About
Bruce Jesson Foundation
The Bruce Jesson Foundation was established after Bruce Jesson’s death in 1999 for two main purposes:
1. To promote activities designed to generate critical, informed, analytical and creative contributions to political debate in New Zealand and about New Zealand; and
2. To archive the writings, broadcasts, speeches and other works of Bruce Jesson.
Its two main activities to date have been an annual Bruce Jesson Lecture at the University of Auckland, established in 2000, and the two journalism awards established in 2004 and 2009.
Bruce Jesson Lectures have been delivered by: David Lange (2000), Brian Easton (2001), Chris Trotter (2002), Jane Kelsey (2003), Ani Mikaere (2004), Colin James (2005), Gordon Campbell (2006), Laila Harre (2007), Mike Lee (2008), Robert Wade (2009) and Annette Sykes (2010).
The foundation was chaired by former Prime Minister David Lange from 1999 until Mr Lange’s death in 2005; by Professor Andrew Sharp until 2006; and since then by Professor Jane Kelsey.
Current members (May 2011):
Associate Professor David Robie (Director, Pacific Media Centre, AUT University) is a member of the Journalism Awards Subcommittee.
Bruce Jesson grew up in Christchurch and earned a law degree at Canterbury University, but was never admitted to the Bar because he refused to swear allegiance to the British queen.
He never trained as a journalist but wrote and edited some of the most original, important and challenging journalism in New Zealand in The Republican, which he published on a hand-to-mouth basis from 1974 to 1995, as a columnist for Metro magazine, and in a series of books including The Fletcher Challenge: Wealth and Power in New Zealand (1980), Behind the Mirror Glass: The Growth of Wealth and Power in New Zealand in the Eighties (1987) and Only Their Purpose is Mad: The Money Men Take Over New Zealand (1999). Some of his collected writings were published posthumously in To Build a Nation, edited by Professor Andrew Sharp, in 2005.
He was elected to the Auckland Regional Council as an Alliance candidate in 1991 and chaired the Auckland Regional Services Trust from 1992 to 1995, keeping key assets such as the Auckland port in public ownership in the face of massive pressure by the National Government of the time to privatise them.