Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Several new community cases announced in Papatoetoe cluster, Wellington City Council fallout continues, and new child poverty stats released. Several new community cases were announced in the Papatoetoe cluster yesterday, but at this stage the alert level appears to be staying at one. Our live updates has details … Read more
With the roll-out of a Covid-19 vaccine gathering steam across New Zealand, here’s a quick explainer on what goes into it and how it works. Support the Spinoff by becoming a Member – and score a Toby Morris tea towel. Who is getting vaccinated? First on the list to be offered the vaccine are the … Read more
It’s been controversy upon controversy for the talkback station in recent weeks, so Alex Casey embarked on a Magic Talk marathon to find out what the hell is going on. It has just gone past 6am on a Friday morning. My eyelids are firmly welded shut, the sparrows have barely begun farting, and yet we’ve … Read more
The following is a real Facebook Messenger conversation between Samuel Walsh and Dominic Hoey, founders and publishers of Dead Bird Books. Books editor Catherine Woulfe writes: This convo is extracted with permission from the eclectic, fascinating new book Dwelling in the Margins: Art Publishing in Aotearoa, edited by Katie Kerr and published by GLORIA Books. … Read more
Plus, how we feel about housing affordability and the state of the NZ economy compared to the world, in results from a new Stickybeak poll for The Spinoff. This week marks a year since New Zealand’s first confirmed case of Covid-19, and the support for the measures imposed at the border to throttle the inward … Read more
New Zealand news is replete with heartfelt articles foregrounding the agony of residents standing bravely in opposition to new housing developments (such as, most recently, this in Christchurch and this in Auckland). But what if the stories were told from another point of view? Hayden Donnell gives it a go. Residents set to move into new … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Auckland moved back to level one, a somber day marked in Christchurch, and new but incomplete child poverty figures out today. Auckland is back to level one again today, after a very brief lockdown relative to the others. As our live updates reports, it follows a solitary new … Read more
Head students are an integral part of the secondary school system in New Zealand, yet they are expected to cope with a seemingly never-ending to do list on top of their studies. So is the mahi worth the treats? Former head girl Ruby Clavey reports. As Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben once put it, “with great power … Read more
The star of the 1990 Commonwealth Games was a young New Zealand gymnast whose shock win catapulted her to national celebrity status. But Nikki Jenkins wasn’t our only gymnastic champion that year – this is the story of Angela Walker, New Zealand’s forgotten gold medalist. When you see an athlete competing at an Olympics or … Read more
Statistics NZ yesterday released the annual child poverty statistics. The reveal small achievements and big shortcomings, writes Janet McAllister from Child Poverty Action Group. Successive governments have neglected families with disabilities – with appalling results Here’s a fact to change the conversation: more than half of the New Zealand children in material hardship, 53%, live … Read more
Today, Disney launches a new part of its streaming service, Star. But what in the Mickey Mouse is it? Sam Brooks explains. So what is Star? Star is Disney’s “new entertainment brand” that launches today in multiple countries around the world, including New Zealand. In reality, it’s just another part of Disney+. The service will … Read more
Bachelor superfans Jane Yee and Tara Ward recap the highs and lows of week four of The Bachelorette NZ. Hear more from Team Jack on this week’s episode of The Real Pod. Get it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you normally listen to podcasts. Tara Ward: Jane, I wanted to make a good impression on … Read more
The following is a real Facebook Messenger conversation between Samuel Walsh and Dominic Hoey, founders and publishers of Dead Bird Books. Books editor Catherine Woulfe writes: This convo is extracted with permission from the eclectic, fascinating new book Dwelling in the Margins: Art Publishing in Aotearoa, edited by Katie Kerr and published by GLORIA Books. … Read more
Yesterday housing minister Megan Woods trumpeted a grand total of 12 families helped into homes by the new Progressive Home Ownership Scheme. As Danyl Mclauchlan exclusively reveals, that’s not the government’s only hyper-focused new support plan. Promising “a government that delivers for all New Zealanders”, housing, energy and resource minister Dr Megan Woods has launched … Read more
