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Cameron Slater, Carrick Graham and the Whale Oil logo (Image: Tina Tiller)
Cameron Slater, Carrick Graham and the Whale Oil logo (Image: Tina Tiller)

SocietyMarch 14, 2021

The scandal that lurks beneath the dirty politics trial

Senior Writer, NZ Herald
Cameron Slater, Carrick Graham and the Whale Oil logo (Image: Tina Tiller)
Cameron Slater, Carrick Graham and the Whale Oil logo (Image: Tina Tiller)

The Food and Grocery Council has barely been dented by the revelations of Dirty Politics. Why is that, wonders the NZ Herald’s Simon Wilson in this Herald Premium article.

Why hasn’t the government banned sugary drinks in schools? And how come KFC is able to promote its chicken as the perfect food for every occasion you could possibly think of?

The evidence for the addictive qualities of soft drinks and fatty foods is now widely accepted, as is the evidence for the harm they do. Just one statistic: a thousand people a year in this country have a foot or leg amputated because of type 2 diabetes, a disease caused by an excess of sugary and fatty foods.

Isn’t this – a major public health issue, especially among poor and vulnerable communities – exactly the sort of cause that motivates centre-left MPs to seek power in the first place?

So why no action? The answer is a mystery. But food and public health occupy an extremely unsavoury place in the political world and earlier this month we were reminded about the how and why.

Parnell PR man Carrick Graham and blogger Cameron Slater were in the Auckland High Court, facing defamation charges brought by three public health advocates. The charges flowed from revelations in Nicky Hager’s 2014 book Dirty Politics.

Hager had shown that Graham appeared to be engaged with Slater in a deceitful and slanderous campaign to discredit the health advocates, using blogs on Slater’s website Whale Oil Beef Hooked, and that his client was the Food and Grocery Council (FGC).

The FGC is the industry group representing supermarket suppliers. It is dominated by the large companies, including Coca-Cola Amatil, Fonterra, Heinz Wattie’s and, of course, those in the biggest sales sector in supermarkets: alcohol companies.

Originally, the FGC and its chief executive, Katherine Rich, also faced defamation charges. The FGC and Rich settled in October. The terms of their settlement were not disclosed and no apology or acknowledgement of wrongdoing has been made public.

The FGC accepts it paid Graham for his services. But this week said it “wishes to reiterate it did not pay anyone to write any stories on its behalf on Whale Oil, or any other publication. Nor was NZFGC otherwise involved in any such stories.”

At the start of the trial, Slater “consented to judgment”. This meant he abandoned any defence and is now waiting to learn his fate.

The trial then heard an excoriating opening address by the lawyer for the three plaintiffs, Davey Salmon. Following that, Graham’s own lawyer said his client wished to apologise “sincerely and unreservedly”.

Graham, he said, was “now aware that a number of statements that he made about the plaintiffs were untrue, unfair, offensive, insulting and defamatory”.

The lawyer also stated, “Mr Graham acknowledges the plaintiffs’ work on the harms of tobacco, alcohol and processed food and beverages was undertaken responsibly, and in the public interest.”

Even for a legal settlement where one party accepts they were in the wrong, the language is extremely blunt. The amount Graham agreed to pay has not been disclosed.

The book at the centre of the allegations: Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics (2014)

The three health experts at the centre of this case are Doug Sellman, a professor of psychological medicine at the University of Otago and the founding director of the National Addiction Centre; Boyd Swinburn, a professor of population nutrition at the University of Auckland; and Shane Bradbrook, who was at the time director of Te Reo Mārama, the Māori Smokefree Coalition.

They are, collectively, among this country’s leading experts on alcohol, junk food and tobacco. Outspoken defenders of the public interest in three key areas of public health.

In the book, Hager revealed that Graham ran an “attack campaign” designed to discredit all three men. This included blogs he wrote for Slater’s website Whale Oil Beef Hooked, which appeared under Slater’s own name or pseudonyms.

