KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand Society of Authors proudly proclaims on its website how it "works to protect the basic right of freedom of expression".
But the moment one of its most venerable members, former national president Gordon McLauchlan, upset the booksellers who run the Montana Book Awards, his freedom-loving
union dropped him like a hot potato.
Six weeks ago, Mr McLauchlan spoke out at a meeting of the Auckland branch of NZSA against the ongoing lack of Auckland representatives on the awards judging panel.
Members overwhelmingly backed his call to award organisers "to take more notice of demographics when appointing judges".
A large majority also supported his remit to base some national cultural organisations, notably Creative New Zealand, in Auckland.
Mr McLauchlan followed this up with a robust article on the popular website of Graham Beattie, former chief of Penguin Books NZ.
The wrath of Wellington was swift. In October last year, Mr McLauchlan had agreed to represent the NZSA on the Montana awards management committee. But this week, following publication of the article, Linda Henderson, chair of the book awards management committee and chief executive officer of Booksellers NZ, declared him suddenly unwelcome.
In a letter to NZSA she wrote, "The management committee has reviewed the comments made by Gordon McLauchlan on Beattie's Blog regarding the Montana New Zealand Book Awards and believes that in light of this viewpoint, approval of his nomination as your representative on the management committee is not appropriate at this point in time."
Incredibly, the brave defenders of free speech immediately curled over and said yes, so sorry, we'll find you a poodle instead. On Wednesday, Mr McLauchlan received notice of his sacking from NZSA executive director Liz Allen.
Enclosed was a copy of the Montana letter. "I am sorry that this has been the outcome," wrote Ms Allen.
What she didn't reveal was that the NZSA had been party to the decision, but more of that later.
NZSA president Paul Smith, an Aucklander, says, "I don't see what the big deal is", arguing "It's a simple process of them wanting somebody else, this one wasn't suitable. We'll find someone suitable for them from Auckland".
Mr Smith says "this isn't about freedom of speech, but you can make what you want out if it". Oddly, he went out of his way to support Mr McLauchlan's call for judging changes.
"Everybody feels badly" about the unfair geographic distribution of the judging panel. He said he told last Friday's Auckland branch meeting that "it was obviously a much bigger problem than we thought, let's have a round table meeting of all people associated with the awards". He said it had been a longstanding problem and had to stop.
Adding to the confusion was a prepared statement from Booksellers chief Ms Henderson.
She revealed that the writers' union had actually been party to the decision to dump Mr McLauchlan.
"When it was raised that Gordon McLaughlin [sic] was making statements in the media that were not representative of the NZSA (the group he was going to be representing on the management committee) all the stakeholders' groups on the management committee (including NZSA) did not approve his nomination."
She says there's always "someone from Auckland" on the judging panel short list and "the inference that any judge would not give a prize to a book because of where the author lives is an indictment to their professionalism".
Mr McLauchlan's article did not say that. He said "I just want to break this stranglehold that Wellingtonians hold on our culture (many of them with an insufferable smugness)." This year again, he said, "Wellington will have two judges of the Montana National Book awards, Christchurch one and Auckland none. Of the eight category advisers only one is from Auckland." Over the past five years, nine judges have come from Wellington, five from Auckland and four from the South Island.
This despite Greater Auckland having three times as many people as Wellington and growing more than eight times faster. "Imagine the Australian reaction to the appointment for two years in a row of two judges from Canberra and one from Perth for their premier literary awards."
Mr Smith said nothing of his organisation's hand in the sacking, pointing instead to the dedicated freedom of speech page being added to its website. Perhaps Mr McLauchlan could feature as their first gagged writer to be saved.
