A book review by Pania Tahau-Hodges of Dirty Work: The Taxpayers’ Union and New Zealand’s Hard Right written by Nicky Hager and published by Potton & Burton, 2026.
Here are my initial thoughts (that none of you asked for) after just finishing the hottest book in town, Nicky Hager’s latest political exposé Dirty Work (it’s not too long a read, only 120 pages or so) …
Closing the book after the final chapter, I feel like Hager has reached out from the pages, gripped me firmly by the shoulders and given me a solid and sobering shakeup – one that’s left me feeling rattled with an uncomfortable and embarrassingly heightened sense of my own political naivety.
I mean, sure, I was aware that there was a lot of bad stuff happening in NZ politics. And like lots of people, I’ve had growing concerns about the impact of Trumpian politics creeping into our political landscape here in Aotearoa. But to see it laid out like this with receipts and a ‘This is how they’re doing it’ breakdown – I was not prepared.
One of the biggest concerns for me as I was reading was the huge risk to our political system presented by, not only big biz donations to political parties for their election campaigns, but also political donations by small donors. And the only safe solution I could come up with as I was reading was that private donations should be completely banned.
Rather, campaign budgets should come out of public funds in a way that is fair and limits as much as possible the risk of private individuals or big businesses holding undue sway over political parties and their policy agendas. I was pleasantly surprised that Hager seems to arrive at the same conclusion.
Now there’s detail to be worked out there for sure, but this basic premise, I think, is critical if we are to have any chance of avoiding ending up down the dark hole into which we’ve seen US politics disappear.
There were numerous accounts in the book that I found bile-inducing – particularly those regarding the ‘hit jobs’ done on Tamatha Paul, Nanaia Mahuta and Maiki Sherman. Like, that is some evil-ass undertaking right there. And other accounts that left me feeling a sense of despair – like how do we even combat this nonsense that is happening when we’re up against these individuals and organisations that have such huge money behind them and their own well-tested playbooks? Like, what can we actually do? What can I do? And the conclusion I’ve come to is this: I’ve got to keep on doing what I’m doing. Because at the end of the day, what I can see is that what’s happening in the political realm – all the BS and rubbish – it really comes down to storytelling and story sovereignty.
Who controls the narrative, who gets to decide what story gets told, from who’s perspective, for whom, for what purpose and for who’s benefit? And you know what I figured? I’m in the fricken’ business of storytelling. And I LOVE that I’m in the business of storytelling. Because every day, I get to work with bright, intelligent, good people who are trying to shift the dial – to make space for and uplift voices and stories that are often marginalised. Our goal at Huia Publishers is to help grow our storytellers and share our stories.
So, my key takeaway from reading this book is, I/we’ve got to keep on doing what we’re doing. That’s it – those are my insights. I don’t want to give too much away. But I encourage you to grab or borrow a copy of this book if you can and read it.
Happy reading. That is all. #BooksAreCool
Pania Tahau-Hodges
“Pania Tahau-Hodges (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Tūhoe) is an author and director of Huia Publishers. Her new picture books, Toitū and Hīkoi, illustrated by Josie Selkirk, draw on the 2024 hīkoi against the Treaty Principles Bill and celebrate the resilience, resistance and collective power of the thousands who marched in defence of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Toitū: https://huia.co.nz/products/toitu
Hīkoi: https://huia.co.nz/products/hikoi-a-maori-alaphabet-book-for-little-and-not-so-little-activists