Over a five-year period, the court was told, Graham’s PR company paid Whale Oil $124,000. The FGC, for its part, paid Graham’s company $365,619.

What was really going on here?

Graham is the son of Sir Douglas Graham, former National Party cabinet minister. Slater is the son of John Slater, former party president. Rich is a former National MP.

It’s tempting to think the whole thing was merely a scheme cooked up to provide Graham and Slater with an income. What Slater likes to call “troughing”. But would the FGC have stood for that?

It’s also tempting to see this as a dispute between a renegade right-wing fringe and do-gooding liberals. National Party bovver boys vs the Nanny State. But again, does that explain the FGC’s involvement? A lot of money changed hands.

This was a scandal in 2014, when the revelations surfaced, and it remains a scandal today.

Hager reported details of the relationship between Graham, the FGC and some of its members and also revealed the contents of emails from Graham to Slater in which he referred to “KR hits”. According to Hager, KR is Katherine Rich and “hits” were attacks on public health advocates.

Again, for the record, FGC continues to deny involvement “in any such stories”.

This scandal has barely dented the FGC and, despite the opprobrium it generated, Rich has remained in her job. There’s a reason for that: she’s very good at it. The FGC under Rich has managed to persuade successive governments, including the current one, to stay away from taxing or regulating harmful foods and beverages.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. We know that sugary and fatty foods are bad for us. We know we’re facing an obesity epidemic: worldwide, obesity has tripled since 1975, and New Zealand is as caught up in it as any country.

Sooner or later, it is surely obvious, we will decide to treat addictive junk foods the way we now treat tobacco.

The FGC wants it to be later. As later as can possibly be. But the scary lesson it faces is this: if we can change the national consciousness on a product as sexy, as addictive and as deeply rooted in the life of the nation as smoking used to be, we can change it on anything.

Like, say, sugary drinks.

Professor Boyd Swinburn, nutrition expert, who was vindicated in court earlier this month (Photo: supplied)

This is from the abstract of a leading New Zealand study the same year Dirty Politics was published: “Indices of sugar intake have been associated with aggressive behaviour, attention deficit … and suicidal thoughts in cross-sectional studies. Longitudinal studies have also linked soft drink intake with impaired cognitive development. We believe that banning sugary drinks from schools will assist teachers and students to better achieve their learning goals, with a side effect of improving their health status.”

The Ministry of Health supports schools that allow their children only water and low-fat milk. Schools that have done this report exactly the improvements noted in that study.

But the government is not prepared to go further: it has decided not to ban sugary drinks in schools. Even though the budgetary implications are minimal. Even though the benefits are clear.

Coca-Cola Amatil and other such companies say no. The voices of Boyd Swinburn and co have been undermined. The force of the Food and Grocery Council is strong.

That’s down to Katherine Rich. Yes, there is a bad smell around Carrick Graham and Cameron Slater. But the Food and Grocery Council can pin the pegs on their noses: they’re getting what they want.

This isn’t just about supermarket groceries. Take a look at what KFC is up to. Its saturation TV advertising tells us KFC is great for snacks, office lunches, party food, family food, lonely hearts food, TV food, food for when you’re in the middle of nowhere, food for any and every occasion you could possibly think of.

KFC, say the ads, is perfect for eating all the time.

This is an outrageous message. As Swinburn and every other medical professional in the world will tell you, at best, junk food should be treat food.

But KFC advertises away like there’s no tomorrow. It’s not an accident. Car companies do the same, and for the same reason: for them, there is a risk there actually will be no tomorrow.

KFC wants to embed its chicken in our hearts, literally, so there can be no social licence for taxation or regulation. Car companies really don’t want us thinking we should be less dependent on our cars.

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And soft drink companies are desperate to stay in schools because that keeps whole families hooked.

Carrick Graham and Cameron Slater have both now been on the losing end of legal actions arising from Nicky Hager’s revelations in Dirty Politics. Meanwhile Katherine Rich and the Food and Grocery Council – despite maintaining their innocence – have chosen to settle rather than fight Hager’s revelations in court.

