LAST WEEK I had a long conversation with one of this country’s more thoughtful right-wing activists. She was keen to hear my thoughts on the dizzying speed at which the “woke” agenda is being advanced in New Zealand. “Five years ago,” she observed, “ideas that today are on the point of being enshrined in our laws were located firmly on the lunatic fringe. Suddenly, everything has changed. What happened?”

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Known principally for his political commentaries in The Dominion Post, The ODT, The Press and the late, lamented Independent, and for "No Left Turn", his 2007 history of the Left/Right struggle in New...