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Savage, a fellow immigrant from Australia, knew that having a right means having a chance, it means having a roof to shelter under and a meal on the table, a school and a doctor. That a nation that truly values the rights of her citizens promises a fair go to each and every one. Savage helped create a society where there was hope of a better life, and there was fulfilment of that hope.

I think what hurts Labour people about speeches like that, more than anything, is it reminds them how far they they have come from the sort of social justice ideals and policies that Savage was working for in the 1930s. Suddenly their present incrementalism seems a bit less satisfactory.

It left me thinking that the last Labour leader who was neither an incrementalist nor a rogernome was Big Norm, Norman Kirk.

So perhaps, with campaign season upon us and a new Big Norm, six-foot Russel, now in the house, it is time to listen once more to that 1974 song from Wellington band Ebony which made it to No. 4 on the national charts that year.

At Bastion Point in Auckland there is a memorial to Michael Joseph Savage. It is a simple concrete obelisk above his grave looking over the beautiful Waitemata Harbour and says at the base, ‘he loved his fellow men’.

Savage, a fellow immigrant from Australia, knew that having a right means having a chance, it means having a roof to shelter under and a meal on the table, a school and a doctor. That a nation that truly values the rights of her citizens promises a fair go to each and every one. Savage helped create a society where there was hope of a better life, and there was fulfilment of that hope…

There is another memorial in Auckland. One dedicated to those who turned their backs on ordinary New Zealanders. In the Auckland CBD there is a memorial to Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson, it is a casino in the shape of a syringe. They created a society in which desperate people’s only hopes are pokies and drugs.

You’re gonna reap just what ya sow. And we are reaping in South Auckland and Bridge Pa.

Here’s the second half of his speech:

There is perhaps a single new idea at the heart of the green movement, and that is that the planet is finite. The planet has limited ability to absorb our pollution and supply us with resources, it has limited minerals, forests, soils, rivers and lakes.

The realisation that the planet is finite is a simple yet profound insight into the true nature of human existence. It is an insight that we, the human race, are struggling to come to terms with.