The greatest show to ever air on New Zealand TV screens, and arguably any screens ever, had a tenure of just three tragically short years. It was on air from March 1997 to September 1999. It had an ensemble of impossibly jazzy New Zealand children and a live studio audience. It was McDonald’s Young Entertainers, … Read more
From unpaid teachers to match fixing and rogue clamping, these are the news stories that outraged New Zealand in the 2010s. Paul Henry The decade in NZ scandal started out strong thanks to TV and radio host Paul Henry (for the edification of younger readers, he was like Mike Hosking, but with a louder laugh … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Capacity constraints loom large in spending stimulus, pilot speaks out about slow Whakaari recovery efforts, and carbon monoxide levels are high. The fundamentally conservative approach of finance minister Grant Robertson has continued, even as he has moved to loosen the purse strings. The top lines of … Read more
Yesterday Ian Foster was announced as the new coach of the All Blacks, having already spent eight years as part of the coaching setup. Here, Jamie Wall recounts first meeting Foster in Buenos Aires, and how he marks a departure from Steve Hansen. It was a Friday night earlier this year in Buenos Aires when … Read more
After a year spent reporting on and analysing the chaos enveloping New Zealand’s media industry, The Spinoff managing editor Duncan Greive has finally cracked and started a podcast to cover it. Here is a short and necessarily incomplete list of things that have happened in New Zealand’s media in 2019: Three was announced as being … Read more
How to watch the Rugby World Cup? How to make spaghetti bolognese? Who is James Charles? Google just released what New Zealanders looked for the most in 2019, and it says a lot about us. Another year on the internet, another year of Google searches you hope nobody excavates. Until now! Our Google overlords have, as … Read more
The government’s books are now expected to go into the red this financial year with a forecast deficit of $900 million, down from a budget forecast surplus of $1.3 billion. The government will borrow $12 billion to spend on transport, schools, hospitals and investment in the regions over the next five years, in a bid … Read more
Curator and art writer Justin Paton on the process of writing McCahon Country, homesickness, and uncontemporary art. Plus his top tips for art writers. Justin Paton is the author of the award-winning How to Look at a Painting. A book so popular it inspired a TV series of the same title, which Paton also presented. … Read more
From Waipukurau to Waipawa, Hastings to Havelock North, how did a humble crumbed meatball reach cult status? Fiona Fraser investigates the origins of this east coast delicacy. I was halfway out the door of a client’s premises when he bellowed “Have you had lunch? I’m just nipping out to get some meatballs. Five for $10.” … Read more
In this hard-hitting episode of current affairs show OTR 24/7, lady journalist Leonie Hayden comes face to face with one of society’s most elusive figures. “Hey baby, show us ya [insert weird word for body part here]!” To many women and non-binary folks this is a common greeting, usually delivered with great pizzazz by a … Read more
Start learning te reo Māori anywhere in Aotearoa with this list of introductory, part-time classes. ‘Learn te reo Māori’ is at the top of a lot of people’s New Year’s resolutions. The problem is, it can be hard to enrol after the new year, which is typically when resolutions are meant to be resolved. Many … Read more
Last year, we published the anonymous account of a Koru Club member who was denied their mandated birthright entry into the Koru Club. This Koru Club member returns to give us their harrowing, haunting account of the day the Koru Lounge went dry. “Bye, bye miss American Pie. Drove the Chevy to the levee but … Read more
Toby Manhire gazes back at the last almost-10 years in New Zealand politics, leadership and tragedy. When I returned to New Zealand after 11 years away in 2010, John Key had been prime minister for a couple of years and it felt like he’d been prime minister forever. He was a fixture of familiarity and … Read more
The fatal eruption on Whakaari on Monday may force the tourism industry to review its current rules, writes tourism professor Michael Lueck. The official death toll is six and eight people are still missing, presumed to have died, in Monday’s volcanic eruption at Whakaari/White Island. The people on the island were tourists and tour guides, … Read more
