Toby Boraman

Guest writer

Toby Boraman is the 2025 Stout Research Centre fellow in New Zealand Studies at Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University of Wellington.

An iconic Takaparawha photograph taken by Robin Morrison in 1978. (Photo: Auckland War Memorial Museum – Tāmaki Paenga Hira. PH-RM-NEG-N10-1)

The forgotten union green ban that defended Bastion Point

In the late 1970s, workers joined Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei to stop luxury housing at Takaparawhau – a landmark alliance of unions, Māori and environmentalists.

By Toby Boraman | 23rd September, 2025

Striking ambulance workers protest the government’s 5% limit for pay rises, London, 22nd January 1979. (Photo: Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

When fighting a cost-of-living crisis didn’t have to mean tightening your own belt

Whatever happened to widespread collective action?

By Toby Boraman | 14th April, 2023