The Liberal Agenda – Hager’s ‘Dirty Work’ Review: What it actually reveals and why it matters so much
The current attempt by the Right Wing Trolls is that Nicky’s book is a fizzier.
Failed National Party Cabinet Minister Chris Penk wrote a review of Hager’s book WITHOUT ACTUALLY READING THE BOOK!
The Prime Minister even claimed he had never heard of Nicky Hager FFS!
Nicky is one of our best known investigative journalists, this is his 8th book…
Secret Power: NZs role in te international spy network.
Secrets and Lies: the anatomy of an anti-environmental PR
Seeds of Distrust: The Story of a GE Cover-Up
The Hollow Men: A study in the politics of deception
Other People’s Wars: NZ in Afghanistan, Iraq and the War on Terror
Dirty Politics: How attack politics is poisoning NZs political environment
Hit and Run: The NZ SAS in Afghanistan and the meaning of honour.
Dirty Work: The Taxpayers’ Union and the New Zealand Hard Right
…his work and reputation is beyond reproach.
What Dirty Work highlights is how the Taxpayers’ Union weaponised racism for grift.
The book uncovers the real triggers behind the influence. They received so much money in donations when they promoted racist stereotyping over 3 Waters that they became addicted to the funding and the influence it created and generated.
The Taxpayers’ Union found that when they legitimised the bigotry of old white men, the money came gushing in.
That’s not a story merely about the Right influencing politics, it’s a story about an organisation that had zero traction gaining wealth and power by playing to the most racist urges of our community.
That should be condemned not celebrated.
This matters!
What Hager has done is lift the lid on what was driving the Taxpayers’ Union. It wasn’t the common good, it was out and out racism.
Reading the book reminded me of Louis Theroux’s “Inside the Manosphere” doco that was released this year, where the manosphere operates less like an ideological movement and more like a predatory capitalist enterprise.
Many of the influencers run what amount to online Ponzi schemes, the algorithms of big-tech corporations intentionally amplify misogyny and outrage because it maximizes engagement and corporate.
That’s what the Taxpayers’ Union has found with anti-Māori, anti-Treaty rhetoric.
Simon Wilson over at his new Hopetown Substack makes the case…
Dirty work and the disinfecting sunshine it deserves
The central allegation of Nicky Hager’s new book Dirty Work is that the Taxpayers’ Union (TU), at the instigation of its executive director Jordan Williams, deliberately created a campaign of racial hatred against Māori, as a way to ensure the National Party won the 2023 election.
Hager reveals that the TU turned a relatively obscure argument in 2021 about how water utilities are managed into a major social conflict. The provocation: that Māori were getting something they did not deserve, at the expense of other New Zealanders.
Three Waters. The supposed plot by which “the public would lose control of water” and, because of “co-governance”, Māori would gain “ownership or control”, leading to a “cash-flow to Māori”. It wasn’t true but that didn’t matter. As the TU campaign gathered steam, donations flowed and the political parties of the right – National, Act and NZ First – all jumped aboard.
Much of the campaign was run through other groups, like Hobson’s Pledge and the farm lobby Groundswell, but Williams and the TU stood behind them, coordinating it all.
The outcome has been devastating. Once in government, those three parties of the right turned formerly fringe racist ideas into a central policy platform, infecting everything from the name of the transport agency to school curriculums, from effective healthcare programmes to fruitful partnerships in local government, and so much more. And in our wider society, among a small but busy group of people, a kind of relentless fury has been unleashed.
…Malicious Corporate influencers changed social policy using racist grift and here’s the icing on this shitcake, YOU ARE ALL PAYING MORE FOR WATER THAN YOU WOULD HAVE UNDER 3 WATERS!
We have allowed the Taxpayers’ Union to plumb the darkest parts of NZs racism for money and influence which saw 3 Waters killed off and is now costing us all more!
You. Stupid. Dumb. Rednecks.
You allow your petty bigotries to be manipulated by people who do not have your interests at heart.
That’s why Nicky’s book matters.
Read the Book.
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The cartoon showing horror with iwi says it all. So does the subdued response from.low level Nats tell you everything. Guilty as charged, keep quiet.
All RW voters, read this. “MAORI WERE IN NZ ~400 YEARS BEFORE COLONIALISTS! Don’t you grasp that pertinent fact, or do you consider White people superior? Whatever, you are displaying appalling racism and it has to stop. Maori in NZ are our cultural people, and tourists come to see and enjoy them. They are an integral part of NZ and should be supported, not annihilated. How dare you take this approach – it’s disgraceful and shows the sort of person you are – a smug racist! Look in the mirror it’s isn’t nice is it? Thank you Nicky Hager for showing us how twisted and cruel some people are. Shame on the Taxpayers’ Union and its affiliated ‘rubbish’ organisations. FYI I my parents were both Biritish – I was born here – my ancestors were not settlers! I love NZ but not in its present state!
“ What Dirty Work highlights is how the Taxpayers’ Union weaponised racism for grift.”
I cannot express how true that is. But for all of that truth, it will not change the mindsets of the right and their anti-Te tiriti O Waitangi, anti-Te Reo, and any-Māori rhetoric one little bit. They will continue to argue they are not anti-Māori while simultaneously seeking to demean the treaty, Reo, and the worth of Te Ao Māori in leadership positions at the same time. In short, the followers of those who manufactured hatred toward Māori, now themselves actively seek to manufacture even more hatred toward Māori than used to exist before. It’s become a self-generating engine that will eventually lead to serious civil unrest, and ultimately violence. If anyone doubts the veracity of the right wing’s resentment about Māori, head on over to the comments pages in the NZ Herald for proof.
We’ve been told constantly by the media about what a rising star Penk was. His competence, grasp of policy and moderate approach marked him out for greater things. The New Face of National.
As it turns out, he couldn’t organise a coup in a teapot and then review a book he hasn’t read!
Nationals brave new talent, more like Nationals Stuart Nash..