Eerie scenes from level four lockdown in the nation’s capital. With people instructed to stay at home, Wellington streets, schools and parks are near empty. We captured this strangely beautiful footage during the first weeks of lockdown, visiting familiar Wellington locations including the Wellington Urban Motorway, the waterfront, Kent Terrace and Oriental Bay. This video … Read more
While the pandemic will have a deadly effect on the local industry, New Zealand fashion was already in a fragile state before the coronavirus hit, writes former FQ editor Zoe Walker Ahwa. Most days at 1pm, like everyone else trying to find some semblance of structure in their life right now, I watch the government … Read more
First aid training could be a crucial step in our fight for better mental health in New Zealand. Emily Writes looks into what it means to be a “mental health first aider” in the workplace. Mental health gym, wellness spectrum, personal transformation, and theatre-making to support people through life transitions – it sounds like horseshit, … Read more
Emergency departments nationwide are reporting a decrease in patients, but an increase in injuries from aspiring handyfolk. “Please,” said Southern DHB on April 2nd, “can we remind everyone to take care when undertaking DIY tasks and using power tools.” Less than a week into lockdown, its hospitals had seen an increase in orthopaedic presentations related … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Peters captures political initiative with pair of speeches, future shape of unemployment in the spotlight, and second set of anti-semitic tagging at Auckland maunga. Over each of the last two years, PM Jacinda Ardern has been at the centre of coverage of an epoch-defining news … Read more
The weight of Covid-19 will be very unequally distributed. Duncan Greive writes about where it will land, and how those it hits might come out from under it. This is the second of a two part series – read the first here There’s a graph I keep thinking about which shows the potential strangeness of … Read more
For the second time since New Zealand went into lockdown, the public toilet block and carpark at Ōwairaka has been defaced with racist images. The dispute over the native restoration programme for the maunga of Ōwairaka took a nasty new turn last week when the words “Majurey lies” were spray painted in orange across the … Read more
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level three – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members … Read more
Even after weeks of lockdown, people are still testing positive. Here’s why that is – and why getting tested swiftly if you have symptoms is really important. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 crisis is only possible because of the support of members. If you can, please consider joining Spinoff Members here (and score a Toby … Read more
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level three – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members … Read more
LA-based New Zealander Chelsea Jade’s latest single, ‘Superfan,’ is out now. She explains everything behind the stilts and the strangeness of her new video. Chelsea Jade calls herself DIY pop, and she really does do it all herself. After a couple of years touring North America with Muna and YourSmith, the songwriter, singer, director, and … Read more
In the first part of our new series with Kiwibank answering your questions about Covid-19’s impact on New Zealanders’ finances, a reader asks about ways to get their business through the economic downturn and take advantage of new opportunities. Kiwibank’s Nigel Gaudin responds. Dear Nigel, I run a small retail business with five staff and … Read more
The latest in our series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall. David Garcia worked with Chris to create today’s charts. This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff Members, with support from the Science Media Centre. These posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. … Read more
In the third in our new video series 60 Seconds with Siouxsie, Dr Wiles explains why we’ve heard so little about Covids 1-18. A short and sweet video made possible by the support of Spinoff members, about the origins of the name “Covid-19”. Contrary to what you might have heard from Trump megaphone Kellyanne Conway, … Read more
In the age of the selfie and mundane domestic photography recontextualised for social media, Auckland artist Meg Porteous’s work speaks strongly to the politics of representation. Art editor Mark Amery shares words and images with Porteous across bubbles, via screens, in advance of her show at the Auckland Virtual Art Fair from this Thursday. I … Read more
How do you move your news-stuffed, comedian-packed game show to Zoom? Sam Brooks talked to Hayley Sproull, host of Have You Been Paying Attention?, to find out. Over the last five weeks we’ve all become a lot more comfortable seeing inside the homes of our colleagues, politicians and epidemiologists. And while television has always been … Read more
Under alert level three, school doors are open to students up to Year 10 who need to attend. Initial signs are that only a trickle are heading through the gates. Five weeks after they closed their doors as New Zealand went into the strict lockdown of alert level four, schools across the country are reopening … Read more
As the past few weeks have starkly revealed, we can’t always conflate the occupants of a single residence into one neat group. Anthropologists Susanna Trnka and Sharyn Graham Davies explain. On March 23, New Zealanders were presented with a stark and unprecedented demand to get into our “bubbles” within 48 hours and stay there for … Read more
A study in Santa Clara, California, suggested 50 times as many as the confirmed number of cases. Reports from New York headlined 2.7 million people in the state having had coronavirus. Siouxsie Wiles on what we need to know to trust the numbers. A few days ago it was reported that “2.7 million New Yorkers have … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Spotlight on the Pacific and Covid-19, health minister in yet another spot of bother, and schools reopening to very limited numbers. For a lead today, I thought it would be useful to check in on our nation’s neighbours in the Pacific, and how they are … Read more
It’s a crucial factor in keeping the spread of the virus under control, but there’s a whole lot more the government needs to consider than what is technically possible, writes Andrew Chen. Now we’ve exited level four, how do we keep the Covid-19 cases down? A critical part of the puzzle is contact tracing. In … Read more
Over the past month, we became deeply aware that we were all only as safe as our most marginalised and at-risk. Nobody was immune. We need to channel that knowledge to the core of how we do politics, writes Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick. Yesterday, Aotearoa New Zealand cautiously toned down the world-leading, robust safeguards designed … Read more
In the first of a series of now-virtual events, Danyl is joined by a journalist and a former political staffer to discuss politics and the media. Two months ago today, Spinoff Members and Verb Wellington cheerfully unveiled a new collaboration: a series of live events at the tremendous Meow bar. And, well, everyone knows what … Read more
Everyone wants to kill Stephen Bonnet, but which one of the Frasers will actually get to do it? Tara Ward recaps season five, episode 10. Friends, I’m still recovering from Jamie Fraser dying and then being brought back to life by his wife’s magical boobs, so to have Outlander throw crisis after crisis at us … Read more
Final year law student Elliott Harris has been researching the new pastoral care code of practice, and in a piece he worked on with NZUSA’s Isabella Lenihan-Ikin, says universities are already attempting to push the boundaries of acceptable behaviour. The decision of several New Zealand universities to charge accommodation fees even though Covid-19 restrictions prevent … Read more
Everyone has had different coping strategies during lockdown, and for many around the country, this has meant taking to the kitchen. Here’s what your iso cooking says about you. Nobody knew what alert level four was going to do to us. We didn’t know which hobbies we would take up, which crafts we would learn … Read more
The writing of this new TVNZ series struggles to live up to the drama of its breathtaking location, writes Catherine McGregor. The first scene is astonishing. It begins with a drowned girl floating face down underwater, her hair a weightless auburn cloud around her face. And then the scene expands. In a single shot we … Read more
Non-essential business has taken a hit over the past month, but innovative New Zealand companies are finding the silver lining. Restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 lockdown have caused some businesses to consider closing up shop for good. While some have taken this route, others have used the restrictions forced upon them to pivot into areas … Read more
Ahead of the NZ debut of Eat Well For Less, literal first-time cook Sam Brooks gives a few of his own (barely tested) tips for how to eat well for less. We all spend too much on food. I know I do. Back in the golden age of “restaurants” and “eateries”, I would be found … Read more