Aotearoa remains stuck in disaster response mode, 10 years after the Christchurch quake, write risk and resilience experts Ursula Cochran, Kelvin Berryman and Hugh Cowan. How’s progress, New Zealand? Do we still have buildings that could kill 115 people in one go? Yes. Are we still building on liquefiable land? Yes. Do we have essential … Read more
Have you been duped by a Lifetime movie masquerading as a documentary? Sam Brooks is here to help you tell the difference between Britney Ever After and Framing Britney Spears. Last week, a colleague told me that she’d sat down the previous evening to watch buzzy documentary Framing Britney Spears, and was confused to see … Read more
It’s been controversy upon controversy for the talkback station in recent weeks, so Alex Casey embarked on a Magic Talk marathon to find out what the hell is going on. It has just gone past 6am on a Friday morning. My eyelids are firmly welded shut, the sparrows have barely begun farting, and yet we’ve … Read more
With the roll-out of a Covid-19 vaccine gathering steam across New Zealand, here’s a quick explainer on what goes into it and how it works. Support the Spinoff by becoming a Member – and score a Toby Morris tea towel. Who is getting vaccinated? First on the list to be offered the vaccine are the … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Several new community cases announced in Papatoetoe cluster, Wellington City Council fallout continues, and new child poverty stats released. Several new community cases were announced in the Papatoetoe cluster yesterday, but at this stage the alert level appears to be staying at one. Our live updates has details … Read more
Statistics NZ yesterday released the annual child poverty statistics. The reveal small achievements and big shortcomings, writes Janet McAllister from Child Poverty Action Group. Successive governments have neglected families with disabilities – with appalling results Here’s a fact to change the conversation: more than half of the New Zealand children in material hardship, 53%, live … Read more
Under-funded, under-powered and under pressure: the local government sector is facing a series of crises around the country. Alex Braae looks at the biggest questions for the future. It can be easy to miss the big picture when looking at individual councils and their problems. But across 11 regional councils, 13 city councils and 53 … Read more
Less than a week after its shock decision to ban news, Facebook and the Australian government have the shape of an agreement to restore it. What just happened? Facebook has just announced that it will start the process of restoring news to its Australian platform, and allowing Australian publishers’ work to be viewable and shareable … Read more
The new Neon docuseries clears away the clutter from this messy saga and refocuses on the person it was always really about, writes Sam Brooks. The question of how to engage with art made by problematic people is one that’s never really been resolved. If you cancel the artist, do you cancel the art? How … Read more
Join Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee Mather and Ben Thomas as Gone By Lunchtime discusses the latest lockdown, trans-Tasman relations, business attire and more. New Zealand’s leading political podcast pivots to true crime this week to investigate the disappearance of political commentator Ben Thomas from Twitter. Where did he go – and what’s he been doing … Read more
A research first has highlighted the important role of non-Māori learning te reo for the revitalisation of the language. Charlotte Muru-Lanning spoke to Dr Will Flavell about where the language is going. Before he started learning te reo Māori, Dr Will Flavell (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Whatua, Ngāti Maniapoto, Tainui) was already fluent in English and … Read more
The star of the 1990 Commonwealth Games was a young New Zealand gymnast whose shock win catapulted her to national celebrity status. But Nikki Jenkins wasn’t our only gymnastic champion that year – this is the story of Angela Walker, New Zealand’s forgotten gold medalist. When you see an athlete competing at an Olympics or … Read more
Disillusioned with social media, a pair of American tech entrepreneurs decided to launch an app that encourages people to interact in real life. Co-founder and epidemiologist Jesse Berns explains why that meant making an unexpected shift to Aotearoa. While Covid-19 forced most businesses to change their plans one way or another, few seem to have … Read more
Today, Disney launches a new part of its streaming service, Star. But what in the Mickey Mouse is it? Sam Brooks explains. So what is Star? Star is Disney’s “new entertainment brand” that launches today in multiple countries around the world, including New Zealand. In reality, it’s just another part of Disney+. The service will … Read more
