This afternoon the House of Representatives voted all but unanimously to enact the bill designed to make New Zealand net carbon zero by 2050. Some think the bill imperfectly soft. Others – including the largest party in parliament, the opposition National Party – think it imperfectly harsh. But its cross-party passing is, whichever way you … Read more
Tonight, TVNZ announced their slate of 2020 content, and they’re absolutely slammed with it. This is what we’re excited to watch next year. NEW The Bachelorette NZ Call the police, call a priest, call your boss and tell them you need some time off because Art Green is returning to television as the host of … Read more
What are you going to be watching in November? The Spinoff rounds up everything that’s coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Lightbox, Neon, Amazon Prime and TVNZ on Demand. Click here to read our listings for October The Biggies His Dark Materials (NEON, Season 1 weekly from November 5) Feel like your life … Read more
Surrounding sites evacuated and one reported hospitalised in serious condition as blaze rips through two floors of the under-construction building in the Auckland CBD. Last updated: 9pm Much of central Auckland was brought to a standstill this afternoon after a major fire broke out shortly after 1pm at the SkyCity Convention Centre. SkyCity evacuated the … Read more
The organisers of the Rugby World Cup have made the unprecedented decision to cancel two of the final pool games, citing safety concerns as a super typhoon threatens Japan. What’s this? Rugby CANCELLED? In my day we walked six miles barefoot in the snow to play rugby. The goal posts were made from old … Read more
What are you going to be watching in October? The Spinoff rounds up everything that’s coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Lightbox, Neon, Amazon Prime and TVNZ on Demand. Click here to read our listings for September. The Biggies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-33JCGEGzwU Watchmen (NEON, Season 1 weekly, from October 21) This HBO series is set … Read more
A series of reviews, published today, found little evidence of health benefits from reducing red or processed meat consumption, and already they’re proving highly controversial. NZ experts assess the findings. Existing guidelines tend almost invariably to advise people to curb the red meat component of diets. Following five reviews of “the relationship between meat consumption … Read more
Voting in local elections is under way, and you should have received your ballot papers by now in the mail. But if you haven’t, don’t panic. Jolisa Gracewood, Hayden Donnell, and Alice Webb-Liddall have put together this guide to how to vote anyway. The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. … Read more
Organisers estimate that 170,000 New Zealanders have joined the strike for the climate around the country. Here’s what went down. More than 40 #climatestrike events took place this afternoon around New Zealand, as part of a global movement calling for urgent action on the climate crisis. The core of the strike was school students, but … Read more
For three hours, we’re going quiet. Here’s why. Despite it being known, catalogued and largely undisputed for decades, a decent response to climate change felt like something we could reach by next year. We just had to get our head around the housing crisis, or the GFC, or the Iraq war, or big tech, or … Read more
Josie Adams, Hayden Donnell, and Alice Webb-Liddall read thousands of policy statements to find the people who are most committed to tackling climate change. The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here. One of the problems with local elections is that voters … Read more
The prime minister has admitted mistakes, and outlined measures to change the party culture. Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister and leader of the Labour Party, yesterday addressed at length the situation around allegations of sexual assault by a Labour volunteer and an investigation into a Labour staffer. “We have a duty of care, and we … Read more
Differing accounts of what was said in an inquiry into the alleged conduct of a now former Labour staffer have been issued today to media via lawyers. In spite of PM Jacinda Ardern’s exhortation that ‘it would be preferable if this case were not in the public domain’, that is where it is currently being … Read more
The president of the Labour Party, Nigel Haworth, has resigned following serious allegations relating to a Labour staff member and an inquiry he oversaw which has been angrily criticised by the complainants who took part. “In the last 48 hours I have read incredibly distressing reports of an alleged sexual assault involving members of the … Read more
