More Atlas Network Intrigue ...

On 18th July 2022 a fresh faced new recruit joined the Atlas Network think tank named the NZ Initiative and two days later, Atlas Network luminary Oliver Hartwich introduced him in a podcast - where he explained he wanted to make more direct impact in New Zealand and how he'd found digging around in archives over in small towns in England a solitary occupation and isolated.

The new kid on the block was named Mathew Birchall - a freshly minted NZ "historian" who had done a Phd in Cambridge, who was a bit disappointed in all of us because he reckoned there's not much currency to be deeply read here.

"I am a Smuts Scholar at Jesus College, where I am working towards a PhD in History under the supervision of Professor Duncan Bell. My research concerns the suite of British colonisation companies that flourished in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, among them the Canada Company, the South Australian Company and the New Zealand Company. I am particularly interested in assessing these companies in light of global capitalism." wrote Birchall.

Birchall had done a history Phd at Cambridge studying western political thought and intellectual History - and had just published a paper named : Mobilizing Stadial Theory: Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s Colonial Vision - published online on the 14 June 2022. ( cited by only one )

Yes that was only five weeks before he was snapped up at the Atlas Network NZ Initiative Think Tank as a research fellow.

Meanwhile a month later on 14 July 2022 an Australian academic historian from Monash University in Melbourne - named Bain Attwood published an article in the Financial Review - saying that the Yes vote in the Voice Referendum will fail because of profound changes in society. He was right on 14 October 2023 - it failed 41% Yes to 59% No.

Attwood was quite outspoken on matters.

Back to Birchall and his background.

Before all of this Birchall had worked doing content creation for Leanerbly run by Rajeeb Dey, who was cofounder of StartUp Britain, a national entrepreneurship campaign. The campaign was launched on 28 March, 2011 by then Prime Minister David Cameron with the support of then Chancellor, George Osborne and the Government.

As you know - on 31 January 2022 - RNZ published the fact that Cameron was due to pep talk National at its swanky QueensTown Retreat ( during a cost of living crisis ) but Cameron caught Covid so Osborne took his place :

"Cameron, a former British prime minister, was due to give the address himself but after testing positive for Covid-19, George Osborne stepped in instead. MPs will be given a clear message about the need to sharpen up portfolio focus, get out and about and meet their constituents, and party leader Chris Luxon's expectations of conduct." - RNZ 31 January 2022.

Back to Birchall - it's worth noting that Birchall had dug into the NZ Company ( and other companies like the Canada Company, West Australia Company, South Australia Company etc ) all who were drivers of colonising these parts of the world and in summary - Birchall had lauded how Edward Gibbons Wakefield was the master strategic thinker behind company colonisation and how this was developed in the City of London.

Birchall reckoned an 1829 letter by Wakefield was the most important text in this development and he went on about stadial thinking ( stages of development thinking - the natural man, the age of the hunter gatherers, the age of the shepherd, the age of agriculture ) and how Wakefield flip flopped from his initial refusal to include Māori in his stadial schemes and structures - and how after the Treaty - incorporated Māori into an "assimilation" context of stadial thinking - where Maori could be civilised etc.

The point is this guy - was useful to Atlas because he sounded good and knew things about the history before the Treaty like how Wakefield was under colonial enterprise pressure and the way mobility of people brought them into intersections - and you may not know this - but Birchall quoted Bain Attwood ( Aussie Historian previously mentioned ) in his paper about Mobilizing Stadial Theory - saying basically that Attwood had cautioned NZ historians not to place too much importance on normative principles and intellectual traditions...when trying to make sense of emerging native title and that it was better to think of discrete objectives behind matters.

As you know I spent a week reading Ned Fletcher's 2014 Phd thesis about the intentions of the framers of the English Text of the Treaty and - I had seen Bain Attwood take a crack at Ned's work and critique the timings of what he called the "historicising of the treaty" about four years ago at Victoria University. ( As you do ).

Attwood told a story about "the founding myth of the nation" in which he talked about the tale of two treaties - the ceding of some lesser authority than full sovereignty versus - the full Sovereignty etc...Ruth Ross and her 1972 essay etc, Claudia Orange, Judith Binney, etc...and Attwood was loosely critical of Ned's take and implied he may have been influenced by modern day political thought etc. ( It's a bit heavy for this forum ).