Our pop culture superfans at The Real Pod look back at the local celebrities who defined the last decade in Aotearoa. If there’s any group of people we can turn to in these uncertain times, it’s celebrities. And lucky for us, New Zealand suddenly seems to have heaps of them. The definition of celebrity has … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: How the Whakaari eruption will be investigated, Greens ditch Budget Responsibility Rules, and more controversy for Crimson Education. There has been a lot of confusion about what investigations will take place after the Whakaari eruption, and what they will focus on. As such, today’s Bulletin will … Read more
The very idea that a meal kit is a suitable alternative to a food grant undermines the importance of autonomy and self-determination as human rights, writes Rebekah Graham. Over the past few months, Work and Income has been trialling providing Auckland-based beneficiaries who have requested a food grant with a Bargain Box food kit instead. … Read more
As controversy including a $10m lawsuit and ‘ghost’ offices continues to swirl around Jamie Beaton, his fellow Rhodes scholars have slammed him for trying to recruit them. Those who gain a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship must display “truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship”. Given this ethos … Read more
Sam Brooks interviews Cecily, the local singer behind surprise sleeper hit ‘Thinking ‘Bout Me’. “Getting thinner, feeling fatter, laughing more, feeling sadder.” That’s one of a few killer lines that adorn Cecily’s gem of a sadbanger ‘Thinking ‘Bout Me’, which wound up on the top of every pop music nerd’s favourite New Music Friday playlist, … Read more
In the first instalment of our new pop-up podcast, The Spinoff Book Out Loud, Madeleine Chapman reads her poignant, hilarious response to the response to her scandalous ranking of New Zealand chips. In March 2019, Madeleine Chapman spied her Everest, and she climbed it. “All 123 chip flavours in New Zealand ranked from best to … Read more
We were in the middle of drawing up this list when Potton & Burton quietly dropped a new book – it is optimistic and surprising and all kinds of wonderful, and here is our wee rave about it. Plus, in no particular order, here are the other nine best children’s books of 2019. 1 New Zealand … Read more
Twenty-four hours after the eruption on Whakaari/White Island, here’s what we know about the ongoing situation. How many people have died? Currently, the official death toll stands at five, but there are a further eight people missing, who are presumed to have died in the eruption. 31 people remain in hospital and three have been … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Marriage Story, the latest Netflix movie that tackles that universally horrible experience: divorce. There’s a moment, about halfway into Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, Netflix’s new film about the dissolution of a marriage, that hit me harder than anything else in the movie up until that point. During their first mediation with lawyers, theatre director … Read more
If you’re looking for Christmas gifts or just trying to fill the void of silence with your friends and family this festive season, look no further than the humble board game. Christmas is coming which means long, lazy days with your nearest and dearest, perhaps eating too much and definitely still spending too much time … Read more
Another giant bird has been torn from its grave: the ancient Rēkohu/Chatham Island penguin. Just how big was it? Standing at just over a metre tall, Kupoupou stilwelli was a big bird. It was as large as the giant Otago parrot, or as tall as a metre ruler. Sixty million years ago, long before any … Read more
From tennis champions to dance craze inventors, Scratched celebrates New Zealand sporting heroes who never got their due – but whose legacies deserve to be in lights. This month, Barbara Cox, the matriarch of New Zealand football. New Zealand’s first women’s football team wasn’t formed until 1975. Barbara Cox was the captain, and led the … Read more
Looking back on 10 years of wild, weird and wonderful food stories in Aotearoa. It’s been a hell of a decade for food here in New Zealand. Sure, there have been tedious trends aplenty – the rise of bloody kale, bloody coconut oil, bloody poké bowls – but the following list is not about fads; … Read more
What the hell are you meant to give the person who has everything? Don’t worry, Sam Brooks has you covered with the gift guide for that person in your life. It’s that time of year again – that time of the year when you have to think about your sociopathic friend. We’ve all got one. … Read more
Looking back on 10 years which saw New Zealand’s media transform from a position of near-limitless power and influence to the deeply humbled reality of today. At the end of 2009 I had resigned from my first good job, convinced that print media was finished. The good job was as editor of Real Groove, a … Read more