of environmental controversy -- in this case logging of West Coast native forests by the New Zealand state-owned Timberlands West Coast -- ...
This book goes to the heart of why many New Zealanders feel disillusioned about politics. Nicky Hager believes that the way politicians and others in politics conduct themselves - the games they play to advance themselves - can harm the whole political system. Exposing their activities is the first step towards change.
The shocking, and completely true story of blogger Cameron Slater known as Whale Oil and his systematic online attack of Auckland businessman Matt Blomfield. In May 2012 Auckland businessman Matt Blomfield found himself the target of a vicious online attack, the work of Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater. The attack came out of the blue, destroying Blomfields reputation and career, stealing his identity, turning him into a social outcast. Two years after the online attack began an armed gunman came to Blomfields house and tried to kill him. He only survived because the intruders shotgun misfired. But Matt Blomfield decided to fight back. He spent seven years and many hundreds of thousands of dollars taking a defamation case against Slater, which he ultimately won, establishing that Slater's vendetta was based entirely on lies. This book is a remarkable piece of investigative writing, a story of courage and tenacity, which reminds us how important it is to stand up to bullies, and to be reassured that in the end they do not always win.
In November, 2000 - in the middle of the Royal Commission on genetic engineering - the Government learned that a shipment of GE contaminated sweet corn seeds had been planted in three regions of New Zealand.
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By any measure, New Zealand must confront monumental issues in the years ahead. From the future of work to climate change, wealth inequality to new populism – these challenges are complex and even unprecedented. Yet why does New Zealand’s political discussion seem so diminished, and our political imagination unequal to the enormity of these issues? And why is this gulf particularly apparent to young New Zealanders? These questions sit at the centre of Max Harris’s ‘New Zealand project’. This book represents, from the perspective of a brilliant young New Zealander, a vision for confronting the challenges ahead. Unashamedly idealistic, The New Zealand Project arrives at a time of global upheaval that demands new conversations about our shared future.