Each day on The Great New Zealand Road Trip, Shayne Currie catches up with a noteworthy New Zealander, measuring their mood and hopes for the country. Today we catch up with Queenstown-based creative and Great Southern Television founder Phil Smith.
What’s the one word to sum up your mood right now?
Excited. There are green shoots. We’re turning the corner! We just need to stop being negative, stop all the internal bickering and unite to fight the real enemies – our isolation – the monopolies - the cost of living. Then demand big bold ideas – start “thinking big” again and along the way rekindle our national pride.
What do you wish people knew about where you live?
Ha! Everyone has an opinion on Queenstown. And it certainly has issues. I believe it’s so iconic, it’s a national treasure and needs a fulltime minister to ensure its long-term preservation – and accelerate the infrastructure we desperately need to cope with our rapid population increase.
Sure I can go on and on about its natural beauty – but the things you need to know? Well … you won’t get a bargain anywhere, you don’t drive anywhere between 4 and 6, book your restaurants well in advance.
As for little secrets? In Arrowtown, Ferg Burger’s butchery, Nadia’s Royalburn Produce shop, the Blue Door for a vino, the Arrowtown loop track for a walk, the little plunge pools along the river track in summer. And for a great day? Hire an e-bike – and ride out to Gibbston Valley from Arrowtown, the tracks are all magical. The Dunstan trail is breathtaking too. Fave restaurant? Fogo, Brazilian, authentic. Soda is the new cool spot, well deserved. That’ll do ya.
What are your passions?
Personally, travel and writing. Visiting weird countries. I lived for a long time in Dar es Salaam, spent a lot of time in Bujumbura (sadly). But at home with the family, it’s pursuing all our creative stuff. I love it! My son is a muso and playing Northern Bass and Rhythm and Alps and has just released his latest video and single as Altercation …. my wife, Leanne Malcolm, has been recording at the amazing Sublime studios in the Waitaki Valley and is about to release her first album as Gina Malcolm, it’s really good stuff.
I’m always writing scripts, and creating shows, so I love the vibe around our home. I am proud to have created 50-odd NZ shows. I love making a crazy observation – and taking it all the way to the screens. I love feeding the backs and supporting all the emerging talent. My thrill is seeing others around me succeed. I just need enough for a pinot and a steak at the end of the day – don’t need anything more than that.
Which New Zealander (alive or dead) do you most admire – and why?
Bruce McLaren. A visionary, a creative, a fearless champion. We have to learn from him. We are still so stupid that we ship fish, meat, wood and milk in bulk overseas. We need to use our amazing brainpower and enhance these primary products – we need to energise our creativity. Our future is limited by these bulk commodities. And it’s all carbon toxic. Foreign buyers hate this. But selling ideas and intellectual property? It has no cap. Unlimited potential. Take a page from Singapore. This is our future. And Bruce McLaren did that. Now let’s get Liam Lawson in a McLaren and play the NZ national anthem when NZ rocks F1!
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
We love being home in Queenstown but my work life takes me away from it a lot these days. With offices in central Auckland, I need to be in the big city most weeks, or at meets and conferences in Europe, so when I do get the chance to escape to the south, it’s an absolute treat.
We have a bit of land, I love doing “tractor time” on the ride-on, and blasting a good podcast. Enjoying the peace and serenity of the mountains. The clear air, the silence, the beauty, the birds.
We love having a barbecue on the deck, I have the cricket on beside me, a beer, it’s all very standard – but I love it. And to finish the day, I love getting in the spa with a beer, selecting an episode of Anthony Bourdain – and be taken away to another world. Leanne often suggests I should just look at the stars. She’s right. But heck, look Leanne! Bourdain’s in Columbia – the food, the people! I wanna go there! Or … at least I can dream ….
What is your greatest fear?
We keep moaning here in NZ. I think we should listen to Māori and settle claims fairly. Then we can work together, unified, because we have a much bigger foe, which is our isolation, our economy. The cost of this division, the wasted energy? It has to stop.
Together we are stronger. Then we can get on with it: four-year political terms, pay our PM more – and demand concepts that will alter our economic direction forever. We need a Seddon, a Kirk, a Muldoon (even!) – a Lange. I don’t feel that vision at present – we are all very stuck in the mud. We could start with a fast train between Auckland and Wellington. We just need some game-changers.
What is it that you most dislike?
I’m not a social media guy. I’m lucky to do lots of amazing things, film sets, travel to Cannes, LA and Europe a lot, and I could make a right peacock of myself. I just like texting a pic to my treasured family and friends on my phone – and keeping it private, making it mean something. Broadcasting a fake representation of yourself, in the hope of pushing other people down, it’s depressing. But when used with good intentions – I do understand its connective value for many people. The worst kind of social media dicks are former Kiwis who go abroad and then tell everyone here how s*** NZ is. They can f*** off and stay there – or come back and do something positive about it. Otherwise – so what? You live in France? With strangers?
But what I dislike the most are the monopolies in NZ – the banks, the supermarkets. We are being ripped off. We need a national supermarket: it’s a crime that we overproduce wool, meat, fish, timber, wine – and it’s more expensive here than anywhere else in the world. Can someone tell me why?
What is on your bucket list?
When I was at the Financial Times reporter in East Africa I got arrested and expelled.
I left all my s*** there … and I hear it’s still stuffed in a corner there. I want to go back and see my mates who are still around - and see if that bag of weed I bought at the fish market is still in the top drawer. I used to buy a fish and chip-sized parcel of bangi for a dollar – and we’d make spinach curries with it – delicious. So a return to Dar es Salaam – although they probably won’t let me in after this confession.
What do you hope/think NZ will look like in 10 years?
I am desperately worried that we are becoming a mute society. There are no forums for lengthy, valuable debate. It’s dividing us. The Hui and Q+A are our only current affairs shows – politicians are not put under the heat lamp in long interviews often enough – preferring meaningless pre-rehearsed sound bites on TikTok. We need to hear their vision. And challenge it. Internationally we are being frowned upon – where’s your fourth estate? At work, we are working as hard as we can to revive long-form debate and discussion: the outstanding Julian Wilcox interview with David Seymour was essential viewing for all New Zealanders and should have been in primetime. We have a lot to talk about – a lot to decide but we are operating in confused silos. Echo chambers built on false information and naivety. Let’s talk together and listen. It’s fundamental in a democracy – people’s forums. On French TV they have endless shows where they argue all night about their future. It’s wonderful. Here? Nothing. Even Australia has terrific current affairs … shame!
If we do this, if we come together and think big, we will rock. The other option isn’t so pretty. The more we fight internally the more we lose internationally. We’re all brothers and sisters stuck in this beautiful, remote place. Let’s call it the “optimistic island”. Let’s go!
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor.
Elisabeth Nicholls was reported missing from Riccarton on June 4.