Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Sam Brooks: The 10 most shocking moments in the blistering new book ‘Whale Oil’ Slater tried to add Blomfield’s 10-year-old daughter on Snapchat Well after the armed attack, and a fair way into the protracted legal battle between the pair, Slater, or someone pretending to … Read more
The stakes are high for Grant Robertson’s much heralded Wellbeing Budget in the year delivery. What are the expert verdicts? Susan St John: Creditable, but not good enough The government deserves credit for the reframing of the budget to reflect human wellbeing outcomes. This modernisation is well overdue. The new approach should mean there is … Read more
Season three of The Handmaid’s Tale drops on June 6, exclusively on Lightbox. Brush up on all the bonnets, babies and body horror of the first two seasons here. !!! Contains spoilers for season 1 and 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale !!! The first three episodes of season three of The Handmaid’s Tale drop on Lightbox … Read more
The 2019 budget is coming out this Thursday, and with it a whole bunch of impenetrable jargon. We’ve picked out some of the key words to keep in mind as it is being read. A Ambitious The last budget was typically described as ambitious. Now the word gets thrown around a lot to describe the … Read more
Good news! We’re launching a free daily newsletter featuring all of the Spinoff’s stories published that day. Read on to sign up now. Social media dominates how many consume content today. Whether it’s via Facebook, Twitter or Instagram stories, our reliance on these platforms gives them immense power over what we see and when we … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Patrick Reynolds: The story of a revolution: How public transport transformed Auckland “There’s a quiet revolution underway in Auckland, slowly but relentlessly transforming the city. It began early in the century – a big change of direction taken in small steps – and has been continued … Read more
The Green MP has been given extra security following threats of violence. She tells the Spinoff about the ‘barrage of hate’ she confronts. Green MP Golriz Ghahraman has described the “barrage of hate” she has received since becoming a member of parliament, and its impact on her life and employment. In an interview with Leonie … Read more
UPDATED: Crusaders management has denied claims on social media that the touring players targeted a group with ‘homophobic slurs, limp wrists and high pitched voices’. Several members of The Crusaders rugby team have been accused of homophobia following an altercation with a group of young men in Cape Town, South Africa. The allegations, detailed on … Read more
Tonight the nation’s journalists, photographers, videographers, reviewers and columnists gather at Auckland’s glamorous Cordis Hotel for the most glittering night in media, the Voyager Media Awards. Read a selection of The Spinoff’s rip-roaring 17 nominations here. Website of the Year Please discover more of our great content at the following link: thespinoff.co.nz Best First-Person Essay … Read more
Seventeen countries and eight tech companies have in Paris agreed on a text designed to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online, in the wake of the terrorist attacks at two Christchurch mosques, an atrocity which was both planned online and livestreamed on Facebook. Below, the full text. A free, open and secure internet is a … Read more
An 1,800-page report, years in the making, has painted a profoundly stark picture for diversity. With up to a million species facing extinction, humanity itself is in peril, says the UN body that assesses the state of global ecosystems A selection of expert views on the report, compiled by the NZ and UK Science Media … Read more
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her fish-hunting boyfriend Clarke Gayford are getting married, it was revealed today. What will it all involve? Almost certainly these things. Most likely theme for hen night: Working Group. Most likely theme for stag do: Catch and Release Most likely wedding venue: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Hobbiton. … Read more
Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Laura Linney, Pierce Brosnan – they’re all coming to Lightbox in May, y’all! The Son (S2, Weekly from May 1) I mean, it’s JAMES BOND AS A COWBOY. What more do you people WANT from your POPULAR CULTURE? A handsome (and I’m not just talking about Pierce) epic set in Texas at … Read more
The much anticipated new Taylor Swift song dropped today, along with a confectionary-tinged music video. Here’s a few hastily put together thoughts from The Spinoff staff. “Is this the Frozen sequel?” – Spinoff editor Toby Manhire. “This is the song that Veruca Salt would make if she escaped the Wonka Factory, went to high school, … Read more
Aquaman is an incredibly complex film that puts a lot of questions into your head, distracting you from the simple joy of watching Jason Momoa battle foes under the sea. Never fear, three Spinoff staffers are here with the answers you’re craving. You can watch Aquaman on Lightbox right here.
