Hard News by Russell Brown

and this of course…

http://www.theguardian.com/music/video/2015/jul/03/briggs-children-came-back-gurrumul-archie-roach-hip-hop-video
Todays gem from The Guardian. They offer an iframe embed that doesn't work, sorry.

Really enjoyed the Saints doco. Thanks

Really enjoyed the Saints doco. Thanks

No worries. Oddly enough, I was put onto it by the old, old friend who originally introduced me to The Saints, way back in high school.

And a really great documentary on The Saints’ immortal first album (I’m) Stranded and what came before and after. There’s much to relate to for New Zealanders in its themes of distance and difference:

Hell yes. Around the same time Sir Joh ruled Queensland with an iron fist, Rob Muldoon was wearing the pants in NZ.

Around the same time Sir Joh ruled Queensland with an iron fist, Rob Muldoon was wearing the pants in NZ.

When former Whitlam Government Minister lJim Cairns visited NZ in the late 70s he noted that there appeared to be an "unhealthy fascination" with the likes of those two in this part of the world. According to Cairns, their appeal lay in publicly voicing the kind of bigotry that many were tacitly assumed to agree with, but were forbidden to say out loud.

The two weren't quite the same though. Muldoon wasn't actively corrupt in the way Sir Joh was – he just tended to surround himself with dimwitted cronies – and he didn't really have the Christian bigotry. He had more of a don't-frighten-the-horses take on sexual issues.

Muldoon wasn't actively corrupt in the way Sir Joh was – he just tended to surround himself with dimwitted cronies – and he didn't really have the Christian bigotry. He had more of a don't-frighten-the-horses take on sexual issues.

All true. There are numerous anecdotes of how Muldoon in private could display an affable and rounded personality that was the opposite of how he projected in public. Yet the same man who could charm the likes of John Walker by offering him fruit from the boot of his car after giving him a lift home could ruthlessly exploit the terminally ill Keith Allen, while seeming quite capable of reflecting on what he was doing.

By contrast, Bjelke-Petersen seems to have been one of those strange beasts who succeed because they're missing some essentially human check or balance, rather than because of an identifiable strength.