The Covid Chronicles by Paul Little

$37.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Current Affairs

The dramatic story of New Zealand's response to a global pandemic. For the first time in history, on 15 March 2020 the New Zealand government closed the country's borders. What followed was a story unprecedented in almost every way imaginable. Featuring Finance Minister Grant Robertson, science commun icator Siouxsie Wiles, Queenstown Mayor Jim Boult, funeral directors Francis and Kaiora Tipene, Student Volunteer Army founder Sam Johnson, the Prime Minister's Chief Science Adviser Juliet Gerrard, businesswoman Jenene Crossnan and Auckland City Missioner Chris Farrelly - from a kura kaupapa principal to real estate agents: The Covid Chronicles is a multi-stranded account of one of the most extraordinary times in Aotearoa's history, and the lessons we must heed for our future. ...Show more

The Quiet Forest The Case Against Aerial 1080 by Fiona M F McQueen

$35.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Current Affairs | Reading Level: near fine

This informative and well-researched book by Fiona McQueen drives a hole through the New Zealand Department of Conservation's mantra that the deadly and indiscriminate 1080 poison is necessary to protect native birds and other fauna. Anyone who genuinely cares about New Zealand's wonderful environment c an not help but be horrified at the tale that is told. The more people who are informed on this issue, the better and this book describes this mass poisoning programme with frankness and fairness. And very easy to read. ...Show more

The Road To Hell: State violence against children in post war New Zealand by STANLEY ELIZABETH

$45.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Current Affairs

From the 1950s to the 1980s, the New Zealand government took more than 100,000 children from experiences of strife, neglect, poverty or family violence and placed them under state care in residential facilities. In homes like Epuni and Kingslea, Kohitere and Allendale, the state took over as parent. The state failed. Within institutions, children faced abysmal conditions, limited education and social isolation. They endured physical, sexual and psychological violence, as well as secure cells, knock-out sedatives and electro-convulsive therapy. This book tells the story of 105 New Zealanders who experienced this mass institutionalisation. Informed by thousands of pages of Child Welfare accounts, letters, health reports, legal statements as well as interviews, Stanley tells the children's story: growing up in homes characterised by violence and neglect; removal into the State's 'care' network; daily life in the institutions; violence and punishment; and the legacy of this treatment for victims today. This book contains personal, first-hand accounts, allowing its subjects to speak for themselves. ...Show more

Wellbeing Economics : Future Directions for New Zealand (BWB Texts) by Paul Dalziel

$15.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Current Affairs

Seventy-five years after Labour's social security reforms of the 1930s, it is time for a major shift in how New Zealand regards the wellbeing of its people. Instead of measuring economic growth for its own sake, we should be assessing how well it enables New Zealanders to lead 'the kinds of lives they v alue and have reason to value'. Wellbeing economics is famously defined by Professor Amartya Sen as: 'the expansion of the "capabilities" of people to lead the kinds of lives they value and have reason to value'. Exploring the wellbeing economics concept of 'value-added growth', this analysis spans from personal to national growth, calling for New Zealand's transformation from the traditional 'welfare state' to a progressive 'wellbeing state'. ...Show more

The Piketty Phenomenon : New Zealand Perspectives (BWB Texts)

$16.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Current Affairs | Series: BWB Texts

Few books have had the global impact of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century. An overnight bestseller, Piketty's assessment that inherited wealth will always grow faster, on average, than earned wealth has energised debate. Hailed as 'bigger than Marx' (The Economist) or dismissed as 'me dieval' (Wall Street Journal), the book is widely acknowledged as having significant economic and political implications.Collected in this BWB Text are responses to this phenomenon from a diverse range of New Zealand economists and commentators. These voices speak independently to the relevance of Piketty's conclusions. Is New Zealand faced with a one-way future of rising inequality? Does redistribution need to focus more on wealth, rather than just income? Was the post-war Great Convergence merely an aberration and is our society doomed to regress into a new Gilded Age? ...Show more

Hit and Run: The New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the Meaning of Honour by Nicky Hager; Jon Stephenson

$35.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Current Affairs | Reading Level: Near Fine

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 blown up. The operation was personally approved by the prime minister via phone from New Zealand. More missions against the group of fighters and more potential crimes of war followed, including the beating and torture of a prisoner. Afterwards no one took responsibility. The New Zealand military denied the facts and went to great lengths to cover things up. This book is the story of those events. It is, at heart, about the meaning of honour; about who we want to be and what we believe in as New Zealanders. ...Show more

