The motivation behind The Target

I have always been a firm believer in the trade union movement and its vital role in society. At its core, trade unionism is simple: it seeks to ensure that the wealth created by workers is shared fairly with those who produce it. Yes, it’s a Marxian idea – and a sound one.

I wanted to write a story grounded in union struggle that would engage readers while introducing the 1984 Trades Hall bombing to both new audiences and those who remember it. The novel unfolds against a tense confrontation between government, business, and the trade union movement. It draws on 1984 — the year Wellington’s Trades Hall was bombed, not the novel.

Ernie Abbott, a 62-year-old former union official and caretaker of the hall for a decade, died in the blast, his watch stopped at 5.19pm. He had picked up an abandoned suitcase designed to detonate when handled. Abbott's beloved pet dog Patch "crawled whimpering from the wreckage, singed and bleeding", but survived.

My own history is intertwined with unionism. My grandfather, a wharfie, was arrested during the 1951 Waterfront lockout — a story I explored in my first unpublished novel. Family legend had it that when a policeman put a man on the picket line in a headlock, my grandfather returned the favour, shouting, “You can’t take that man.” Years later I discovered the truth was less heroic and more human: he was arrested on his way home for illegal gambling on the train and spent the night in Mount Crawford. The real story found its way into The Target.

More recently, I relied on my own union to help resolve a dispute with our employer. Without it, we would have been powerless. Justice, as I explored in Weeping Angels, is not free — it isn’t even cheap.