Do any of them even care? They’re still winning. Their lobbying has prevailed. The government is still letting them win.

Keep going!
Disappointment Island

SocietyMarch 14, 2021

Disappointment Island: The New Zealand place that became a global meme

Guest writer
Disappointment Island

It’s become a popular location for ironic Google reviews and jokey claims of residence. But Disappointment Island is far more than just a silly meme, writes Louise Fisher.

Four hundred seventy-five kilometres off the southern coast of the South Island lie the seven uninhabited islands known collectively as the Auckland Islands. While they have strong historic cultural and spiritual significance to Ngāi Tahu, the Auckland Islands are, in general, visited only by biologists and conservation workers. Still, one of the seven – the tiny Disappointment Island – has managed to take the internet by storm

If you’re not a local, you may have first come across Disappointment Island via Snapchat; in recent years it’s become a popular place to locate yourself on the social media platform’s Snap Map. After all, why say you’re at home, when you could claim to be hanging out on a subantarctic island with a hilariously ironic name? As the island’s notoriety has grown, so have the memes. From traditional image memes on Instagram and Facebook, to reviews on Google, to videos on TikTok and Youtube racking up millions of views, Disappointment Island has became an internet culture favourite. One fan even took the meme a step further getting the island tattooed on their neck for the world to see.

Some recent Disappointment Island reviews

While many have heard of the island, no one seems to know how it got its name and why, exactly, it is so disappointing. Still, there’s been plenty of speculation as to the origin of the name. The lack of resources on the island. The number of shipwrecks off its coast. Some think it was named after the Îles du Désappointement, a group of islands in French Polynesia. So what’s the truth? The island’s fascinating history may provide some clues.

Disappointment Island is a 566 hectare scrap of land with a a rugged coastline, thick tussock and zero trees. An internationally recognised and protected seabird habitat, the island is home to over 100,000 white-capped mollyhawk, a type of albatross, which represents 95% of their total population. Its teeming bird life also includes the tiny Auckland Island rail, which was believed extinct until it was rediscovered on nearby Adams Island in 1966.

But there’s more to this island than just a lot of birds. Over the years, Disappointment Island and its neighbours have been the site of a number of shipwrecks resulting in loss of life and rumours of buried treasure in the waters below. The first known shipwreck in the Auckland Islands came in January 1864, a month after the Grafton, a 56-tonne schooner, left Sydney for the Campbell Islands. On its homeward journey the ship hit heavy winds and was pulled off course towards the Auckland Islands, where it hit a rocky cove and was destroyed. The five men aboard were able to make it to Auckland Island, the main island in the group, where they waited for close to a year to be rescued. The men lived on wild pigs, birds and fish, and even managed to make “passable beer” out of a root found on the island. Eventually, it being apparent that no rescue was on its way, three of the men set out in a dinghy and managed to sail the 450km journey to Rakiura/Stewart Island. It is possible that they passed Disappointment Island en-route and stopped to look for resources and help – only to be disappointed. At Stewart Island, however, they were able to find help, and eventually funds were raised for a rescue mission for the two remaining sailors.

Castaway huts built by the survivors of the Invercauld shipwreck, circa 1888, Auckland Islands. Photo by William Dougall, Burton Brothers studio. Purchased 1943. Te Papa (C.010532)

A few months after the wreck of the Grafton, the Invercauld, a 1000 tonne shipping vessel, met the same fate, being swept into the Auckland Islands en-route to Peru from Melbourne. The ship hit the cliffs off the coast of Auckland Island on the 11th May 1864 and was destroyed. Nineteen of the 25 crew members made it to shore with supplies, but they ran out of food and water within a few days. In desperation, the men climbed the 600-metre cliffs above the shore and trekked through the bush, making it to Port Ross at the far north of the island. Incredibly, the Invercauld men were unaware that the Grafton wreck had occurred just months before at the opposite end of the island, and that its survivors were still stranded there. The following months were challenging for the Invercauld’s 19 survivors, only three of whom ultimately survived. As Don Rowe recounts in his recent feature on the Grafton and Invercauld shipwrecks for NZ Geographic, two of the men, Fred Hawser and William Harvey, got in a fight one night that resulted in Harvey kicking Hawser out of their shelter and into cold.