The prime minister has responded to the allegations made in a Spinoff story this morning, saying she’s expressed ‘complete dissatisfaction’ with the Labour Party investigation. The prime minister and leader of the Labour Party, Jacinda Ardern, has this afternoon responded to questions relating to allegations of sexual assault by a Labour staffer, and the controversial … Read more
Opinion: in a feature published today on The Spinoff, a Young Labour volunteer detailed a traumatic sexual assault she alleges was committed by an influential Labour staffer. It marks the second time in two years that the party has badly let down its most vulnerable. Read The Spinoff’s reporting on the alleged sexual assault within … Read more
What are you going to be watching in September? The Spinoff rounds up everything that’s coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Lightbox, Neon, Amazon Prime and TVNZ on Demand. Click here to read our listings for August. The Biggies The Good Place (Netflix, Season 4 weekly, September 24) It’s weird that the smartest, … Read more
Yesterday the NZ parliament passed the Abortion Legislation Bill by 94 to 23 in a conscience vote. Below, a selection of abridged speeches from the first reading Andrew Little (Labour) Around 13,200 abortions are carried out in New Zealand each year under our current law. Under that law, when a woman seeks an abortion, she … Read more
What are you going to be watching in August? The Spinoff rounds up everything that’s coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Lightbox, Neon, Amazon Prime and TVNZ on Demand. Click here to read our listings for July. The Biggies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt0QuaQ0huk Veronica Mars (Neon, Seasons 1-4 + Movie, August 2) Praise be, because our … Read more
With less than a week to go until the Love Island UK villa evicts its beautiful tenants, Alex Casey and Tara Ward look back at the season that was. Alex: Did you get my text? Tara: I GOT A TEXT Alex: *Ovie in the background voice* MESSAGE! I can’t believe it has taken us this … Read more
In a world of racist tweeting presidents, climate crisis and cricketing travesty, what you need in your life is this palliative conversation about Dunedin’s Baldwin Street losing its crown as world’s steepest street to Ffordd Pen Llech in Wales The slope of Baldwin Street, Dunedin, curled into a melancholy frown this week with the announcement … Read more
The blessed ScarJo has kept very quiet some of her most impressive performances. Movie star Scarlett Johansson has faced criticisms around taking the part (she ended up standing down) of a trans person in Rub and Tug and the lead in Ghost in the Shell, which was a Japanese character in its original manga form. She’s … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Duncan Greive: The extraordinary story of Love Brar, the fraudster who became a pop star “The clip is one of the most opulent scenes ever filmed in New Zealand. In it Brar and Akhtar perform in a vast garage, filled with vintage Rolls Royces, loaned … Read more
What’re you going to be watching throughout July? The Spinoff rounds up everything that’s coming to Netflix, Lightbox, Neon, Amazon Prime and TVNZ on Demand this month. The Biggies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEG3bmU_WaI Stranger Things (Netflix, Season 3, July 4) For the few who don’t know, Stranger Things follows the adventures of several 13-year-old Dungeons and Dragons enthusiasts … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Duncan Greive: Leo Molloy: the angriest man in the Viaduct “I wanted to know how he could be so enormously successful, so beloved by so many important people, while so often being such a gaping arsehole. After he sent some strange emails to The Spinoff, … Read more
A new book about the depiction of religion in New Zealand editorial cartoons reveals some disturbing truths. Last week the NZ Cartoon Archive at Wellington’s Alexander Turnbull Library published Mike Grimshaw’s Bishops, Boozers, Brethren & Burkas, which looks at religion in New Zealand through the eyes of the country’s cartoonists from the 1860s to the … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Emily Writes: At long last, introducing meal kits for kids! Delivery meal kits seem to be everywhere at the moment. Every company insists they have the food that your kids will love. They say you’ll never have to think about what you cook and your … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Amanda Thompson: A love letter to my crockpot Once when I was younger and stupider I thought I didn’t need a crockpot. I thought they were the laughable domain of Tupperware-hoarding suburban housewives. Oh how I laughed at those housewives. A friend actually persuaded me … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Emily Writes: We need to talk about Noa “The stories everywhere were immediately click-worthy. I hate that straight away I was drawn in. Authorities had apparently granted a Dutch teenager her wish to be given assisted suicide. Legal under certain circumstances in the Netherlands, it … Read more