Playing Favourites with Cameron Bennett
Photo:
Trudy Style
Veteran journalist and documentary filmmaker Cameron Bennett is perhaps best known for his work as a foreign correspondent, covering conflicts around the world which cemented him as one of the country's most recognisable faces in current affairs.
In a career spanning more than 25 years at TVNZ, he went on to host
Sunday
before turning his hand to documentary filmmaking, with a specific focus on New Zealand history.
He's currently executive producer of Te Ao with Moana, a current affairs programme on Whakaata Māori, and works on RNZ's NZ Wars series, making history-focused documentaries alongside Vincent O'Malley and other prominent iwi historians.
He plays some favourite tracks.
This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
3 hours ago
- RNZ News
Backyard battles take fighting off street, participant says
Hamilton man Cameron Harcourt (left), with an opponent at the King of the Street event on 24 May. Photo: Supplied A participant in a controversial street fighting competition is defending it, saying amateur tournaments remove violence from the streets. An unregulated tournament promoted by New Zealand mixed martial arts fighter Dan Hooker was held in a suburban Auckland backyard on Saturday 24 May , with 32 combatants competing for a $50,000 prize. Hooker said the only major injury was to a fighter's arm and signalled plans to host further events , despite criticism. New Zealand Boxing Coaches Association president Billy Meehan described the event as "thuggery, not sport", but Hamilton fighter Cameron Harcourt, who travelled up for the event, said the backlash was unfair. "We're going to fight anyway," he said. "There's fights on the streets. "The same way Streetbeefs in America started to get the fights off the streets. If you had beef, you apply for this and you jump in, and it gives us a place to do it in a controlled environment. "The thuggery is taken out and we've turned it into a sport." Streetbeefs is an unregulated American backyard fighting club and You Tube channel, hosting different combat codes. The founders said it was established as a response to more "dangerous forms of street and gun violence". Cameron Harcourt (right) says the Auckland backyard fighting event took violence off the street and put it in a controlled environment. Photo: Supplied Police are investigating one fighter from the Saturday event, who was seen wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet in social media footage of his fight. Harcourt said he wanted to prove that the fights were a fair playing field, and not all about "tattoos and gang affiliations". "Nothing changes what someone is - we're all humans. Doesn't matter about your colour, your size, your age, your background, we're all people and we all bleed. "I think it is a good sport and I love fighting for that." Up to nine different gangs were reportedly represented at the tournament. Fighters had to sign a waiver before taking part, stipulating that involvement was at their discretion. He said, unlike team sports like rugby, he enjoyed how he was the only person accountable, if the fight did not go his way. "You're stuck in a ring with contact and you just feel alive, and it's just sick," he said. "It's also art. "You can create your combos and perform them. It's just a wicked sport." Although billed as an amateur event, it is understood a professional fighter won the tournament. Harcourt hoped to contest a planned tournament in Christchurch later this year. The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) suggests participants of amateur street fighting events will be covered under the scheme, as it did not require details of how injuries occur. An agency spokesperson said the scheme operated on a no-fault basis. "All New Zealanders pay levies in different ways. The money we collect goes into one of our five accounts. "We use each account to cover specific types of injuries. For example, if someone is injured playing sports, the money used to support their recovery is dependent on their individual circumstances." Last year, the cost of active ACC claims for sport and recreation injuries exceeded $1 billion, while accidental injuries in the home and community, which covered injuries from assaults and also concussion, cost more than $2.3 billion. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
4 hours ago
- Scoop
Chris Bishop's Comments During Stan Walker's Performance Have ‘No Place' At Aotearoa Music Awards
Article – RNZ 'The Awards respect and honour te ao Mori and we were proud to support Stan with his vision for his powerful rendition of Mori Ki Te Ao.' The producers of the Aotearoa Music Awards have condemned Cabinet Minister Chris Bishop's comments during Stan Walker's performance, saying his remarks have 'no place' at the awards ceremony. At Auckland's Viaduct Events Centre on Thursday night Bishop was captured on video declaring 'what a load of crap' during Walker's performance, which prominently featured Toitū Te Tiriti banners. Some people in front of him were on their feet dancing and waving tino rangatiratanga flags. In a statement issued on Saturday, the producers said they were committed to creating a 'safe, respectful and inclusive environment' and that these 'expectations were clearly communicated to all who attended the event'. 'The inappropriate comments made by Hon. Chris Bishop during Stan Walker's performance have no place at the Aotearoa Music Awards,' the statement read. 'The Awards respect and honour te ao Māori and we were proud to support Stan with his vision for his powerful rendition of Māori Ki Te Ao.' In a statement to RNZ, Bishop admitted he said 'what a lot of crap' and something about performative acclaim. He said it referred to what he called the overtly political branding on display. Renowned musician Don McGlashan was seen on the video confronting Bishop, but McGlashan said he did not realise at first that it was the minister. 'I could hear an enormous amount of ranting, kind of against the whole thing. I didn't get the full gist of it, but it was basically – 'the hīkoi is ages ago, sit down everybody' – so this geezer was just ranting away and telling everybody to sit down,' McGlashan said. 