Podcast Summary:

Podcast: New Books Network
Episode: Aaron Smale, "Tairāwhiti: Pine, Profit and the Cyclone" (Bridget Williams, 2024)
Date: December 9, 2025
Host: Dr. Miranda Melcher
Guest: Aaron Smale

Episode Overview

This episode delves into Tairāwhiti: Pine, Profit and the Cyclone, an investigative work by seasoned journalist Aaron Smale. The book exposes the intertwined histories of indigenous land, monoculture forestry, and devastating cyclones on New Zealand’s East Coast. Originally a deep-dive investigative series, Smale’s work explores how historical land-use, corporate interests, and government policies created the vulnerabilities that catastrophic cyclones have repeatedly exposed—with profound impacts on land, sea, and the people who live there.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Aaron Smale’s Background & Motivation

• Dual Perspective: Smale has a 25-year journalism career with a focus on agribusiness and Māori affairs. With mixed European and Māori heritage (his grandmother was from Tokomaru Bay), he brings both personal and professional insight into issues concerning Māori communities and rural land use (02:54).
• Why This Story?: Working as Māori affairs editor at Newsroom, Smale saw mainstream coverage of cyclone events as superficial and transient. His family ties to the degraded area, its historical neglect by media, and the apparent cycle of disaster led him to “sink some time” into telling a deeper story (06:32).

2. Geology, Erosion, & Historical Land Use

• Long Timeframes: Understanding the devastation required going back “millions of years” to the land’s young geologic makeup—steep, soft, prone to collapse after European deforestation and sheep farming displaced indigenous forests in the late 19th/early 20th century (07:39–09:02).
• Cyclone Bola, Pine, and the New Monoculture: In the wake of the 1988 cyclone, pine trees were established as a government-subsidized remedy—intended to stabilize the soil, create jobs, and found a local industry. However, after 30-year growth cycles, clear-cutting left hillsides bare and created vast “slash” (forest debris), worsening future cyclone impacts (09:02–12:41).

“They only want…the trunk that’s the economic bit. And all the rest is kind of—sort of byproduct…that debris then gets carried down, and every time you have a storm, it gets carried down into the waterways…”
—Aaron Smale (12:41)

3. The Pine Industry & Corporate Dynamics

• Why Pine?: Pine, specifically fast-growing radiata, replaced earlier land uses due to its economic value as a softwood export. New Zealand became a global leader in plantation softwood, but Smale critiques this “all in on one thing” national tendency (13:39–15:22).
• Multinational Ownership, Local Impacts: Only a minority of forest land is New Zealand-owned; most companies are foreign multinationals, with some linked to poor environmental records in other countries. Local councils lack the resources to challenge them effectively, and fines are dwarfed by profits (16:34–19:22).

“They made $70 million that year...and so there’s this kind of, if you like, imbalance in power...They can get away with it really.”
—Aaron Smale (19:22)

• Local Economy & Māori Land: The pine industry’s benefits for locals are limited–jobs are periodic, and rural communities have been hollowed out. Māori landowners (notably Ngāti Porou, Smale’s ancestral iwi) take a longer-term view, in contrast to extractive outside interests (20:00–21:54).

4. Regulation, Government Policy, & Legal Struggles

• Policy Weakness: Current policy enforcement is weak—even when councils attempt legal action, forestry companies deploy well-funded legal teams, outmatching small rural authorities (24:14). The broader trend is towards further deregulation, worsening oversight.
• Environmental Fallout: The 2023 cyclone aftermath left beaches and river mouths choked with forestry debris and silt, decimating local fisheries and the sea as a “food cupboard” (27:05).
• Impact on Mental Health: The chronic, cumulative trauma suffered by Māori and local communities is evident, with Smale highlighting visible exhaustion and resignation in residents (27:41).

5. Reception and Impact of the Book/Reporting

• National and Local Reactions: Outsiders express shock and outrage at the revelations. For residents and subject-matter experts, Smale’s work is valued for joining the dots and centralizing the issues—providing a “weapon” or tool for advocacy (28:48–29:58).

“...the feedback I got was that, you know, it was just this useful tool and maybe even weapon for, for some to be able to—you know, knowledge is power—and just to have it all sort of collated like that…”
—Aaron Smale (30:57)

6. Wider Environmental Context: Climate Policy & Carbon Markets

• Emissions Trading and Tree Planting: New Zealand’s greenhouse emissions are unusually dominated by agriculture (especially dairy)—not transport. Carbon offset and trading schemes have incentivized more pine planting on marginal land, but actual emissions reductions are falling short (31:34–33:39).
• Missed Targets, Massive Costs: New Zealand is likely to miss net zero targets and will have to buy costly carbon offsets on the international market (“the bill could be up to 23 billion”). Politics further complicates genuine progress (35:10–36:59).

“How do you calculate what a tree’s worth in terms of mitigation? …Then what are the political decisions around how to manage all of that and what the targets are? ...Pretty hard to pin down.”
—Aaron Smale (35:10–36:59)

• Climate Change Knock-on Effects: With increasingly severe cyclones and typhoons in the region, Tairāwhiti is a canary in the coal mine, suffering first from climate and policy neglect that will soon affect others (37:48–40:01).

7. Connections to Global Issues

• Linked Challenges: Smale argues that the local realities on the East Coast are microcosms of wider, global tensions—immigration, climate-driven migration, and the shortsighted management of environmental and economic resources (39:11–40:19).

8. Aaron Smale’s Next Projects

• “Stolen Generations” Reporting: Smale has spent years covering the removal of Māori children by the state—a parallel, ongoing trauma to colonial and economic exploitation—with an upcoming PhD now expanding that work (41:00–44:49).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the futility of fines:
  "They made $70 million that year. And so...they can get away with it really." (19:22 — Smale)
• On government inaction:
  "...you look at the damage, you can still drive up there and there's just...this rubbish right from the shoreline right up...most of it ends up on the sea floor...the catch had declined by 70%..." (24:14–26:56 — Smale)
• On the emotional toll:
  “You could just hear the exhaustion in her voice and see it on her face...you could just see it, the toll it was taking.” (27:41 — Smale)
• On knowledge as empowerment:
  "...it was just this useful tool and maybe even weapon for, for some to be able to—knowledge is power..." (30:57 — Smale)
• On the politics of climate action:
  "...by the time the bill arrives, she'll probably be out of government. And the bill will fall on somebody else's lap." (36:10 — Smale)
• On global relevance:
  “It’s like the canary in the mine. And if we don’t take notice of what’s happening there, one day, it’s going to blow up in our face, I think.” (40:01 — Smale)

Suggested Timestamps for Important Segments

• Aaron Smale’s introduction & personal motivation — 02:43–06:59
• Geology, land use history, and the rise of pine — 07:39–13:07
• Why pine, industry structure, and company behavior — 13:39–21:54
• Legal and government policy failings — 24:14–27:41
• Community impact and reception of the book — 28:48–30:57
• Emissions, carbon schemes, and climate policy — 31:34–36:59
• Global context & climate migration — 37:48–40:19
• Smale’s upcoming research on “Stolen Generations” — 41:00–44:49

Final Thoughts

The episode provides a thorough and compassionate look at how cycles of land exploitation, government complacency, and multinational profit have compounded disaster risk and cultural trauma in one of New Zealand’s most marginalized regions. Smale’s book, reporting, and commentary emphasize the vital connections between environmental justice, indigenous sovereignty, and the urgent realities of a warming planet.

For those interested:
Tairāwhiti: Pine, Profit and the Cyclone (Bridget Williams, 2024)