1940: Bernard Freyberg and Carol Hirschfeld

April 21, 2023

By AHNZ

New Zealanders of German descent, such as Carol Hirschfeld and Bernard Freyberg, made up the largest migrant group to this country apart from Britain. These families have made strong contributions to the new nation including Missionarys and the earliest colonies at Akaroa and Nelson in the 1840s. Of course, we persecuted our German family members and redacted them from history during the fervor of the Great War and WW2 so the Tutonic-Zelandian has a stigma that persists well into the C21st. Ref. 1939: No-Fault Persecution, AHNZ and Ref. 1916: “The Devastating Hun”, AHNZ

Two examples of tall contributions are the careers of the very German names of Bernard Freyberg (1889-1963) and Carol Hirschfeld (1962-) in military and news media respectively. Both were executive members of their field and were treated to a meal by Ministers of the Crown with a view to enlisting them for a new government project. Yet in essentially the same circumstances one would rise and the other would fall. General Freyberg would become General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and Governor General of New Zealand. Carol Hirshfeld would resign from Radio New Zealand in ignominy and then rebound as a breakfast radio producer only to have that entire station, Today FM, crumble within 12 months of starting out.

Carol Hirshfeld was soaring in 2018 having been a famous presenter for Crime Watch on TVNZ, newsreader for TV3, producer for Campbell Live, Head of Programming for Maori TV, and Head of Content for Radio New Zealand (RNZ.) It was now (5 December, 2018) that Labour 6.0 Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran met with Hirshfeld. The Government was looking for a new ‘general’ to head a revised version of RNZ and had announced a budget of $38 million in Government spending to help nudge it in the ‘right’ direction.

After their meeting at Astoria Cafe in Wellington that day both women were exposed in a scandal, especially because of the denials and lies told afterwards. Curran was sacked and had to resign as Minister. Hirshfeld resigned too, her glittering career torpedoed. In the 2010s it was not OK for a Minister to short-circuit transparent, public, due process by taking direct intervention in the marketplace. Everybody knows, at least at their sympathetic nervous system, that Ministers are Mafia Lords trying to control and shape the marketplace to benefit themselves and their people. Of course Labour 6.0 wanted to bend RNZ ‘their’ way. What New Zealanders like though is for a pretense on the part of their politicians of not being corrupt. This is also why RNZ (along with CBC, BBC, ABC etc.) were very upset when Twitter disrupted that pretense by labeling them “government-funded media.” Our sympathetic nervous systems know this very well already but when our parasympathetic nervous systems register this fact it’s an end to ‘Double Think’. We reject the corrupt politician and media priests we were pretending not to know about! Ref. RNZ considers unliking Twitter over ‘government-funded’ label, RNZ (18/4/2023)

“Few would have predicted the shock resignation of Carol Hirschfeld, whose 34-year career in broadcasting and journalism came to an abrupt halt this week over a simple breakfast meeting with Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran.” – Departure tarnishes glittering career of Carol Hirschfeld, NZ Herald (2018)

“The invitation had said: “Will you come to Londan and consult with me about the NZEF?”; and Peter tried to be truly tactful and to make it clear that the conversation was only on general lines and had nothing to do with the possible employment of his guest. But of course everyone present knew the real reason for the dinner.” – p15 Stevens (1965)

“So Fraser advised the Government to offer the appointment to Freyberg; and the offer was made and accepted in Fraser’s room at the Savoy Hotel about 16 or 17 November…he took me by the shoulders and well-nigh danced me around in his delight.” – ibid

“Nobody, women or men, should expect anyone to roll out the red carpet for them and open the door, you must roll out your own carpet and kick the door in if you really want something.”- Helen Clark (March 2018)

“However, medical examinations prior to a posting in India revealed a heart problem. Despite strenuous efforts to surmount this, Freyberg, who was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1936, was obliged to retire on 16 October 1937.” – Wiki

“A routine medical board detected an irregular heart beat and his appointment to India was cancelled. He retired on half pay in September 1937.” – queensroyalsurreys.org.uk

