Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Tourism suffers in the shadow of Covid-19, two new positive cases in Auckland confirmed, and National will contest the Māori electorates. The front page of the January 4 Greymouth Star carried grim tidings for several of the glacier towns on the West Coast. The reporting has … Read more
Ignoring those QR codes when you drop into the supermarket? Can’t be bothered when you grab a coffee? The people serving you notice, and you’re freaking them out. So far, New Zealanders’ use of the Covid-19 Tracer app has been notably woeful. Food industry workers who’ve watched streams of customers walk straight past their workplace’s … Read more
He has the perfect moustache, an exceptional mullet, and he uses terms like ‘face hole’ on national TV. Who or what is Dr Joel Rindelaub? I was drawn in by the moustache, but it was the mullet that really kept me there. Watching TVNZ’s Breakfast yesterday morning I was fixated. Often, if I’m honest, the … Read more
Good morning and welcome to the Bulletin. In today’s edition: Collins outlines the plan forward for National, no spread of Covid spotted yet in Northland, and students return for climate protest. In front of a Rotary Club at the Ellerslie Racecourse in Auckland, National leader Judith Collins yesterday set out her party’s priorities for the … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Questions to be answered about case in the community, major companies flagrantly breaching wastewater consents, and Tenancy Tribunal decisions harming abuse survivors. As of this morning, we’re still waiting on some crucial information about the situation in Northland, after a person travelled through the region before … Read more
Good morning and welcome to the first regular season Bulletin of 2021. In today’s edition: High alert as woman in Northland tests Covid-positive, house price inflation races ahead unabated, and schools grappling with new year after last year’s disruptions. Ministers and health officials were keeping their options open yesterday afternoon after a new case in … Read more
With new strains of Covid-19 bearing down on our shores, Pattrick Smellie of BusinessDesk looks at the challenges 2021 has in store, and what can be done to prepare. In the three weeks that New Zealanders have been at the beach and ignoring Covid tracer app sign-ins, the threat of Covid-19 has grown exponentially. Where … Read more
The experience in the Brazilian city of Manaus reveals how mistaken, and dangerous, the herd-immunity-by-infection theory really is. As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed … Read more
Supermarket shoppers looking for citrus are seeing a sour trend at the moment – some stores are entirely tapped out of lemons. But why? Batches of homemade lemonade will be taking a hit this summer, with life not giving New Zealand shoppers lemons. Prices are high at supermarkets and grocers that have the citrus fruit, … Read more
Hardly anyone is using their Covid Tracer app. Something needs to change. As the mercury approaches 30°C in Aotearoa, there is a good deal of slipping and slopping, but, let’s face it, piss-all scanning. As few as around 500,000 QR codes are being scanned by users of the NZ Covid Tracer app daily in January, … Read more
Good morning and welcome to this one-off edition of The Bulletin, covering major stories from the last few weeks. A quick preamble to this: Today’s special edition of The Bulletin is all about filling you in on some of the stories you might have missed over the summer period. Perhaps you had the radio on in … Read more
More infectious variants of Covid-19 are increasingly being intercepted at the country’s borders, but the minister running New Zealand’s response is resisting pressure to accelerate vaccination plans despite demands from health experts as well as political friends and foes, Justin Giovannetti reports. New Zealand’s first Covid-19 jabs will be administered in April to border workers … Read more
As CEO of her iwi rūnanga, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was on the frontline protecting her community during the first outbreak of Covid-19. Now that more virulent strains threaten to breach our borders, the Māori Party co-leader calls on the government to introduce much stricter measures. As we enter the New Year I think it’s important that … Read more
The new variants of the virus can spread like wildfire, and all of us have a role to play in keeping them out of the community. I have to admit, when I first heard UK prime minister Boris Johnson talking about a new, more transmissible strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19, part of … Read more
It’s time for New Zealand to face up to the hard truths of how our health system is leaving people behind, writes paediatrician Jin Russell. In an almost apocryphal account, my mother often tells the story of how once in the 1970s, after great rains, parts of Christchurch flooded. Their home, although mercifully elevated above … Read more
