Mike Grimshaw: She’ll be right…? Is New Zealand stuck in the churn of complacency?

In 1944 poet and critic A.R.D. Fairburn felt moved to write a long essay critiquing and evaluating New Zealand society as it looked toward a possible post-war future. 80 years on it is hard not to read it and wonder how little we have really changed. Is New Zealand actually like the lightbulb in the old joke: how many social workers does it take to change a lightbulb? One – but the lightbulb has to want to change…