Tim Selwyn – Review: Nicky Hager’s Dirty Work

Cover: doesn’t look dirty, more rustic and dusty. Looks like the outline of Pakistan, so maybe a alternative cover from a previous book, like the one on Afghanistan.

Subtitle: “The Taxpayers’ Union and New Zealand’s hard right.” What counts as ”hard right” then?

“Part three of the Dirty politics trilogy” An accidental trilogy – the trilogy we didn’t know we were in – when did he realise it? Is it like Start Wars and he will do a trilogy of prequels after this? The back stories to the current trilogy, featuring a young Roger Douglas, Alan Gibbs etc.

On the back cover it says “the epitome is Jordan Williams” and makes a thesis that racist politics is coming from “secretive and well-funded hard-right groups” rather than from the hard-right  politicians themselves. It concludes with activism: “We need to understand what is going on in able to oppose it. This is the book we have been waiting for.” The critics have responded that we weren’t waiting for it and neither has it delivered – indeed we already knew everything in it. Maybe, but the tattle-tale private gossip is what we are after in a Hager book despite all the profundity of the slowly intoned seriousness of Hager that is what we want – the goss.

Private thoughts, private ramblings, inner dealings and dynamics we could never get from an OIA, a media release or an interview. What do they really think? What are their real motivations? Is Jordan Williams the slimy, mercenary creep he appears to be, or will we find a shred of humanity behind the sleazy reptilian visage? Unlawful corruption – or something approaching it – resulted in Don Brash quitting as National leader after Hager dropped The Hollow Men following the election in 2005, but anything like that isn’t in this book or there would have been consequences within 48 hours and to date there has been zip, so I have no expectations at all that anything illegal would have been revealed here. The quote at the bottom of the back cover is not revelatory – unflattering to their stakeholders, but not an exposé.

I turn firstly to the Index – not because I’m searching for names, but because I naturally start reading books and magazines (though not newspapers) from the back, Japanese style. The first page I encounter is actually the publishing information, one in from the back cover, and it’s so old school. A PO Box. A copyright symbol. What a joy to be holding a book published in the current year! Printed in New Zealand too: NZ ink. It has a copyright notice, but the usual addition that happened this century to say ‘the author asserts their moral rights’ (whatever that means?) is absent. Very old school to eschew moral rights – maybe it goes against Hager’s Maoist, Pol Pot communism or whatever he’s supposed to be that got him tracked by the SIS. I will need the publisher’s permission to do the breathless, conspiratorially-intoned spoken word Youtube video (that I will be practising as I read in a narrative impression combining James Mason and Philip Sherry).

The Index. I’m not going to be in the index, but I’m reading through it anyway. There was a passage in Dirty Politics where the vast right-wing conspiracy of bloggers were referring in emails to me in connection with the blog awards I was involved in. They ridiculed my credulous miscalculation that they weren’t all a cabal of colluding bad faith actors, and they rode me like a carnival pony, so I’m rather glad my name wasn’t in there in those embarrassing circumstances – so I wasn’t in the index. I haven’t had any dealings with the Taxpayers’ Union or Jordan Williams and his shallow pool of astro-turf amebae and so am exposed to a much lower risk of reputational harm in this one, thank Christ!

Now, it’s at this point, having trawled the index, that I ponder the shear shittiness of the pejoratives. Some are irksome, ‘Fake government waste campaign,’ while others like the sub headings are just snide. But it is an art form and the shittiness can be delivered with finesse. Some people get nothing but a string of page numbers while others get multiple subs indented with the most appalling appellations: u-turns and embraces race politics, drops race politics, resumes race politics, inventing untrue allegations, etc. The most mentioned names: Ayling, Brash, Farrar, Franks, O’Brien, Seymour, Slater, Williams – the toxic octet, the tentacles of the Atlas octopus. Other characters have a vague familiarity: Luigi Wewege – wasn’t that the baritone in a comic opera about a clown in the court of the Medici? ‘Misogynous 35’ – is that referring to page 35, referring to the number of instances, or referring to Jordan Williams’ Tinder profile? We are about to discover – or re-discover – who these shitty, grifting hate-mongers are. There is a little squashed bug – a flying ant – on the name Jade Paul under Ani O’Brien, so if that gnat has any superstitious implications I will certainly let you know.

Then I notice two mistakes – surnames wrong or incomplete (Ngata and Boscawen) – and wonder if the publication has been rushed. Turning to the front the preface indicates a hurry: “The most recent TU whistleblower to turn up is still providing information as the book is nearly finished.” Well, he hasn’t got anything wrong enough to be sued about, yet. Hager has conceded a detail here or there may not be correct because it is based on interviews, but not to lose the trail by getting into the weeds. Prof Wayne Hope in his review on The Daily Blog earlier this week has emphasised the meta considerations when reading it, echoing Hager’s explanation in the preface of how racism is understood and used. I concur.