Bascially Attwood was saying what the colonial office said and wrote was merely about politics - and it was a very small department and highly reactive and very particular ( something like that ) and these matters were mundane and we give too much weight to them, especially the legal historians.

Anyway at the time Ned jumped up and countered Attwood to his face ( good one Ned ) and he said he was interested in history not law or contemporary politics and he was not trying to create original intent - he was not considering Maori understandings, his topic was a small part - the understandings of the framers in English ( cos it was in English before Te Reo ) between 1835-1845. He argued that's the starting point - and he covered the views that opposed his own ( his view is that the texts reconcile - based on the intent was to protect Maori from lawless settlers )... including shooting down the Ruth Ross essay etc.

One thing Ned said was that the historians in the early 20th Century ( eg Sir Apirana Ngata ) may have been influenced ( put off ) by the way early legal historians accepted the Treaty had no legal effect. ( Gold counter arguments here to Act linked Muriel Newman, who sent 1.1 million copies of Ngata's book into 55 newspapers recently )

Back to Birchall at the NZ Initiative - a young historian who had joined up on 18th July 2022 - when - less than three months later the Act Party ( crawling with Atlas Network people ) published its Treaty Principles Bill position on 10 October 2022.

Interesting timing.

As you know Stephen Franks ( former Act MP and lawyer ) had written extensively about this Treaty Principles Bill area in 2005 and voted for it when NZ First tried to shoot the Treaty principles down. So this was not a new topic for Act - but perhaps Atlas was beefing up its history weapons by bringing on Birchall - seeing the road ahead - the upcoming public battle for hearts and minds over this Bill in 2024.

Oddly enough Birchall began working on platforming Infrastructure papers at the NZ Initiative despite having no background in this area.

To bring it all together - Birchall dug into the past - writing how Julius Vogel expanded the train networks in the 1870s here by tapping into London based funding and Birchall applauded a 40% increase in per capita incomes between 1896 and 1907 ( after refrigeration etc ).

Anyway you get the picture Birchall wrote and cowrote papers on what we should be doing with Infrastructure in New Zealand with a twist about the glorious past - and soon Birchall was being platformed by the NZ Herald in many articles. ( as per usual with Atlas ).

On 14 June 2023 - Act's Simon Court lauded the NZ Initiative Report written by Birchall "Paving the way - learning from NZ's past to build a better future".

That report found "central planning did not work" ( classic Hayek and Atlas Network messaging ), and it was time to install regulated private networks, Special purpose vehicles ( eg off balance sheet funding like with Nat's three waters COOs ), GST sharing where mayors get back 50% of the GST from central government after residential construction. Not to mention fostering Direct Investment from OECD countries ( hello Simeon Brown and the $24 Billion hole ).

Birchall was delighted with the election result but was disappointed that the format of Televised debates were rubbish and he longed for a single table around which Muldoon argued with Lange while Ian Johnstone knew more than Jesisca MuckinMyeye.

Where was the debate about productivity lamented Birchall - as he put down the sixth Labour Government for spending sprees, along with his fellow NZ initiative ( Atlas ) cronies.

Birchall promoted Nat policy in the NZ Herald - the return to Steven Joyce's Rons ( Roads of National Significance ), Acts road user charges, the 30 year pipeline, etc. while cherry picking Three Waters, Light Rail, Lets Get Wellington Moving and the Lake Onslow Project out for criticism.

Birchall is a fan of more private investment and cutting red tape which sounds almost like David Seymour ha ha.

Now there's a $24 Billion hole in the Transport Portfolio and we all know that Willis ( former Director of NZ Initiative from May 2016 until February 2017 ) will be arguing she is committed to these transport projects - and we all know - she's going to open all this up to private investors from OECD countries ...

The old line used by Thatcher that - we have no other alternative or this is a tough choice but we will not stand by and allow NZ to fall behind but get things done - will be used to force these Atlas Network transport policies through.

I hope you've found this brief background note interesting and keep an eye on Birchall as the Treaty Principles Bill heats up and the NZ Initiative platform any positions about it in the NZ Herald.

More Atlas Network Intrigue ...

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