One day, when he was contributing to the Tax and Welfare Working Group, economist Gareth Morgan made an off-the-cuff remark that the solution to all of New Zealand's tax and welfare woes lay in abolishing the present welfare system and radically overhauling the tax system. He called this idea the big kahuna.

The Big Kahuna takes as its base assumption that we don't, as a society, accept that huge differences in income are acceptable and that we therefore choose to redistribute wealth. While they are generally regarded as separate, the tax and welfare systems are fundamentally both methods of doing just that - redistributing income from those who have plenty to those who don't.

In a nutshell, The Big Kahuna seeks to show that if the job of redistributing wealth and income is worth doing, it's worth doing properly, so that the resulting system is fair to all, rich and poor alike.

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What sort of shape is our health system in? Is it the third world's cast-off that some commentators would have us believe, or is it a model of success?

Sick of hearing from disgruntled patients, media reports and self-serving politicians, I decided to carry out my own independent study of the health system to get to the bottom of it. The results surprised me. Our local health system scrubbed up surprisingly well globally, but it's clear that there is a substantial mismatch between the public's expectations and what the health system actually delivers. Some hard calls need to be made.

As his fish bins filled up on another successful raid on the Cook Strait groper fishery, economist and dedicated fisherman Gareth Morgan found himself wondering whether it could possibly be right that he should be allowed to do this. Is it still true, he wondered, that there are plenty more fish in the sea? He resolved to find out.

Together with Geoff Simmons, he launched an in-depth investigation into the state of New Zealand's fisheries resource and our supposedly world-leading management regime. Hook, Line and Blinkers is the result. Fishing is but one of the pressures our oceans face, but it's one that people - you and me - can readily influence. For it's not only the fishing industry that must confront the impacts of their fishing on the environment: recreational fishers must face up to our share of issues, too. Meanwhile, if we mean to ensure that there are still fish in the sea tomorrow, we must begin to make ethical choices about what we buy and eat. Hook, Line and Blinkers will change how Kiwis think about fishing, whether you are sitting in Parliament, your dinghy, or at your dinner table.

We Kiwis are literally eating ourselves to death. In the move from cooking to convenience food we have given up control of what we eat. As a result our food is heavy on sugar, fat and salt, and light on the nutrients our body needs. This is causing a hidden health crisis that will swamp our hospitals just when the baby boomers want their hip operations.

Gareth Morgan and Geoff Simmons latest book cuts straight to the bone of what ails us, and what we can really do about it.

Includes Bonus DVD with the paperback version!

Our Far South is packed with history and wildlife, and is renowned for its breathtaking and photogenic beauty. But does our appreciation of the region run more than skin deep? Do Kiwis really understand how important the region is and what issues are facing it?

In February 2012, Gareth Morgan trapped ten of New Zealand’s top experts on the region in a boat with 40 ordinary Kiwis for a month. Together with Geoff Simmons, he grilled them about the issues facing the region and Ice, Mice and Men is the result. What they found was startling. Our Far South – that part of New Zealand that extends from Stewart Island almost without interruption to the South Pole – harbours precious wildlife and is the engine room of the world’s oceans and climate. We are blessed to live in this unique part of the world, but we also have a huge responsibility to look after it.

All proceedes from the sale of this book go to the Million Dollar Mouse Fund