The Acknowledgements. Very light on naming anyone other than the lawyers. Ollie Neas, Wellington lawyer and podcaster, gets a mention as the only journalist he can name. That just sounds like bullshit to me, like there wasn’t really anyone else and he’s pretending it was a massive crew. It was just Ollie, by himself, wasn’t it? Ollie, by the way, looks like he could be Hager’s brother – same drippy facial features, defeated Anglican expression, etc. Let’s be honest: Ollie co-wrote this and no-one else helped, it was all Ollie or else why aren’t they named? Yes, I’ve caught Hager out in his first lie! Page 6 – first lie, but we agreed to let them slide if it wasn’t germane to the narrative. It was a white lie, a lie from pride, he has no mates, so we’ll let it slide. If I go into it forensically we are never going to get through this – and looking at the contents the actual body of the text is from page 13 to 144. Now I’m noticing the Endnotes are missing from the contents section and it ends at page 126. So even the contents are a lie! Total rush job. 113 pages of meat. That’s somewhat lean. The Reader’s Digest version wouldn’t have anything to cut. It’s a BWB monograph already. Like making Godfather III only 50 minutes long.

The Preface. The book is the result of a paranoid pre-emptive denial by the Taxpayers Union in 2023. Hager said he had no book in mind when the flurry of refutations came out mid-2023 anticipating Hager would drop a book for the General Election in September. Farrar panic-resigned from the board. Because of that publicity Hager then got former staff coming to him with information. Hager doesn’t speculate on why they were convinced he would be doing a book on them – which is odd. He is an investigative journalist, sure, but when he says “I spent the next two years interviewing a range of people…” it sounds like an obsessive stalker – it’s not normal to spend two years on something you’ve covered twice already. Two days, two weeks – not two years, not for 113 pages. He never mentions emails either. The preceding two of the trilogy hang upon screeds of emails, whilst this does not, at all. Insinuation is going to be doing some heavy lifting without the conventional email trove to hold up the show.

But I’m not going to commence an audit here in this review. I will go through chapter by chapter without carting around the baggage of unhealthy scepticism, churlishly displayed above – it’s out of our system. What I will be looking for is the new material that adds colour and dimension to what we well understand is a nefariously cynical coterie.

Chapter 1: Roll, Jordan, Roll.

I’m thinking that is said like “Run, Forrest, run”? And the first sentence of the chapter ends “…celebration at a mansion belonging to the millionaire Alan Gibbs.” Oh, this is heaven. I’m not ashamed to admit it. This is floating on a lilo on a warm summer’s day. The scene: opulence and the arch nemesis enters like the Lefty panto we want it to be. There is a collective boo! I want to savour each morsel now. 113 pages is looking like too rich a plate. Ruth Richardson and Don Brash are at the bottom of the first page. A horror show. Delightful!

Williams was a Young Nat, ie. a young turd. Brash had been in a past relationship with Williams’ mother!? Oh ffs. A Daddy trip? This has taken a sick twist. Brash and anything sexual is a challenging combination. There’s a sudden urge to boil water and cleanse. Williams meets Lusk, blogs anonymously for Slater. Williams worked four years at Stephen Franks’ law firm. What a fucking turd.

The TU schtum on Rio Tinto’s subsidised electricity for its smelter… TU appoints Rio Tinto lobbyist onto its staff! We are off and running and everyone thus far is a shit bag or otherwise located on the faecal spectrum.

Chapter 2: False and Spiteful Words.

Colin Craig, romantic poet and Conservative Party leader, is brought down, but rebounds with the judge reversing the jury and finding against Williams. Williams is “gross” according to everyone. He likes to rate women as part of his banter. He must think he’s in Mad Men. Turdfully tragic.

Chapter 3: Using Racism as a Political Tool.

Williams was constantly around then National Leader Judith Collins. A pair of shit stain low lifes. Collins is the pits. Without Collins Labour would not have got over 50%, so that was a just outcome. I dispute the reference Hager makes that the Act Party was always racist however – Donna Awatere Huata and Dame Iritana would not have joined such a party as they did at the start in 1994. The anti-3 Waters campaign was “quite possibly the high point of Williams’ career.” The more moko on the face the bigger their donations. Hager argues that the success of race-baiting with 3-Waters led Seymour and Act to adopt anti-Maori policies thereafter and then pushed National in that direction too. Hager’s timelines look solid evidence of that. Ashley Church resigned as TU Chair over the veer to racism – at last someone who isn’t a shitty prick gets identified.

Chapter 4: The Jordan Williams Show.

The cluster of associated entities is described, but a diagram or table might be more help to see the overlapping personnel and interests of Williams’ Campaign Company, the Taxpayers’ Union, the Free Speech Union, Hobson’s Pledge, Groundswell, the Auckland and Tauranga Ratepayers’ Alliances and the reformed Sensible Sentencing Trust. Acres of astroturf.

