Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Business groups welcome big infrastructure spend, four charged by SFO in relation to election donations, and Pacific countries act against coronavirus. So, the massive infrastructure package has been announced. Here’s the top lines of the announcement in the form of a cheat sheet, and Stuff has a breakdown of … Read more
After the Zero Carbon Bill was passed into law last year, the climate change minister acclaimed Generation Zero for its critical role in the historic legislation. Today, two representatives of the young people’s organisation say the infrastructure spend announced yesterday gravely compromises those values. Following the passage of the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment … Read more
At 5am this morning, like a dawn chorus, the embargo lifted on the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards longlist. Here are the 40 books that made it, followed by some frank thoughts from our books editor, Catherine Woulfe. ACORN FOUNDATION FICTION PRIZE The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox (Victoria University Press) Lonely Asian Woman by … Read more
A flurry of questions attend the Serious Fraud Office’s announcement it is charging four people in relation to donations, and the answers could have huge implications in election year, writes Andrew Geddis. The announcement by the Serious Fraud Office that it has filed criminal charges against four people “in relation to donations paid into a … Read more
Alex Casey delivers her second batch of power rankings after the first dramatic week of The Bachelorette NZ. Click here for the first instalment. Two Bachelorettes. Two. Bachelorettes. The room is spinning, the floor is lava, my nose is running worse than Brendon’s post red-carpet because I have been crying and laughing hysterically since I … Read more
The Church of England says no to sex outside of heterosexual marriage. The Church of New Zealand says ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. God has looked favourably upon New Zealand Anglicans this week with confirmation that sex outside of marriage, while not actively encouraged, is not cause for condemnation. This comes days after the Church of England (the mother … Read more
Its arrival has been said to herald the next generation of innovation, but in a world where we’re already conditioned to expect near-instantaneous speed from our mobile internet, what kind of change can we actually expect to see from 5G? It’s easy to forget that much of what we take for granted – browsing Facebook, … Read more
A parenting expert has warned mothers against ‘brexting’ or using their phones while breastfeeding. Renee Liang, a paediatrician, poet and mother, responds. First there was Brangelina, then Brexit and Megxit. And now, apparently, there’s Brexting. Brexting, the Herald on Sunday solemnly informed us, is the unpardonable sin of texting while breastfeeding. Don’t click – I’ll … Read more
‘I finished This is Pleasure at about 4am on a Sunday. I hadn’t been able to sleep – I’d had an uncomfortable interaction with a powerful person, and it was keeping me awake …’. Pip Adam on a book that challenged and changed her. From where I’m typing this, I can see a copy of … Read more
Summer holidays got you dreaming of a happier, easier, gentler life in the provinces? Amanda Thompson actually made the move, and has some real talk on what to expect. God I love Auckland. Sorry Wellington, hope we can stay friends – but my heart is a Jaffa flavoured Jaffa cake filled with Jaffas and topped … Read more
A massive, whopping, ridiculous amount of money has been announced by the government today for infrastructure upgrades. So, what’s in the package? What’s all this then? $12 billion bucks, that’s what this is. Or at least, $7 billion in today’s announcements, out of a wider $12 billion package. The government has taken a giant swing … Read more
Today the government unveiled the essentials of its massive $12 billion infrastructure spend. Alex Braae went along to the announcement. Here he assesses what’s being targeted, and what’s at stake. With a supergroup of eight ministers in the room, the leading figures in the government presented the image that they hope will be a defining … Read more
After the collapse of the Soviet bloc, Cuba embarked on a rapid reorientation of its agricultural system to a self-sustaining, biointensive and essentially organic model. Nearly 30 years on, a Canterbury vegetable grower ponders whether Aotearoa could follow its lead. It’s November 2016, less than a week after the election of Donald Trump, and I’m … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Announcements expected on infrastructure projects, Kiwis trapped in Wuhan speak out, and speaker Trevor Mallard being sued. Major announcements will be made on infrastructure spending today. It’s part of a $12 billion package announced last year, but with the details kept under wraps until now. However, … Read more
