His interest in labour history goes back to his student days, when he completed a master’s thesis on the labour movement in Christchurch between 1905 and 1914. He has subsequently written a number of essays on aspects of labour history, and in 2013 VUP published his Judgements of All Kinds: Economic Policymaking in New Zealand, 1945–1984. He has been a member of the Labour Party for 25 years.