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Fiasco, Jon Johansson

Hit and Run: The New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the Meaning of Honour
Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson
Potton & Burton, $35.00,
ISBN 9780947503390

As someone who has been around the political traps a fair while, my heuristic for judging political actors in and outside party politics is not the colour of their political stripe. Rather, there are people one would want to share a trench with; others, one would not – and, although rare, the odd person best sent to the enemy trench for the chaos they would cause. My trench is very multi-partisan as a result, and Nicky Hager, a friend, is emphatically in it. He’s exhibited, over a long time, courage and commitment when challenging the unequal power of the state over matters mostly concerning their coercive powers, as well as showing strength of character to withstand the blowback for doing so.

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Posted in Media, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Devouring the monster within, Jon Johansson

Crossing the Floor: The Story of Tariana Turia Helen Leahy Huia, $45.00, ISBN 9781775501633 In Helen Leahy’s Crossing the Floor: The Story of Tariana Turia, a tale is told about Tūtaeporoporo, a taniwha taking the form of a shark. Tūtaeporoporo

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Posted in Biography, Non-fiction, Review

Stodge, serious analysis and spicy bits, Bryan Gould

Moments of Truth: The New Zealand General Election of 2014 Jon Johansson and Stephen Levine (eds) Victoria University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9781776560493 The 2014 general election campaign was, on the face of it, one of the most dramatic of modern

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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

MMP here to stay, Barry Gustafson

Kicking the Tyres: The New Zealand General Election and Electoral Referendum of 2011 Jon Johansson and Stephen Levine (eds) Victoria University Press, $50.00, ISBN 9780864738349 Since 1987, New Zealand’s political scientists and journalists have recorded and analysed the country’s triennial

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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Must do better, Jon Johansson

Political Leadership in New Zealand Raymond Miller and Michael Mintrom (ed) Auckland University Press, $50.00, ISBN 1869403584 One of my favourite leadership stories derives from the French Revolution. A self-styled revolutionary leader is enjoying a typically Parisian delight, his morning

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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

In their natural habitat, Barry Gustafson

Political Animals: Confessions of a Parliamentary Zoologist Jane Clifton Penguin, $29.95, ISBN 0143019643 Two Titans: Muldoon, Lange and Leadership Jon Johansson Dunmore Press, $34.95, ISBN 1877399019 I have always loved Jane Clifton. I mean her well-informed, insightful and quirky newspaper

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Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
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