This weekend, lend your eyeballs to our three new shows: Two Sketches with Toby Morris, Scratched: Aotearoa’s Lost Sporting Legends and On the Rag. Look, it’s the weekend and you’ve already watched all the things. You’ve watched Game of Thrones. You’ve watched Dancing With the Stars NZ. You’ve watched the video of the goat in … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Don Rowe: Swastikas and semi-automatics: Auckland gun club neighbours speak out “In January this year, the neighbour, who we have agreed not to name, woke to find a large swastika and the words, ‘If your reading this ur in range’ spray-painted on their shed … Read more
The Spinoff is proud to debut a major new musical work by singer-songwriter Hayden Donnell. After National Party leader Simon Bridges last month misled The Spinoff over the post-15/3 removal of a controversial petition, the deletion was blamed on an “emotional junior staffer”. The emotional junior staffer was later revealed to have worked for National … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Madeleine Chapman: I told New Zealand what chips to eat and New Zealand told me to fuck off “I flew to Wellington on Thursday night and met up with the same colleague who, to my genuine surprise, was still passionate about the Burger Rings issue. … Read more
Acting PM Winston Peters did the rounds this morning and nobody was safe. We present a list of Winnie’s sassiest zingers. AM SHOW Winston joined Duncan Garner by video link to cover China and guns. Things got off to a cracking start, and went downhill from there. Duncan Garner: I tend to disagree with you … Read more
All the superheroes are coming to Lightbox this month – Spider-Man, Aquaman, Jennifer Lopez, Spongebob Squarepants – but there’s a few villains in the bunch too. It’s your round-up of what is coming to Lightbox in April. The Act (Four episodes dropping April 4, then weekly) From Jean Sergent’s review of The Act, coming later this … Read more
With Vice NZ sadly closing its doors last week, here’s a round-up of some of the excellent work produced by the editorial staff over the last few years. The New Zealand editorial arm of global youth media outlet Vice closed on Friday, with five people losing their jobs. Vice New Zealand opened under the management … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Don Rowe: Grass Roots: the wāhine of Hikurangi Enterprises “Inside the common room at the Tikitiki school, Melanee Paenga is crying. A director at Hikurangi Enterprises and tutor of the EIT hemp cultivation course, she is one of the few young adults employed in the … Read more
Four members of the Spinoff staff and one completely unbiased stranger run down their favourite shows on Lightbox. What do Alex Casey, Leonie Hayden, Alex Braae, Toby Morris and one person who is definitely not Hayden Donnell watch in their time off? Check it out here. This content was created in paid partnership with Lightbox. Learn … Read more
Over recent days, Jacinda Ardern has been acclaimed internationally for her response to the atrocity in Christchurch. Below, a selection of statements that have resonated “It is clear that this can now only be described as a terrorist attack.” – Press conference, a few hours after the attack, March 15 “[March 15] will now be … Read more
If you’re still feeling down in the wake of the horrific events of Friday, you’re not alone. Here are some simple ways to care for yourself and others. It’s been a horrific few days in New Zealand. People have been affected in different ways, but for many of us, our reaction to the events of … Read more
Calls to foreground the voices and perspectives of our Muslim community in the days following the Christchurch attacks have been heeded by many newsrooms, but are all too soon drowned out again by the sheer number of headlines. Here we’ve highlighted Muslim voices from across the media in the wake of the white supremacist terror … Read more
In the wake of the Christchurch terrorist attacks, there’s been an outpouring of support from all over New Zealand and around the world. Here, a selection of the best images (including several from our Spinoff readers). This post will be updated with new images over the week. If you have any photos from NZ/around the … Read more
Rose Hanley-Nickols: I survived a mass shooting 23 years ago. Here’s how to help survivors today “Don’t play audio or video from the event. Ever. Last year I was woken up by gunfire from the Parkland shooting. Thanks for that, RNZ National. Don’t fixate on the numbers of dead and injured. It dehumanises the victims … Read more