Public Address

Hard News: Together Alone

Russell Brown — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 08:47:00 +1300

We're about to do something unprecedented as a nation. We hope that by taking this extraordinary action before a single life in New Zealand has been lost to the deadly novel virus we will save tens of thousands of lives. Our lives. We'll do it together, in households, in isolation from each other.
You'll have noticed that Public Address has been a quieter place in the past two or three years – and that's been more or less deliberate on my part. The site launched nearly 20 years ago and for most of that time it has hosted discussions for and…

Legal Beagle: Pandemic Preparedness and the New Zealand general election

Graeme Edgeler — Sun, 15 Mar 2020 01:00:00 +1300

New Zealand is planning to hold a general election on Saturday 19 September 2020. With the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve had several queries about how New Zealand’s electoral laws would cope with this event. There’s obviously a long way to go until the election, but because I was asked, and because it’s useful to have these things written down accessibly to point to later, I've prepared a brief Q&A.
Although not related to COVID-19, the Electoral Act was updated last week, adding things like election day enrolment, but also updating the laws around interruptions of election day. Spurred on, I think,…

Legal Beagle: On the possibility of laws further regulating hate speech

Graeme Edgeler — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 05:00:00 +1300

I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers over their employees non-employment-related speech (I was firmly of the view that, had Israel Folau’s controversial facebook comments been subject to New Zealand employment and non-discrimination law, they would have been protected, and if it turned out they weren’t protected, the law should be changed so they were), and to…

Hard News: Splore 2020: The Listening Lounge

Russell Brown — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 11:07:00 +1300

As I've done for the past few years, I'm curating and presenting The Listening Lounge, the talk programme at Splore. On the morning of Saturday the 22nd at the Living Lounge stage, the korero goes like this.
Yes, we're talking about drugs again, not just because I'm professionally interested in drug policy and public health, but because the feedback is that people deeply appreciate hearing these informed discussions.
10:00 News You Can Use With Know Your Stuff
KnowYourStuff has become the go-to for good information on party drugs and safety, for both media and punters alike. And they're more legit…

Hard News: Rage and change: RNZ's music problem

Russell Brown — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 11:45:00 +1300

There has long been a truism in public broadcasting: don't mess with Concert FM. The theory was that although the station has been in a long-term audience decline, and that audience is steadily ageing out, it has powerful establishment support – and any threat to it would provoke a fury.
As it happens, the plan announced this week – which would see RNZ Concert recast as an automated playout system in the deadlands of the AM band and its staff made redundant – has reaped a backlash well beyond the ranks of the great and good, and from people who are not Concert…

Hard News: Planet History: Heroes (and villains)

Russell Brown — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 12:48:00 +1300

One thing I remember about the interview I did with Rex Halliday for Planet magazine in 1992 was a couple of times being on the verge of tears.
Rex was reflecting on the community effort that went into the second Hero party at the old Princes Wharf building – and the battle for recognition he had fought all along the way. They were turned away by Mayor Les Mills and, astonishingly, completely blanked by the New Zealand Herald, apparently at the order of the paper's editor. If I recall correctly, the word "lesbian" was also banned from reporters' copy around the…

Speaker: Planet History: Becky Nunes

Becky Nunes — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 11:30:00 +1300

In this project to periodically republish the most memorable work for Planet magazine, the title I edited – alongside a brilliant, creative group of friends – in the 1990s, I've focused so far on the writing.
But photography was an equally important part of Planet. The large format of the magazine gave photographers, experienced and otherwise, a great canavas for their work, and the editorial philosophy was permissive.
One of the photographers who came into Planet's orbit was Becky Nunes. At the time, I think, she was getting work as a product photographer and she brought the technical skills of that work…

Hard News: Music: Morales is coming

Russell Brown — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 10:45:00 +1300

It will be no secret to longtime readers that I, Russell Brown, love the disco. So I'm pretty excited by the fact that one of the greats of the game is returning this summer – and also pleased to say I have tickets to give away.
Legendary mixer and DJ John Morales is playing Hi SO on Saturday, February 1. (That's the rooftop bar of the SO/Auckland hotel on the corner of Customs and Gore Street downtown. I went to a Music Awards after-party there last year and it seems like pretty much the perfect place for this show.)
On past…

Speaker: Planet History: Taking Tea with Quentin

Rupert E. Taylor — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 08:14:00 +1300

This interview with Quentin Crisp is part of a series of articles republished from Planet, the independent magazine I edited in the early 90s from a base at 309 Karangahape Road, along with Grant Fell, Rachael Churchward, Fiona Rae, David Teehan, Paul Shannon, Mere Ngaigulevu and others.
Inevitably, you forget things, and over the years I've looked at the cover of Issue 12 (Summer 93) and thought "what did we do about Quentin Crisp?". Turns out it was this gem by Rupert E. Taylor.
Thanks to Leo Rae Brown for offering to re-type this and future articles to get them…

Legal Beagle: Did Parliament give the New Zealand Defence Force the power to prohibit newspapers from publishing?

Graeme Edgeler — Thu, 19 Dec 2019 13:28:00 +1300

Yesterday news broke that a member of the New Zealand Army had been arrested and was in military custody. Details were sparse, but Stuff journalists Florence Kerr and Thomas Manch, and Newsroom’s Marc Daalder in particular seemed to be quick to print with details of the individual’s far right ties.
Later yesterday evening I noted an odd tweet, with Marc Daalder noting that the New Zealand Defence Force had told him that “the Commanding Officer of the soldier is currently in the process of making interim suppression orders, which will prohibit the publication of any information that may lead to…