As the number of New Zealand citizens deported from Australia grows, so too does the death toll. Don Rowe reports on the rising human costs of Australia’s immigration reforms. This feature was made possible thanks to reader contributions via Spinoff Members. See here for more. In June 2017, at the Anchor Baptist Church in Lower … Read more
Genetic modification offers space-age healthcare, booming agriculture and a new weapon in the war on invasive species – if we choose to use it. Don Rowe reports. Since the first primordial slime congealed on our infant planet, bacteria and viruses have been locked in a state of total war. Reliant on other living cells to … Read more
Ngāi Tahu spent 150 years in cultural and economic poverty, dispossessed of the vast majority of their whenua and mahinga kai. Today, 20 years on from their landmark settlement with the Crown, they’re sitting atop a billion dollar pūtea, writes Don Rowe. At the time of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, almost half … Read more
When Hinewehi Mohi was asked to sing the national anthem before New Zealand’s 1999 quarterfinal against England, she made a choice that would change the pregame ritual for good. Don Rowe reports. The Rugby World Cup in 1999 smashed sport, politics and New Zealand’s sense of nationhood together in two pivotal moments which still echo … Read more
After ten years of public fallout, New Zealand’s favourite nu-metal band are back. Don Rowe talks to Blindspott. The year was 2003: t.A.Tu were making Russian pop cool, ‘Where is the Love?’ was second in the NZ Top 40 only to Scribe’s ‘Not Many’, and in West Auckland a bunch of bogans were charting at … Read more
Jacinda Ardern flies to Nauru this week for the 49th Pacific Islands Forum, and the host nation is already making headlines way beyond the official agenda. Don Rowe explains Fifty years after it became the world’s smallest republic, Nauru plays host this week to the 49th Pacific Islands Forum amid international outrage over the treatment of … Read more
The acclaimed Hunt for the Wilderpeople is the main attraction on a new line of Instant Kiwi scratchie cards, raising concerns among actors, artists and anti-gambling activists. A line of Instant Kiwi scratchie cards featuring popular New Zealand movies has left those involved in the films upset their work is being used to promote gambling. The … Read more
Keep the Peace Makarau Valley says the controversial Auckland Shooting Club is filing resource consent applications that are incomplete and unrepresentative of the club’s real ambitions for expansion. A controversial Auckland gun club is pressing ahead with their plan to build Australasia’s ‘largest shooting facility’ in a sleepy rural valley – and the council is … Read more
A horror week for intensive farming continues as the government promises action on slack regional councils following the release of disturbing footage, writes Don Rowe. The government has promised to take action on intensive agriculture, with funding approved to set up a group that will “assist and at times embarrass” regional councils failing to enforce … Read more
Pressure is mounting to ban the intensive farming practice found in feedlots. What are they, and why are they such a problem? Don Rowe explains Fifteen minutes out of Ashburton, thousands upon thousands of cattle are penned in grassless paddocks. The cows are meat animals, spending their final days held in these so-called feedlots being … Read more
Whitebait season is here, and Forest and Bird is steaming mad about it. Why are we serving endangered fish in home kitchens and cafes alike? And where are the catch limits? What’s all this then? Set the nets and get out your gummies – it’s whitebait season, and nothing tastes better than an endangered fish. … Read more
Since 2016, the Department of Conservation (DOC) has partnered with Kiwibank to develop the conservation dog programme and, by proxy, raise the profile of conservation as a whole. Don Rowe goes to visit these hard-working canines to find out what it takes to be a DOC dog. The egg of a common skink is about the … Read more
SkyCity want to open an online casino. What makes them any different from the sharks already here, asks Don Rowe. In a presentation to shareholders announcing a record $169.5 million net profit, SkyCity this week signalled their desire to launch an online casino. That’s despite legislation which on the face of it prohibits New Zealand … Read more
‘Burners’ around the country will have to look elsewhere for their collectivist fix after Kiwiburn 2019 was cancelled by event organisers. New Zealand’s regional Burning Man event has been cancelled after extended negotiations around council noise restrictions meant a 2019 iteration of the festival became unfeasible. A sell-out event held annually at the end of … Read more
