KEY POINTS:
Wonders never cease. The New Zealand Film Commission and New Zealand On Air have reportedly given an estimated $1.9 million to the producers of the film of David Henderson's book, Be Very Afraid.
The accepted wisdom used to be that only a script written by a Maori lesbian
wheelchair-bound feminist would receive any money from these heretofore politically correct state-owned funders, but John Barnett of South Pacific Pictures has proved otherwise.
This news must be small comfort to National supporters who raged against Creative New Zealand's funding of the play Hollow Men.
Henderson's story, which I've heard makes the Labour Government look bad, almost got a whopping $2m.
In an ideal world the state would not fund the film industry, but I'm pleased this film got the nod because Henderson's book is an inspiring true story about a battle with the grey shoes brigade, the powerful nonentities who used their immense powers as public servants to bully and terrorise Kiwi battlers from struggle street (as Auckland's new mayor Banks calls them).
Now before Truth's gossip writer gets into a lather, I'll declare a connection. I once worked for Dave Henderson, back in 1995, when he owned Radio Liberty. The station went belly-up, but Henderson personally paid back every creditor.
Since then he and I had a bust-up over the publication of his book, and non-payment of royalties (we do have something in common - a propensity to fall out with people). But you don't have to like someone to admire them, although Henderson is impossible not to like because he loves life.
His treatment by the IRD was appalling. He claimed a GST refund of $65,000 and ended up being bankrupted because the IRD reckoned he owed them more than $1m.
Most of us would lie down and die at that point but Henderson, who lost every possession except his beloved cat, told one IRD officer he would "kick his fat arse from one end of Cashel St to the other".
Hendo, as he is known, did more than that. He wrote to every MP asking for help. Rodney Hide was the only one to respond and took up Hendo's cause (writing his book), despite being heavied by the Act Party to keep away from the libertarian Christchurch property investor with links to an outfit called Zenith Applied Philosophy.
After four years, Henderson won - he got the IRD decision revoked and his refund. He even got his hair back after being completely bald.
His victory helped us all. The finance and expenditure select committee conducted an inquiry into the powers and operations of the IRD and as a result, Commissioner Graham Holland resigned. Although the committee's findings were muted, as is usual with such inquiry reports, it was acknowledged the department had a culture of bullying and scare tactics. Henderson and Hide, for a short time at least, managed to change the way the IRD dealt with taxpayers.
Finance Minister Michael Cullen remained sour, however, and used parliamentary privilege to accuse Henderson, wrongly, of tax evasion and "running the Christchurch sex industry". Henderson's rebuttal was written into Hansard, and his wife's rejoinder was that he couldn't even run the sex industry in his own home, he had so many development projects.
Henderson's a crazy bugger but he's got balls. It's hard to stand up to the IRD, and most of us meekly pay up, not daring to question the whopping assessments we're sent in the familiar Te Tari Take envelopes. I'm even too scared to chuck parking fines in the rubbish, much to Sir Robert Jones' disgust. He gave me a right bollocking last week when, after a long lunch together, I had a $12 parking ticket. It's all right for him.
He says he once registered all his vehicles in the name of Norman Kirk, c/- Parliament Buildings, who was so frustrated he made Sir Basil Arthur Minister of Transport - according to Jones - just so he could get the knight to pay his fines.
But I digress. In England the liberals decided An Inconvenient Truth should be screened in every school to teach pupils about global warming, until a rational judge ordered accompanying riders to point out the film's big green lies. In New Zealand, the film of Henderson's fight should be freely screened as an inspiration to youngsters to challenge authority, especially when it comes in the name of government and is here to help.
The big difference between these two films is that Henderson's, scarily, is true, whereas Al Gore's should have received the Nobel Prize for fiction. But all is not lost, I hear the Nobel committee is about to receive a growling from Dr Muriel Newman, who's written telling them to withdraw the award. They should, in Henderson's words, be very afraid.
