Otago-grown agricultural technology company Techion has cornered an international market. Its founder, Greg Mirams, explained how the internet of things and fast fibre broadband has transformed the way he does business. In a Dunedin bedroom in 1992, Greg Mirams invented Techion’s founding product: FEKPAKG2. It was developed to help local farmers test the effectiveness of … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: NZ First holds crucial party conference, roving AOS trial sparks concerns, and Mediaworks facing dramatic days ahead. The most pivotal political party in the country right now has held their annual conference, a year out from what will be a make or break election. NZ First … Read more
Five experts, all from countries with varying levels of cannabis legality, came to Auckland funded by Massey University to speak on the benefits and costs of the drug before New Zealand’s cannabis referendum in 2020. Alice Webb-Liddall reports. While New Zealanders wait for the cannabis referendum in 2020, the government is working hard to draft … Read more
A psychiatric doctor who helps suicidal teenagers says the Ministry of Health’s suicide reduction plans miss much of the wider issue. We need to listen to affected communities, and equip them to make the changes they need, he writes. Last week, as I left yet another 3am crisis interview in ED as a psychiatric doctor … Read more
Highly trained, armed police are a necessary tool in emergency situations, but roving teams eager to find work could be a recipe for disaster, writes investigator and former police officer Tim McKinnel for RNZ. Police announced yesterday they are to introduce a trial of Armed Response Teams (ARTs) in Auckland, Waikato and Christchurch, euphemistically describing their … Read more
Four months ago Caroline Shaw bought an e-bike. She explains why they’re the answer to our lethal car culture. Four months ago we took what felt like a huge leap of faith and bought an e-cargo bike. The combination of three things tipped us over the edge: feeling the need to do something to reduce … Read more
The online magazine that boasted a bigger Instagram following than most New Zealand media has abruptly come to an end. So what was Auckland Mag? Why did it exist? And who was its mysterious founder Dan Rolph? David Farrier investigates. The reply from Dan Rolph at Auckland Magazine came quickly. It came quickly because it … Read more
In the wake of the shocking revelations about Three, Duncan Greive assesses the health of New Zealand’s six big media companies. Winston Peters has studied the cold, pitiless heart of a certain strand of New Zealander for four decades now, and has become our foremost expert on both expressing its feelings and trolling it into … Read more
US justice reform activists Deborah Small and asha bandele say white supremacy and colonialism are at the heart of punitive drug laws. They spoke to Teuila Fuatai about how drug reform can reverse their effects on minority communities. Deborah Small sees Donald Trump as the US Dorian Gray. “He’s the physical manifestation of what America … Read more
Madeleine Chapman spent a day learning about Christchurch through its most famous dishes. What is there do with with a day in Christchurch? Thanks to the inexplicably early check-out times at hotels all over the world and a 7pm flight back to Auckland, I had a full day to wander the great Garden City. What … Read more
Our former prime minister secured a meeting with Chinese premier Xi Jinping outside all normal diplomatic channels. Interest’s Jenée Tibshraeny asks what it means for New Zealand’s evolving relationship with the superpower. This story was originally published on interest.co.nz and is reproduced with permission. Former prime minister John Key secured a meeting with Chinese President … Read more
With the future of Mediaworks’ TV business hanging in the balance, Al Jazeera news presenter Kamahl Santamaria reflects on what the imperilled channel meant, and continues to mean, to him. I always liked the logo. The fresh bright colours, the nod to a koru in its shape, and just the fact that it was something … Read more
There are still many barriers preventing people from voting in local elections. Laura O’Connell Rapira proposes some social solutions. The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here. To vote in the local elections, I cast a special vote … Read more
What’s really stood out for me being back in Tokyo is Japan’s spectators, writes Richard Light, professor of sport coaching at the University of Canterbury. I first noticed the unique qualities of the Japanese crowds when I was a rugby coach here in the 1990s. Later, with the admission of the Japanese team, the Sunwolves, … Read more
As the New Zealand First Party gathers for its annual conference, the question swirling in the year is how it can carve out a path to avoid electoral defeat in 2020, writes Jo Moir for RNZ. It’s not you, it’s me. It’s a familiar break up excuse that’s used to get out of a relationship … Read more
To the early intervention therapists, to the teachers, to the speech therapists, the occupational therapists, music therapists, diabetes nurses and all: you change the world. When I was married almost a decade ago we had the following reading at our wedding: You are holding up a ceiling with both arms. It is very heavy, but … Read more
The Auckland-based collective talk origins, ambitions and making the rave accessible to everybody. Friendly Potential is an outfit that defies easy summary. They’re among the country’s most ambitious and prolific club promoters. In their almost five-years of operation, they’ve been responsible for the local debuts of electronic music icons including Detroit techno godfather Omar-S, Siberian … Read more
Sam Brooks recaps the third episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, and wonders why some of these queens don’t know how to sew. This episode asks, and sort of answers the main question that millions of people across the world: why would you come on Drag Race and not know how to sew?! There is always a … Read more
Ten moose were upended into the Dusky Sounds in 1910. Now, their descendants are getting their day in the sun. The climate crisis is affecting wildlife all over the country: rockhopper penguin populations are in drastic decline, tuatara eggs aren’t hatching females, and the ice walls keeping predators away from kea are melting. But it’s … Read more
A new poem by Auckland poet Lily Holloway. modernity to globalisation when I get there as still life and landscape and also portraiture seeking the cacti in small pots who dot the globe slices of pie offer up the vision after the sermon expressing emotions without coherent narrative support because no artist responded to this … Read more
News broke this morning that MediaWorks is seeking to sell off, and even contemplating closing, its TV division. What might that mean for journalism? For journalism in New Zealand, the loss of Three’s TV division is a devastating blow. It is not yet known whether any of the news properties will be continuing. People often … Read more
The billions of tonnes of plastic in our oceans isn’t going away any time soon, but innovative companies here and abroad are working together to find silver linings to this daunting problem. Fishing boats head out to sea and set their nets. They go back to shore. They head back out, the nets are pulled … Read more
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington (this week we totted up the data a day early, on Wednesday, to let our books ed. check out for a bit. … Read more
MediaWorks’ owners have called time after years of losses from its TV division. Sources say the company will announce it is for sale – if no buyers emerge, it will close within months. Three is facing the biggest crisis in its three decade history today, as its ownership will soon announce the channel is for … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Amazon Prime’s Modern Love, an anthology series based on the New York Times column dedicated to ‘love in all its forms’. A first date that ends up in the emergency room. A flagging marriage that finds new energy through tennis. The founder of a dating app who doesn’t believe in love, supposedly. … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Clayton Mitchell denies accusations around a night out, food insecurity on the rise, and UK PM Boris Johnson secures deal with dubious prospects. NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell has got himself in a spot of late night bother in a Tauranga pub. Newshub’s Tova O’Brien reports he was … Read more
The big shock of the results in the weekend’s local elections was the unseating of Justin Lester as Wellington mayor. We invited him to pen a sort-of-valedictory. My three years as the mayor of Wellington ended on Sunday and I will forever remain grateful for the experience. I’m also acutely aware of how unlikely it … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Alex Braae reviews a night spent on the Intercity overnight sleeper bus getting from Wellington to Auckland. The most important thing to understand about long haul bus travel is that it’s all about getting exactly what you pay for, … Read more
Britain and the EU have agreed new terms for divorce. But with the Conservatives’ Northern Irish support party unimpressed, can the British prime minister at last put an end to the interminable shitstorm? At last, a deal! A palpable deal! A path out of the endless brain-melt! “Where there is a will, there is a … Read more