4 LISTENER MAY 26 2018
LETTERS SUGAR RUSHBeating the constant cravings MY DAD DAGG
The moving memories of John Clarke’s daughterMust-see picks BEST TV
of the weekin Trump’s unreality show?Another grotesque episode NOBEL BEASTCHRONIC PAINWhen suferers can’t
think straightMAY 19-25 2018 NOTED.CO.NZHOME STRETCH
The seven big threats
to KiwiBuildTHE HOUSING CRISISDoes Meghan Markle’s ROYAL BRIDE
racial identity matter?Hard truths
about homes
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● noted.co.nz/the-listener
● twitter.com/nzlistener
● facebook.com/nzlistenerThe round-up of the risks
facing the KiwiBuild pro-
gramme (“Home truths”, May
19) was useful for those of us
not involved in the building
and construction industry.
It is a shame, though, that
the story began in a way that
trivialised the issue of home-
lessness. Housing is a serious
matter, even more so home-
lessness, and deserves to be
framed as such, to engage the
public with the issue.
John Deyell
(Remuera, Auckland)PAYING FOR INFRASTRUCTURE
The May 12 editorial (“No
pain, no gain”) reckons we
are economically literate
enough to know that “one
way or another, we all pay for
infrastructure”.
It then canvasses public-
private partnerships and
government debt, both of
which have the added cost of
a profit for the lenders of the
money.
By all means pay the build-
ers of infrastructure, but there
are other sources of finance – a
bank that we own, for one.
The Reserve Bank has in the
past provided finance for such
things, with minimal inter-
est charged, and with profit
going back to its shareholders- us – by way of government
ownership of the bank.
Forty thousand houses
were built by the first Labour
government using this
mechanism.
As the Ministry of Works
report of 1949 states, “This
action showed ... that it was
possible for the State to use
the country’s credit in creating
new assets for the country.”
Chris Leitch
(Whangarei)
HEROIC BUDGET BLOWOUT
The May 19 Sport column
about a new stadium for
Christchurch suggests that
those haggling over its con-
struction should reflect on the
Sydney Opera House coming
in over budget by 1357%
(A$102 million instead of
A$7 million ), and few people
thinking it was not value for
money.
What isn’t mentioned is that
between November 1957 and
September 1986, A$105 mil-
lion was raised entirely from
lotteries for its construction.
It was not funded by ever-
increasing demands on local
ratepayers.
Peter Spiller
(St Albans, Christchurch)ANOTHER BOSWELL WRITES
I must belatedly join Don
Boswell (Letters, May 19) in
his defence of his uncle, CWThe letter of the week
winner will
receive three
blocks each
of Whittaker’s
new flavours:
Creamy Caramel
and 62% Dark
Salted Caramel.Letter of the week
Listener writers have
figured prominently
in the good books of
the judges deciding on
national journalism
and literature prizes.
At the 2018 Voyager
Media Awards, our
critics dominated
the reviewer of the
year category with
book reviewers
Charlotte Grimshaw,
Catherine Woulfe and
TV reviewer Diana
Wichtel all nominated.
The prize went to
Grimshaw, who the
judges described as
“that rare critic: she
knows what she’s talking
about, writes with wit and
brio, and passes judgment
without fanning her ego”.
In other categories,
Rebecca Macfie won the
prize for feature writing
(business and personal
finance) for a portfolio that
the judges said “left no stone
unturned ... in examining
the environmental and
economic risks associated
with climate change”. Macfie
is writing a biography of
Helen Kelly but will continue
freelancing for the Listener.
Senior writer Donna
Chisholm was joint winner
of the science and technol-
ogy award for her work in the
Listener and sister magazine
North & South.
Tom Scott, whose career
famously began at theListener in the 1970s,
was presented with
an outstanding
achievement award,
in recognition of his
decades as a magazine
and newspaper car-
toonist and writer.
At the 2018 Ockham
New Zealand Book
Awards, Wichtel was
a double winner for
her family memoir
Driving to Treblinka:
A long search for a lost
father. She took away
both the Royal Society Te
Apārangi Award for Gen-
eral Non-Fiction and the
EH McCormick Best First
Book Award of General
Non-Fiction.
The book followed her
search for her father, a Polish
Jew who escaped the Holo-
caust and settled in Canada.
Published by Awa Press,
the memoir had its begin-
nings in a 2011 Listener
story Wichtel wrote about
searching for her father’s
roots and his life in Poland
during World War II.
Scott’s 2017 autobiography
Drawn Out: A Seriously Funny
Memoir was also shortlisted
for the non-fiction prize.Why Pip Adam’s The New
Animals deserved the big prize
at the Ockhams, page 52.Listener writers awarded
From top, Diana Wichtel,
Charlotte Grimshaw,
Rebecca Macie, Donna
Chisholm and Tom Scott.