The latest Covid-19 data in New Zealand, and how it compares with the world. If you’re like me, you’ll be back in the office today slowly recovering from three weeks of sun, sea, sand and a distinct lack of thinking about Covid-19. But as the pandemic continues to rage around the world (and with our … Read more
Summer reissue: Shane Reti has emerged in recent weeks as the opposition’s most capable communicator in the age of Covid-19. Justin Giovannetti speaks with ‘Dr Shane’ about the changes he’s brought to National and how he’d seek to improve New Zealand’s response to the coronavirus. First published September 2, 2020. Independent journalism depends on you. … Read more
Summer reissue: Spinoff cartoonist Toby Morris travels to Waitomo to see first hand the impact of Covid-19 on one of New Zealand’s oldest tourist destinations. First published 8 June, 2020. Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its members – click here to learn more … Read more
Summer reissue: The crowd’s attention wasn’t primarily on the ball when political editor Justin Giovannetti went to see his first rugby game. As the parliamentary team faced off against the local Centurions all eyes were on the director general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, starting at openside flanker. First published on July 26, 2020 Independent journalism … Read more
Summer reissue: History warns that we should be wary of the misuse of power in the name of public health, writes Scott Hamilton. First published on April 2, 2020. Content warning: This feature contains distressing descriptions of racism against Māori. In the winter of 1913 a group of Māori appeared in the office of Arthur … Read more
Summer reissue: You might not know his face, but Māori Television’s Heta Gardiner was one of the most valuable and memorable contributors to the daily Covid-19 briefings. Hayden Donnell spoke to him about what it was like covering a pandemic in a still Pākehā-dominated press gallery. First published 16 May, 2020. Independent journalism depends on … Read more
Summer reissue: Two years ago, Toby Morris met Tasia for the Side Eye comic ‘Empty Shelves’. As New Zealand emerged from the strict Covid-19 lockdown of alert level four, he caught up with her again, and found that while some things had changed, others had not. First published June 8, 2020. Independent journalism depends on … Read more
If there’s one lesson to take from our widely praised Covid-19 response, it’s that real societal change is possible – as long as the political will is there, writes Matt Bartlett. One of the most remarkable and under-reported aspects of New Zealand’s response to Covid-19 is how the government eliminated homelessness during the lockdown period. … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin’s 2020 Year in News Quiz. Merry Christmas. It’s back again – The Bulletin’s Christmas Day Year in News Quiz is here, due to popular demand following last year’s edition. If you look around your Christmas gathering this year and remember which of your beloved family got more answers … Read more
Cases of Covid-19 are being found daily in the country’s border facilities, but that won’t stop them from throwing together a Christmas like none before it, complete with face masks and social distancing. Following Jacinda Ardern’s decision to give Santa and his reindeer a pass to avoid a stint at a border facility, and presumably … Read more
Recapping the highs and lows of 12 turbulent months. It’s officially the last week of the year and yet March 2020 feels just like yesterday. So much of our lives have been affected in strange and unexpected ways since the global pandemic was declared and our markets and economies have been no exception. So what … Read more
The speed at which Sydney’s new Covid-19 outbreak has spread should be a lesson in the dangers of complacency, says Siouxsie Wiles. With news of a new strain of the Covid-19 virus spreading in the UK, it looks like Australia’s Christmas plans are also up in the air with a new cluster of cases in … Read more
A new, more infectious strain of the Covid-19 virus has reportedly emerged in the UK, prompting the prime minister, Boris Johnson, to announce new restrictions to try to curb its spread. Dr Siouxsie Wiles explains. Let’s start with the basics. The genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for Covid-19 is a strand of RNA … Read more
New Zealand has agreed to buy four Covid-19 vaccines, in volumes that are more than enough for everyone in New Zealand and for some of our Pacific neighbours too. Siouxsie Wiles on what yesterday’s announcement means, and what comes next. First a quick recap. There are lots of different ways to design a vaccine, which … Read more