The book, which covers the tenures of 12 Prime Ministers, has spent four weeks on the best-seller list, coming in again as the top non-fiction title on last week\u2019s Nielsen list.<\/p>\n
Veteran political journalist Barry Soper has been made an ONZM. Image \/ NZ Herald<\/p>\n
Soper now lives in Auckland and is Newstalk ZB\u2019s senior political correspondent, but he is just as likely to be holding a toy as he is a microphone, as he juggles childcare duties with wife Heather du Plessis-Allan. <\/p>\n
The couple have two young children \u2013 Iggy, born in 2022, and Mackay, born early last year.<\/p>\n
Newstalk ZB’s Barry Soper with then newborn daughter Mackay and son Iggy, his children with wife Heather du Plessis-Allan, in January 2025.<\/p>\n
Soper was walking with Mackay when the Herald caught up with him on Friday.<\/p>\n
He said the honour was a surprise, and came about two decades after he\u2019d declined an earlier opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout 20 years ago, I was sounded out about receiving an honour. I considered it and took advice \u2013 I was the political editor then, very much hands-on in Parliament, and I thought, no, I could be accused of bias, and I decided against it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one came along, and there was another long thought process, but then I discovered who had put me up for it \u2013 two knights and a dame from across the political spectrum.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, well, even though the Government announces them, it\u2019s not the Government that gives them. Whilst it\u2019s the King theoretically, in reality, it\u2019s people who nominate people for awards.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m honoured to receive it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heather du Plessis-Allan and Barry Soper with Iggy.<\/p>\n
His instincts as a journalist \u2013 and in particular, source protection \u2013 kicked in when he found out about the honour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI only told Heather a couple of weeks ago, even though I knew about it a couple of months ago, and she was a bit unhappy: \u2018Why didn\u2019t you tell me about it when you knew?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI said we\u2019re sworn to secrecy, and being a good journalist that knows how to be taken into confidence, I decided to keep my own counsel.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s very happy for me, but she says, \u2018You could have told me when you knew!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
To celebrate, he\u2019s eyeing a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne that he\u2019s had sitting at home for a while.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take my hat off to everyone who has suffered me over the years, being a political journalist and travelling, and that goes for my wife, my ex-wives and all my seven children.\u201d<\/p>\n
A life in journalism<\/p>\n
Soper\u2019s King\u2019s Birthday honour outlines myriad achievements.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Soper has covered major international events, including the Fijian coups in 1987 and 2000, and Nelson Mandela\u2019s inauguration in 1994,\u201d according to the background notes supplied to media for Soper\u2019s award.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the driving influence to have Nelson Mandela as the guest speaker at the parliamentary press gallery 125th anniversary dinner, held during President Mandela\u2019s visit to New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe co-established the Southland Club, which holds an annual function in Parliament to promote the Southland province.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has mentored junior political journalists. He was named journalist of the year at the New Zealand Radio Awards on several occasions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2023, Mr Soper\u2019s lifetime of work was recognised at the New Zealand Radio Awards, where he received the award for outstanding contribution to radio.\u201d<\/p>\n
Editor-at-large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand\u2019s 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 and has a small shareholding in NZME.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The book, which covers the tenures of 12 Prime Ministers, has spent four weeks on the best-seller list,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,8831,6794,50316,184,6325,2108,9516,2082,7568,7560,16890,27981,1362,111,43,139,69,129596,1321,26633,61],"class_list":["post-454408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2246","tag-an","tag-baby","tag-badge","tag-barry","tag-birthday","tag-book","tag-broadcaster","tag-for","tag-honour","tag-honours","tag-journalism","tag-kings","tag-made","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-onzm","tag-services","tag-soper","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}