'After a while, I turned to him and said 'Ah, shut up you dickhead' and I looked at him and I thought, 'Oh, I know that face'. Then he said, 'What did you say to me?''. McGlashan said that he again told Bishop to ''shut up you dickhead', and he said, 'I could say the same to you,' and I said, 'Well, I wasn't talking and you were.' And then I realised I was talking to the leader of the House'. Another witness said the minister appeared to them to be drunk. 'For him to take an instant dis-gratification towards Toitū Te Tiriti and that movement and to say that it's a load of crap is actually highly offensive. I'm very worried for somebody of high power in this country to be making those sorts of remarks in public,' they said. Bishop has since acknowledged his comments were poorly judged, telling RNZ: 'On reflection, I should have kept my thoughts to myself.' However, he has denied making specific remarks about the hīkoi – the protest marches that have taken place across Aotearoa in support of upholding the Treaty of Waitangi – and has suggested the backlash amounts to a 'political smear job'. 'Chris is a long-time supporter of New Zealand music and went to the Awards to celebrate successful Kiwi artists,' a spokesperson said. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has declined to comment further, with his office saying the PM had nothing to add to Bishop's statement. David Seymour defended Bishop shortly after he was sworn in as deputy prime minister on Saturday. 'Just because you become a senior minister, it doesn't mean you should stop having opinions,' Seymour said. 'It might well be that, based on what Chris saw in that moment, he was correct. It may be that people will agree with him.' Seymour said he believed New Zealanders would draw their own conclusions.
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
'I've had a wonderful life': 90 years of Jim Bolger
Jim Bolger in December 2016. Photo: RNZ Jim Bolger, who was the prime minister between 1990 and 1997, turned 90 on Saturday. He reflected on the last nine decades of his life on Sunday Morning - after having celebrated with a "big gathering" of family, friends, and neighbours. On his political career, Bolger said the biggest issue was to get Pākehā to "face up to the reality that we owed Māori". "We took big steps in the economy, and got the economy going, and all the rest, but the country and society is more than the economy," he said. "Māori ... had been badly, badly treated by the early settlers, we owed Māori redress and change. "I put that higher than managing the books, as it were, with the help of others, and of course you're always helped by others, but the Treaty principles and recognition that the early European settlers did not treat Māori fairly, I think was hugely important." Bolger said he did not understand those, such as David Seymour - who had also been sworn in as deputy prime minister on Saturday - who "want to diminish the role of Māori in New Zealand". "They were here first, they were here very much before everybody else, and they have been part of our history from that time on." He said the current prime minister, Christopher Luxon, needed to tell Seymour "to shut up with his anti-Māori rhetoric" - and to thank Winston Peters for what he's doing in foreign affairs - "because I think he's doing that job well". "Winston's a very interesting political figure, there's no question about it. He's certainly left his mark on politics in New Zealand." Bolger said his Irish ancestry helped him engage emotionally and attitudinally with Māori. "I sort of instinctively knew what it was like to be treated as second-class citizens, and Māori were treated as second-class citizens. And some people still want to do that." Bolger grew up in coastal Taranaki, and said he was not taught "a single word" about the invasion of a pacifist settlement at Parihaka, but was taught about War of the Roses in England. Parihaka Pa, circa 1900, with Mount Taranaki - taken by an unidentified photographer. Photo: Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand / Ref 1/2-056542-F, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reflecting on his life outside of his political career, he could not say what he was most proud of - "I think it'd be foolish to try and select one over another." He began as a farmer - from helping his neighbour to milk cows at nine, to leaving Ōpunake High School at 15 to work on the family dairy farm, and owning his own near Rahotu at 27. He got married and moved to a sheep and beef farm in Te Kūiti two years later. Bolger then joined the National Party and was an MP, the leader of the opposition, and then the prime minister after National won the 1990 general election. He later became New Zealand's Ambassador to the United States, was elected Chancellor of the University of Waikato, and has been the chairman of a number of state-owned enterprises and other organisations. Bolger was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal, the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal in 1993, and was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand in 1998. He also has nine children and 18 grandchildren. "They were all important and very interesting positions to have, and I enjoyed it," Bolger said. "When you get to 90, and reflecting back over my variety of positions I've had across the world, and the countries I've visited, which are without number, there's so many, that it's just been very fortunate. "I've had a wonderful life with a wonderful wife and family, and it's all been good." As for advice he would give to New Zealanders, Bolger said the main thing would be to listen to others. "Don't try and dictate to them, listen to them, see what they're saying, see what their issues are, see what their concerns are, and then you might be able to make a sensible suggestion to help their lives. "And if you approach it from that direction, you know, how can I help this person or that person, then I'm sure you'll be much more satisfied with your life, and hopefully, they will be better off." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