“Governor-General has approved Major-General Freyberg’s appointment to the command of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. This notice is dated January 5, 1940.” – Evening Post (1940,) Papers Past

“The Fourth Turning. A Crisiss arised in response to sudden threats that previously would have been ignored or deferred, but which are now perceived as dire…People support new efforts to wield public authority, whose perceived success soon justify more of the same. Government governs, community obstacles are removed, and laws and customs that resisted change for decades are swiftly shunted aside.” – p103 Strauss-Howe (1997)

Carol Hirshfeld was, in her50s, soaring in 2018 but Major-General Freyberg in 1939 was not. His career was behind him now. He had tried to win a seat in the British parliament but was rejected. Freyberg was in his 50s too and had been compelled to retire in 1937 due to heart irregularities; He didn’t want to go. Only The War provided an opportunity for a come-back and in particular an invitation from Deputy Prime Minister Peter Fraser of Labour 1.0 to dine at the Savoy Hotel to discuss the future.

Freyberg came out of that hospitality engagement with a Labour Minister with child-like enthusiasm, “that of a schoolboy of about fourteen,” says one of the men interviewing him, Stevens. He was near enough to dancing in delight: Berg was Back! Far from being over, Freyberg was now on a path to becoming New Zealand’s revered WW2 commander, our Governor General, a Lordship, and having a statue (image, left) in Freyberg Place in the Auckland CBD. Carol Hirshfeld came out of her hospitality engagement with a Labour Minister with her career in free-fall and was last seen heading with Tova O’Brien to get wasted after O’Brien precipitated the instant demise of Today FM.

An explanation as to why essentially the same catered meeting with prospective General Freyberg in 1939 and General Hirschfeld in 2018 is that they are different historical eras. Governments in the 2000s need to present the appearance of open, honest, transparent processes. We all know that Ministers are trying to pick winners, play favorites, and fund their pet projects toward re-election and only get upset if they get caught. Of course Curren wanted a particular outcome for RNZ and would have to interview her General in order to make a selection and get the Expedition going. But Kiwis want their corruption to be invisible and Labour 6.0 has to keep it that way. Labour 1.0, on the other hand, was expected to take decisive and undemocratic action because they Governed during a time of Crisis. People support high-authority regimes during what Strauss-Howe call a Fourth Turning where “Government governs.” Although Peter Fraser kept up the pretense of a legitimatised process in selecting Freyberg it was really his show to run just as it had to be for Clare Curren except that she needed pretense and extra steps. And, in particular, Curren and Hirshfeld were caught out in the act while the Freyberg process was protected by discretion until it had become a fait accompli.

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1 Ref. “Stunned Today FM staff have headed to the pub after being told today the station will close and given mere hours to make submissions on the decision. Hosts Leah Panapa and Tova O’Brien and her producer Carol Hirschfeld were among staff who headed to a nearby bar.- ‘Let’s go nuts’: Shocked Today FM staff head to pub after station to close, ODT (March 2023)

Note: Labour 6.0’s plan to re-jigger RNZ and pump it with money traveled full-circle. After the 2018 disaster they tried Plan B which was a merger of RNZ and TVNZ but Curran’s media-personality successor Ministers, Kris Faafoi and Willie Jackson couldn’t get it done. In 2023 it was back to Plan A and a big fiscal injection which makes it very hard to object to Twitter’s recent characterisation of RNZ as being ‘governmented funded’. “The cost of the aborted public media merger is being put at $19.6m, almost 60 percent of which was spent on contractors and consultants.” – Ref. RNZ to receive $25m a year in funding boost, RNZ (April 2023)

Image ref. Carol, NZ Herald. Freyberg, NZ Herald

Image ref. Lord Freyberg’s statue, Freyberg Place, Auckland. AHNZ Archives (Feb 2018)

Ref. Freyberg, VC.: The Man, William Stevens (1965)

Ref. The Fourth Turning, Strauss-Howe (1997)

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