Despite the outdated format, the premiere of Wife Swap NZ felt quietly revolutionary thanks to one woman. Alex Casey explains why. Everything about the Wife Swap format is cause for teeth-shattering cringe. Two families trade their wives – who are often also their precious unpaid cook, cleaner and child-minder – for a week in the … Read more
The first ball in the 2019 Cricket World Cup is about to be bowled and to celebrate we’ve launched a new podcast, The Offspin, where our resident cricket tragics (in the truest sense of the word) fill the hole of not being in England with the sound of banter. For the next six weeks join hosts … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week he talks to Andrew Childs, founder of Behemoth Brewing. You’ll … Read more
The stakes are high for Grant Robertson’s much heralded Wellbeing Budget in the year delivery. What are the expert verdicts? Susan St John: Creditable, but not good enough The government deserves credit for the reframing of the budget to reflect human wellbeing outcomes. This modernisation is well overdue. The new approach should mean there is … Read more
The Auckland Harbour Bridge turns 60 today. Don Rowe revisits some of its finest moments to celebrate. Sixty years ago today, then-governor general Lord Cobham was chauffeured into the Northcote Toll Plaza, walked past a Navy guard of honour in his big bowler hat, and officially opened the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Aucklanders lined the streets … Read more
The commitments in today’s budget are to be welcomed, but they could use some better defined targets to focus ambitions, writes former Reserve Bank chairman Arthur Grimes Wellbeing budgets have been delivered every year since the 1890s when the Liberal government introduced old-age pensions, free primary education and built the first state houses. In 1905, Prime … Read more
What makes a piece of art ‘Indian’? What makes it ‘English’? Aarti Bajaj, director of new theatre production Meera, unravels our prejudices around art and what makes people put art into boxes. Every time I hear someone mention that our show Meera is an ‘Indian thing’, or just for an Indian audience, I have to ask: when they … Read more
Budget 2019: Fresh from the parliamentary budget lockup, Spinoff business editor Maria Slade summarises the funding announcements from Labour’s first Wellbeing Budget. Mental health services, KiwiRail, beneficiaries and startup companies are some of the big winners on a government budget day that has otherwise been dominated by accusations of leaking and calls for ministers’ heads. … Read more
Season three of The Handmaid’s Tale drops on June 6, exclusively on Lightbox. Brush up on all the bonnets, babies and body horror of the first two seasons here. !!! Contains spoilers for season 1 and 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale !!! The first three episodes of season three of The Handmaid’s Tale drop on Lightbox … Read more
The Minimum Wage Exemption scheme, has allowed New Zealand businesses to legally pay workers with a disability as little as 80 cents an hour for years. Amanda Thompson explains why change is well overdue. When I was a kid I came to my mum one day with a burning sense of injustice. I had seen … Read more
Entries for the National Schools Poetry Award close in just over a month. Here, 2019 judge Chris Tse revisits the “surprisingly inspiring” poetry of his teenage years. The story of how I fell into writing poetry is peak teenage life: I was angsty and my friends were doing it. I could’ve turned to stronger vices … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Total War: Three Kingdoms and finally finds the definitive Romance of the Three Kingdoms game. My road to Total War: Three Kingdoms was an unusual one. While for most it’s the latest in the critically-acclaimed, much-beloved Total War series, for me it’s the latest in a long line of Romance of the Three Kingdoms games. But what … Read more
The government’s response to the mental health inquiry accepted 38 of its 40 recommendations – but opted against the introduction of a suicide reduction target. There’s a good reason for that, writes Kyle MacDonald. Does the idea of losing 534 people to suicide in New Zealand feel better than losing 668? Does it feel like success to … Read more
Grant Robertson should apologise, and the Treasury secretary should offer his resignation, writes Danyl Mclauchlan Information Technology, or IT is not an ancient discipline, like politics or the law, but it has its own traditions and the most hallowed tradition of all, held sacred by engineers and other technical specialists the world over is to … Read more