Rottenomics: The Story of New Zealand's Leaky Buildings Disaster by Peter Dyer

$40.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Current Affairs

For over 25 years our building industry, economy and Government have failed to provide this basic guarantee: new buildings will not rot. Leaky buildings are the result of an unfortunate confluence of industrial, legislative, historical and cultural factors. Collectively, these elements stubbornly contin ue to defy a full and final resolution. Featuring personal stories of homeowners faced with insurmountable repair costs of hundreds of thousands to their 'dream home', often leading to sickness, depression and financial loss. And revealed for the first time, withheld Government reports that estimate the total cost of leaky dwellings at $47 Billion. Rottenomics is an engaging expose into a national crisis that refuses to go away. ...Show more

Beyond These Shores - Aotearoa and the World (BWB Texts) by Nina Hall

$15.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Current Affairs

In recent years, more people are calling for an independent, values-based foreign policy and parties of all political stripes are looking for new ideas to achieve that. This book brings together a diverse group of New Zealanders to outline their visions for New Zealands role in the world. It sparks a co nversation about how we can exercise leadership and influence in the international arena. ...Show more

Protecting Paradise: 1080 and the Fight to Save New Zealand's Wildlife by Dave Hansford

$35.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Current Affairs

New Zealand’s native wildlife is in crisis, withering under a relentless assault from rats, stoats, possums and other introduced pests. If we are to realise the vision of a predator-free New Zealand, we must defend our biodiversity more doggedly, across a broader front than we do now.   1080 poison rema ins one of the crucial tools in this fight. As pest control techniques have been honed, 1080 has prevented the loss of crucial remnant populations of native birds and other creatures. Yet it is condemned by vocal and passionate opponents. This book examines their arguments, and finds conclusively that the many claims made by 1080 opponents are plain wrong. 1080, the way it’s used today, does not kill more birds than it saves. Our forests are silent, not because pests are being controlled, but because they are out of control.   After more than 60 years of research into 1080, there remains no evidence that it persists in the human food chain, or causes cancer, or harms our waterways. Claims that 1080 could be replaced by trapping have confused two very different tools and ignore a number of glaring realities. In Protecting Paradise, Dave Hansford argues that it is time for New Zealanders to take a stand. No matter how unpalatable you find the idea of spreading poison through our forest, the choice is stark. Either we use 1080, or we watch more of our native wildlife vanish.   If you are confused by the many conflicting claims around 1080 – if you just want to get to the truth around one of the most critical environmental policy decisions we face – this book was written for you. ...Show more

Polluted Inheritance : New Zealand's Freshwater Crisis (BWB Texts) by Mike Joy

$15.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Current Affairs | Series: BWB Texts | Reading Level: Very Good

New Zealand's dairy industry is big business.  But what are the hidden - and not so hidden - costs of intensive farming?  Evidence presented here by ecologist Mike Joy demonstrates that intensive dairy farming has degraded our freshwater rivers, streams and lakes to such a degree that we face an environ mental crisis.  This perilous situation, he argues, has arisen primarily through governmental policy that prioritises short-term economic growth over long-term environmental sustainability.  This BWB Text is a call to arms, urging New Zealand to change course in the face of environmental degredation that risks the wellbeing of future generations - and all life as we know it on these islands. ...Show more

No Country for Old Maids?: Talking Differently About the New Zealand 'Man Drought'(BWB Texts) by Hannah August

$15.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Current Affairs | Series: BWB Texts | Reading Level: Very Good

In 2013, there were over 66,000 more women between the ages of 25-49 living in New Zealand than there were men.  This so-called 'man drought' is a hot topic for journalists and academics alike, who comment on how the situation might affect New Zealand women's chances of finding love.  Yet they rarely st op to ask more than a handful of women whether they're actually bothered by this lack of men.  In this BWB Text, Hannah August does just that, integrating interview material, statistics, science and cultural commentary in order to demonstrate why we need to talk differently about the 'man drought'. ...Show more

Shouting Zeros and Ones: Digital technology, ethics and policy in New Zealand: 2020 (BWB Texts) by Andrew Chen

$15.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Current Affairs