Author Alan Duff doesn't pull any punches in his new book A Conversation With My Country.

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Mr Duff - the author of Kiwi classics Once Were Warriors and What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted? - this morning told TVNZ1's Breakfast programme that his new work deals with issues like the prison population, Māori welfare, alcoholism and people on the outskirts of society - like people in gangs.

Mr Duff said successive governments have fostered many of the problems New Zealand faces today, and that the only way to solve those problems is to address them directly, without being too "politically correct".

"I think anybody's who's got half a mind is almost obligated to be anti-PC," he said.

"When you are PC you are trying to shut down a conversation, you're trying to shut down anything that's opposed to your way of thinking."

Speaking about the welfare system in New Zealand, Mr Duff said he by no means despises people receiving help, but also said that "when you reward people to just stay failures you've just got an untenable situation".