Police have rebuffed the Treasury secretary’s complaint about purported hacking of Budget information. So what really happened, and has Simon Bridges been vindicated? Metaphors abound when it comes to claims of hacking. Yesterday, following suspicions that the National Party had accessed parts of the Treasury website thought to be secure, the head of the most … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: What to watch for on Budget day, education minister gets brutal heckling from teachers, and Wellington mayor throws support behind trackless trams. “Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” So goes the quote often attributed to former … Read more
Yesterday the government announced it would take up almost all the recommendations of the Mental Health Inquiry. But where were the voices of those with lived experience of the mental health system? Here Scout, Emma and Lisa* fill the void. As young people from Dunedin with mental illness diagnoses on the more… complicated side, it’s … Read more
Budget 2019: What are the Ardern government’s much-talked about Budget Responsibility Rules, and why doesn’t it have to stick to them? When the Labour government came to power in 2017 it set itself five rules of engagement for handling the country’s money. The Budget Responsibility Rules are self-imposed and do not have any legal standing, … Read more
There is no evidence of illegality on the part of the National Party, and they have succeeded in shining a light on parts of the Budget the government would prefer you didn’t reflect on, writes Brigitte Morten for RNZ One of the key advantages of being in government is that you get to largely set … Read more
Māori are looking to the Wellbeing Budget to increase targeted funding for initiatives like Whānau Ora, a system that, according to its architect, still hasn’t reached its potential. Whānau Ora was one of the Māori party’s flagship policies. In 2010, a partnership with the Key government secured its implementation. Over nearly a decade, it has been … Read more
Twenty minutes, seventeen songs – Miniatures 1 is an EP you can listen to over a large coffee. Taylor MacGregor talks to musician SJD about the process behind making his audacious new album. As someone prone to losing focus and getting deep in an endless Youtube hole, the proposition of listening to an album of … Read more
People are dying in a waiting line at the top of the world and that’s about typical of how we treat the last of our sacred spaces, writes Don Rowe. There are eleven more bodies on Everest – nine this month – and doesn’t that seem fitting? “For many people [climbing Everest] is a dream … Read more
Companies are paying thousands for a Rainbow Tick to show their workplaces are safe for LGBTQI people. But does the certification really do what it purports to? Digital journalist Murphy reports for RNZ. Kim sits in the car on her way in to work – she’s crying, she doesn’t want to go in. She woke up … Read more
After editing The Luminaries, UK writer Max Porter released his own astronomically good book, Grief Is the Thing With Feathers. His new novel Lanny is short and strange; every page squishes with imagery, a rich compost of words. It begins: Dead Papa Toothwort wakes from his standing nap an acre wide and scrapes off dream dregs … Read more
Budget 2019: Unless we can find some way of taxing wealth as well as incomes, New Zealand is headed for an intergenerational economic meltdown, writes Grant Thornton tax partner Murray Brewer. It’s hard to get your head around how much money the government has. The slew of spending announcements in the run-up to Budget Day makes … Read more
Avi Duckor-Jones won Survivor NZ after 40 days living on a deserted stretch of coast, fighting to stay alive. He’s also a teacher in a New Zealand school. I have often been asked the question: “Which has been harder? Survivor or teaching?” In the past I’d laugh and provide a practised answer, but on the … Read more
Let’s Get Inventin’ was a late-noughties reality TV show that pitted children and scientists against common sense. Josie Adams looks back at what made it great. Our screens have played host to many questionable children’s television shows over the years: Bumble, Drew Neemia-era Sticky TV, and Worzel Gummidge Down Under are just three examples. But … Read more
The government has accepted the vast majority of the recommendations made by the mental health and addiction inquiry report. But which ones will actually see immediate action? Alex Braae reports. Out of 40 recommendations made to the government by the long-running mental health and addiction inquiry, 38 have been either accepted, or accepted in principle. … Read more
The 2019 budget is coming out this Thursday, and with it a whole bunch of impenetrable jargon. We’ve picked out some of the key words to keep in mind as it is being read. A Ambitious The last budget was typically described as ambitious. Now the word gets thrown around a lot to describe the … Read more