“In the morning, the frozen earth proved impossible to excavate, and Hawser’s corpse was interred beneath a pile of boughs,” writes Rowe.

With food in painfully short supply, desperation took hold. According to Robert Holding, one of the few survivors of the wreck, a few days after Hawser’s body was discovered, “the mate and myself found that Harvey had been eating some of Fritz.”

The three Invercauld survivors were eventually found and rescued in May 1865 by the Portuguese ship Julian – unwittingly leaving behind the Grafton men at the other end of the island.

Wreck of the American ship General Grant on Auckland Island, in Illustrated London News, April 18, 1868 (Creative Commons)

Still the shipwrecks continued. In 1866 the American ship General Grant crashed into the cliffs off Disappointment Island during a violent storm. Of the 83 on board, 68 drowned. Only 15 managed to board smaller boats and escape to shores of Disappointment Island, where they slept overnight. Once they realised there was nothing of use there, they sailed to Port Ross on the main island, where they lived for the next nine months. Eventually, their distress signal was seen, and the men, of whom only 10 ultimately survived, were rescued.

As a result of the growing number of shipwrecks, the New Zealand government built a network of Castaway Depots, including a number on the Auckland Islands. These huts were stocked with essential supplies, giving those stranded on the islands a chance of survival – and even, when the refill ship arrived every six months or so, of rescue.

Built in 1880, Stella Hut on Enderby Island in the Auckland Islands is the earliest surviving and most complete of the original castaway depots still standing (Photo: J Hiscock / DoC / CC BY-SA)

These depots would soon prove a life saver. In February 1907, the Dundonald left Sydney en route to England with a cargo of wheat and gold, and 28 men on board. Things went wrong right from the start, with gale winds pushing the ship off course. Its compass began to act erratically, sending the ship further off course and into the Auckland Islands’ path. On March 7, the Dundonald sank after running ashore on Disappointment Island’s west coast. Twelve men drowned; another died of exposure shortly afterwards. For the next seven months, the remaining 15 men kept themselves alive on the inhospitable island. It wasn’t easy. Other than birds and fish, which first needed to be caught, the only other faintly edible stuff was stilbocarpa, or Macquarie Island cabbage, a plant with large, rhubarb-like leaves. With no wood to construct shelter, many of the men slept in holes dug in the earth. It rained incessantly.

After seven months, the survivors were willing to risk it all to escape Disappointment Island. They managed to build a small boat and sail to Auckland Island, seven kilometres away, then trekked 15 kilometres to the Castaway Depot on the opposite coast. There they were able to get meat, biscuits, clothes and other supplies that lasted them the six weeks until the next drop off – and the chance of rescue – arrived. The 15 men were taken to Bluff and some time later, the shipwreck was located. However the more than 70 kgs of gold (valued at roughly NZ$316 million in today’s money) that it was carrying has never been recovered.

Whoever eventually finds the Dundonald treasure will clearly be anything but disappointed, but for bird lovers, the island is already misnamed. Bird expert Colin Miskelly visited Disappointment Island in 2018 and decided that “few places on the planet with a more inappropriate name”. Miskelly believes the island got its name from explorers looking for safe harbour, freshwater, wood, and food and were left disappointed. These days few people ever visit the island; since the Dundonald wreck, only 10 people are known to have camped there, including the four people in Miskelly’s crew.

Whatever its origins, we should be glad that someone came up with such a pessimistic name for this tiny subantarctic island. The name that has become a meme has kept Disappointment Island on the map – and given us all a reason to discover its fascinating seafaring history.

Society