Youth of New Zealand rejoice! Apple has become the most valuable company to ever exist and we’re all investors. Apple has become the first public company to reach a market value of US$1 trillion this morning – great news for Kiwis, who collectively own about $400 million of Apple shares through the New Zealand Superfund. … Read more
In a world replete with generic knives, Auckland chefs are moving towards something a little more special. Sam Mannering’s favourite knife is the one that cut his finger off. Forged by legendary Kiwi craftsman Peter Lorimer in Omakau, Central Otago, the knife sliced so cleanly through the bone of Mannering’s left index finger, just above … Read more
Stuart Nash says it was just ‘a metaphor’, but that’s not good enough: for too long the drug debate has been blighted by wild and counterproductive hyperbole, writes Don Rowe Police Minister Stuart Nash’s comments that synthetic cannabis users are smoking “fly spray and grass clippings” are a continuation of a myth that fuels dangerous … Read more
The results of more than 400 drug tests from across the festival season are in. Who is eating what? Our essential explainer. What’s all this then? Volunteer drug testing agency KnowYourStuff’s annual results are in, cataloguing 445 substances tested with FTIR spectroscopy and reagents across seven festivals this summer. What’s the skinny? There’s more MDMA … Read more
Joseph Parker’s future in boxing demands a career-high performance this weekend, writes Don Rowe. At an undefeated 50-0, as the only fighter with career earnings of more than $1 billion, Floyd Mayweather may well be the self-proclaimed ‘best ever’ – but nobody on earth is mistaking him as the baddest. That honorific belongs to guys … Read more
As winter passes and new life takes hold in New Zealand, indigenous guests from far abroad have arrived to exchange cultural knowledge. It’s more than 12,000 kilometres from Salem, Oregon, to Dunedin, Otago – an epic journey across the Pacific – but for students like Cherokee Miranda Livers, it’s a pilgrimage for a cultural immersion … Read more
Nothing goes better with cheap food than cheaper wine drunk quickly. Here are the 10 best BYO spots in New Zealand, as submitted by you. Ah, the BYO, most depraved of dining methods! Sinking seven standards with the fam and boofing a bit of Thai – it’s the degustation for the modern lad. What better … Read more
Whangārei architect Jade Kake has made a career changing behaviour through design, decolonising Māori thought patterns and outcomes through altering the environment in which they take place. But her next project at Te Rewarewa is by far the most ambitious yet. Don Rowe reports. There are few living arrangements as seemingly distant from te ao … Read more
Teens have smoked weed from the side of a can for decades, and probably always will. But doesn’t that give you Alzheimer’s? Don Rowe called a real life scientist to find out. There is nothing on earth quite like smoking weed off a can. Bending, crimping, poking a rush hole just so – it’s the closest … Read more
A Kiwi reporter has been caught in the first known act of World Cup-related violence to affect New Zealand, taking a pint of lager to the face live on the AM Show as England fell to Croatia in extra time. Across the UK the faithful had gathered, stuffing pubs and parks the nation over to … Read more
New research from the University of Auckland reveals startling disparities in the ways communities are targeted by junk food retailers. Don Rowe speaks to the study’s author, Professor Boyd Swinburn. A combination of political apathy and toothless local government is exacerbating New Zealand’s obesity crisis, a new study has found. We’re living in fundamentally unhealthy … Read more
For a time in the late 2000s, youth of all backgrounds in this country began to dance. Don Rowe remembers the brief flash when techno became a unifying force in New Zealand. Since the beginning of time humanity has yearned to dance. From the cha cha to the charleston, trap arms to the twerk, dance … Read more
A new documentary following New Zealand’s Joseph Parker offers fascinating background on the make-or-break moments of boxing, writes Don Rowe. Half an hour into Metamorphosis, the new documentary following Joseph Parker in the build up to his championship fight last March, there is an interaction that those of us on the far temporal side of … Read more
Paul Manning built one of NZ’s biggest ad agencies by transforming the image of businesses like the $2 Shop. Now he wants to do the same with cannabis. Don Rowe reports. In a secret location somewhere south of Auckland’s CBD, New Zealand’s largest indoor cannabis operation is rising like a monolith from the earth. A concrete … Read more
In May 1993 alt-metal weirdos Faith No More were cast adrift in New Zealand with nothing to do. And so Don Rowe’s dad booked them to open his nightclub, a tiny room in a very different Queenstown. Almost a year to the day before I was born my parents made a decision that I maintain ruined … Read more