An upcoming three-day conference in Auckland aims to ‘envision our future’, but the Ed Hillary-branded event appears to feature some odd guests, including one who thinks astrology can explain important historic events, and a self-help guru who’s been labelled a fraud. David Farrier reports. A new year, a new pricey three-day conference, this time courtesy … Read more
And can you spread it before symptoms start? Epidemiology expert C Raina MacIntyre on what we know so far. Cases of the Wuhan coronavirus have increased dramatically over the past week, prompting concerns about how contagious the virus is and how it spreads. According to the World Health Organisation, 16-21% of people with the virus … Read more
How can Auckland be a ‘City of Music’ without a proper live music culture? Anthony Metcalf on how our biggest city’s paucity of music venues is hurting both artists and gig-goers. Auckland City was recently named a UNESCO ‘City of Music’ as part of the wider Creative Cities network. This accolade, shared with the likes … Read more
The president of the Māori Women’s Welfare League, the oldest national Māori organisation still in existence, has a few words on the misogynistic comments made by Shane Jones at Rātana. In July 2019 the minister for women, Julie Anne Genter, announced with some pride the allocation by the government of $6.2m to put together a … Read more
Scarlett Cayford stumbles, ravenous, into a glorious new world. I go through phases with my reading, like any bibliophile. Sometimes my life can barely keep pace with my reading, and I find myself wedging pages of books into my calendar wherever I can: in waiting rooms and on bus seats and in the first five … Read more
For more than two decades, the Graeme Dingle Foundation has helped tens of thousands of young people find joy and direction in life, and it might be our best shot at making New Zealand the best place for children to live. In 1995, Graeme Dingle and Jo-anne Wilkinson kayaked and tramped from Auckland to Nelson. … Read more
Our job as walkers of city streets is to continue frequenting gems like the soon-to-close Food Alley, writes Miriam Moore. Last week, my favourite Auckland food institution posted a plea for customers. In a video on its Instagram, Food Alley on Albert Street called for people to still visit, and included an explainer of how … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Impacts of coronavirus in focus, claims of NZDF coverup of indecent assaults, and will NZ and Europe get a trade deal this year? I realise that the lead story in Friday’s Bulletin was also about the coronavirus, so apologies if you feel there is too … Read more
How does MMP work – and how can you make the most of your two ticks? Danyl Mclauchlan has your crucial election year primer. It’s an election year in New Zealand. Again. Our political calendar always starts with a sequence of set pieces, and these intensify going into a campaign year, starting with Ratana. After … Read more
When it comes to emerging infectious diseases and outbreaks, so much can happen in a week. In the case of the coronavirus outbreak in China, I’ve gone from not being too alarmed, to thinking, oh, crap! But that still doesn’t mean we should all panic, writes Siouxsie Wiles. The likelihood of a case of the … Read more
In this very special episode of The Real Pod, Art Green joins us to yarn about The Bachelorette NZ premiere. Brought to you by our friends at Nandos. Related: Alex Casey’s Bachelorette NZ Power Rankings, episode one: Send in the lads It’s been five years in the making, but we finally got Art Green on … Read more
Alex Casey delivers her first-impression power rankings after episode one of The Bachelorette NZ. Isn’t it incredible what a difference five years makes? Since the first season of The Bachelor NZ, Art Green has found the love of his life, written a book, married the love of his life, launched a business, bought a house, … Read more
Jean Sergent writes about her comedy crush John Mulaney, and what makes his brand of wholesome yet sharp comedy so special. Who is John Mulaney and why do people love him so dang much? John Mulaney is a white, middle class, American stand up comedian. He’s a former Saturday Night Live writer, voice actor (Into … Read more
In episode two of The Spinoff’s newish media podcast The Fold, host Duncan Greive conducts an exit interview with Hal Crawford, the departing head of Newshub. Hal Crawford landed into a TV3 newsroom in crisis in 2016. Campbell Live had been axed. Hilary Barry had resigned. He had been hired by Mark Weldon, the much-reviled … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Māori Party revival gathers steam, Coronavirus response screening stepped up, and rural economists predict dairy land value slide. A clear theme has emerged from the political gathering at Rātana this weekend – the Māori Party are getting ready for a serious tilt at the 2020 … Read more