Hager gives an aside about the “chilling: spectre of the mainstream media being overtaken by blogs and social media. I’ve heard this refrain from him in interviews, including his launch speech in which he called blogs “dangerous,” and I reject this critique as reactionary. They a threat to his status as a journalist and mode of publishing, this is also why he is fearful. The way Hager views people as simpletons in need of protection is annoyingly patronising. His reflexive assertion of superior institutional standards (in the NZ media at least) has proven grossly unwarranted. Hager really does have a sore spot about competition. He seems not to have included all the very good work carried out by bloggers and podcasters – like The Daily Blog – in his unbalanced equations. He refers to “fact-checked and multi-voiced media” approvingly without any acknowledgment of the deterioration in newsroom standards, or that the astro-turfed groups and individuals he is writing about are able to platform themselves and their poison so easily on the mainstream media he lauds. When Stephen Franks, for example, appears regularly on the RNZ panel with Wallace Chapman (while Martyn Bradbury is barred) Hager’s pleadings must be firmly discounted. I understand the media traction of these fiends will come up later, and I’m wondering how he will deal with this contradiction, if at all.

The FSU is pilloried by Hager for the Maori-bashing crusade of the red neck Real Estate Agents not to do a Maori component as part of their licencing. This has nothing to do with freedom of speech and yet here is this hateful Ayling jaapie on his cloven-hooved hind legs grifting for Apartheid. I would say go back to where you came from, but Rhodesia would require a time machine (and I would set the location for the middle of a ZANU-PF rally).

And here it is: “Radio New Zealand had interviewed Farrar about 600 times since 2007.” Hager says “it is lazy journalism.” But, Mr Hager, that is your vaunted mainstream media! RNZ that fired the only journo daring to change the anti-Russian, pro-Israel bias – that is your treasured state broadcaster, Mr Hager.

Chapter 5: The Apprentice.

We cannot comment on her until, when? Until after the Editor of The Daily Blog dissembles her in the district court over her hypocritical actions? And if I do comment it could be a contempt of court? I will merely observe then that Judith Collins and her share many traits, as above, and I will bet that if the passage about her complaint to the Media Council (p.85) is allowed into evidence for the Editor’s defence then that will speak rather unfavourably to her MO. Hager then, seemingly without a second thought, has another dig at blogs because they use “unsourced rumour,” well, what do you call what you’re doing, Mr Hager, because if I turn to your notes there won’t be any sources will there!? What does it say? “Confidential source,” “Confidential sources.” Get serious, man! The details about the Maiki Sherman – Lloyd Burr spat are laid bare, and it resolves nicely (with the help of all the journos that can’t be named that he must have been referring to in the acknowledgement), we have no questions after reading this, and we can all move on. Anyway… is she OK?

Chapter 6: Big Tobacco and the Taxpayers’ Union.

The TU take money from the family-friendly named British American Tobacco, but transparency doesn’t apply to themselves so we don’t know the details. I giggled as Hager mocks the international stock images used in the dairy owners’ campaign by BAT to oppose nicotine control legislation – can’t they find real NZ dairy owners, there’s only 4,750 of them?  With Casey Costello being ex-TU and now the minister leading tobacco policy everything the previous Labour government had done was undone.

Chapter 7: Follow the Money.

“After 12 years as an incorporated society, in late 2025 the TU became, like Hobson’s Pledge, a limited liability company, which carries no obligations to have public accounts.” Hilarious. The opposite of transparency. The TU was pulling in almost $3 million a year – now who knows? Hager’s attempt to demonise small donations as evidence of extremism was underwhelming and begs the curious question of a goldilocks donation band where the donors aren’t evil? Enter: Jim Grenon, the Canadian billionaire wingnut goon who is returning the NZ Herald back to its racist extremist origins – hoki hara mai. Atlas gets a mention too – lots of foreign trips going on.

Chapter 8: Who Supports the Taxpayers’ Union.

“Irritable older people, especially men” sums up the TU subscriber demographic. “Trying to Maorify New Zealand” sums up their fears. There is little youth following. “Knowing their plans is half the job of stopping them,” he ends. A call to activism, naturally.

Afterword.

Hager addresses the media bias issue and does a lot to undermine his statements about institutional sanctity. He puts the boot deeper into dear old RNZ than I did, but still can’t see that this is the rule now not the exception. His five recommendations are mostly cute stuff about the media rather than lobbying reform, or overthrowing the corrupt state.

Overall I was not disappointed, because I knew what to expect. The lack of emails in this book however does mean it is a little light. Has it done its job in wrecking Williams and the TU? Yes, it has. Was it interesting and revealing? Yes, and also entertaining. I confess the gossip parts are my favorite parts.

We need these books and we need Nicky Hager, like we need RNZ. They don’t have to be strictly neutral to be appreciated for their contribution to our collective consciousness. Thank you, Nicky.