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The Featherston Booktown Podcast
The Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival is where we celebrate books, storytelling and ideas, and the artefact and craft of the book.
Join NZ Herald Columnist Shane Te Pou and Booktown volunteer Phil Quin for a series of enlightening and entertaining discussions with some of the featured guests from the Festival.
The Festival takes place from 10 -12 May 2024 in Featherston, Aotearoa - New Zealand.
The Featherston Booktown Podcast
Rogernomics: 40 Years On Through The Lens Of A Wairarapa Community
The radical economic reforms of the Fourth Labour Government 40 years ago, known as Rogernomics, had a devastating impact on rural communities, including Wairarapa. The dollar was floated, agricultural subsidies removed, GST introduced, forests sold and state-owned enterprises corporatised. The Post editor Tracy Watkins discussed the reforms with Wairarapa leaders Liz Mellish (Te Ātiawa, Taranaki, Ngāti Ruanui) and Bob Francis, who lived through the turmoil, and three politicians – Richard Prebble, Marilyn Waring and Rick Barker – who were in Parliament at the time.
Recorded at the 2025 Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival.