Last night Tom Scott won the 2019 Taite Music Prize for best album in New Zealand for Avantdale Bowling Club. This is his speech. Um. Fuck. I’ve lost this thing four times already, I was kind of hoping this would be the fifth because that would be a sick record. Something to be really proud … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Harder look coming at the provincial growth fund, rents in Auckland City way up this year, and the long hunt for Louisa Akavi unpacked. The Auditor-General will be placing an increased focus and scrutiny on the spending of the Provincial Growth Fund, reports Business Desk. There will … Read more
British regulators have placed caps on interest rates and the total amount fringe lenders can charge, so why isn’t New Zealand making similar moves? Having to take out a loan to pay for food, bills, petrol and rent is the reality for many New Zealand families. With around one in seven Kiwis living in poverty … Read more
Fermentation is having a moment, and it’s not all scobys and sauerkraut. Claire Adamson on the joys of embarking on a journey of discovery with her microbial mates. Connal Finlay is not content with waiting until the weekend to share his enthusiasm with me. Excitedly, he tells me about how cheese, pizza and coffee are … Read more
When does a social experiment turn into legitimate psychological torture – and lasting damage? Katie Meadows thinks Married at First Sight Australia has gone too far. Married At First Sight Australia is a horrible show that everyone loves to watch. Before this year, I had never seen it. About a month and a half in to … Read more
Indigenous people have always had ecological perspectives on health, which have only recently entered ‘mainstream’ discourse, and the scope now is planetary health, writes Rebekah Jaung. Good intentions pave the road to inequity in health systems around the world. Whether it’s healthy eating guidelines that would require poor families to spend almost all their income … Read more
For Auckland is a new Spinoff podcast of civic conversations with people working to create and sustain a better Auckland for all. In episode three host Timothy Giles spoke to Mark Spencer about how to build a construction sector that can build a world-class city. On Sunday the government announced an agreement with the construction … Read more
True crime aficionado Jean Sergent reviews The Five by Hallie Rubenhold. In the annals of Ripperology, there are classics and there are clangers. The latest slew of “Jack the Ripper finally uncovered!” headlines recycle the same faulty DNA studies, but there has never been a definitive answer to the mystery of identity of the Whitechapel … Read more
Yesterday, Wallabies player Israel Folau was issued with a “high level” breach notice by Rugby Australia, bringing him closer to the termination of his contract over a social media post in which he claimed “homosexuals” and others would go to hell. For a gay, Pasifika man, it’s not necessarily something to celebrate, writes Patrick Thomsen. … Read more
If commentators are reading the tea leaves right, the government is gearing up to put its money where its mouth is and help businesses caught in New Zealand’s infamous funding gap. Lisa Friis doesn’t strike you as the sort of woman who needs help getting in front of potential investors. Tall, with a stylish blonde … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Moderate swing towards govt in first poll after CHCH attack, captured Kiwi nurse named by Red Cross, and a hard look at life after prison. The first poll since the Christchurch mosque attacks shows a moderate swing towards PM Jacinda Ardern and the government. The One News Colmar-Brunton poll … Read more
A whistlestop tour of the case for the National caucus to give Simon Bridges the boot in favour of JuCo, and the case for doing no such thing. Suddenly the National Party is an issue again. When One News unveiled the results of its latest Colmar Brunton poll last night, attentions were focused less on … Read more
Flatting comes with a lot of headaches, but none more stressful than a flatmate who owes you rent money. Erin Gourley talked to some students whose flatmates bailed, and found out what your rights are if the same thing happens to you. This story originally appeared in Critic Te Arohi, the Otago University student magazine. … Read more
New Zealand’s celebrity perambulator competition continues tonight! Sam Brooks power-ranks the second night of the first week of Dancing with the Stars NZ. The ranking for the first seven contestants can be found right here. Yeah, he didn’t take his shirt off this episode. See you next week, you thirsty Mike McRoberts chasers you! Anyway, If … Read more
What’s the best way to look at the biggest show on television at the moment? Through a 20 year old video game, of course, writes Sam Brooks. This post contains spoilers for Suikoden II, which you absolutely don’t care about. This post contains no spoilers for Game of Thrones, which you absolutely do care about. The … Read more
In the final episode of the Good Ancestors podcast, Noelle McCarthy spoke to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern about the role of young people and the role of politics in responding to climate change. Young people are ready to confront the reality of a future with climate change. But they are increasingly frustrated by institutions that … Read more
The author of the wildly popular Wonky Donkey children’s book is facing criticisms over a 2008 song about golliwogs. Craig Smith, author of Wonky Donkey, a children’s book about a three-legged donkey, is facing criticisms over a music video entitled “Gollywog Song”, which was originally posted online 10 years ago. The video, uploaded to Smith’s Youtube account, shows … Read more
Lily Woodhouse is a pseudonym for Stephanie Johnson, who has won the Montana Book Award, the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship and the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award; hell, she co-founded the Auckland Writers Festival. But could she get her latest novel published? Yeah, nah. So-called ‘women’s fiction’ is rife with stories of women who left, who … Read more
The new Twilight Zone updates the style of the ’60s classic while keeping its deeply moral core, Adam Goodall writes. In ‘Replay’, the third episode of the new Twilight Zone, a young black man wonders why his mother doesn’t want to visit her brother. “Damn, Mama,” he asks, put out, “aren’t you interested in me knowing … Read more
Efforts to rein in the damaging effects of palm oil production have crept along over the years. At times, things have seemed pretty hopeless. But those fighting from the inside insist it can be done, and that NZ must be part of the solution. Auckland Zoo’s Amy Robbins knows first-hand how hard it is to … Read more
Reports broke this morning that a New Zealand Red Cross nurse had been captured by ISIS militants in Syria in 2013, and she had been held in captivity ever since. So who is Louisa Akavi? Kim Griggs reports in this piece first published by Radio NZ. A New Zealand nurse kidnapped by Islamic State devoted her … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Carbon emissions continue to move wrong way, size and scope of police database revealed, and Ngāti Kurī propose massive new protected reserve. Yep, they’re going up. New Zealand’s carbon emissions continue to increase, with transport a leading cause, reports Stuff. Over 2017 they were up 2.2% on the … Read more
On Thursday, the exhibition Mandela: My Life was officially opened at Eden Park, where in 1981 the All Blacks test against the Springboks was disrupted by flour bombs and flares. By then, Robert Burgess’s All Blacks career was long over, having been cut short by his refusal to play against apartheid teams. This is his … Read more
New Zealand’s celebrity movement competition returns tonight! Sam Brooks power-ranks the first week of Dancing with the Stars NZ. Strap in, you guys. I’m ready to learn what the All Blacks were doing in 1995, I’m ready to learn the names of influencers and sportshumans, and most importantly, I’m ready to wildly disagree with judges … Read more
Beatings, unhygienic overcrowding, no ventilation and bad food: Welcome to one Kiwi’s experience of a prison in Thailand. This piece was originally published by Newshub. Thomas Tana had really messed up bad this time. Being led by guards to his cell at the Immigration Detention Centre in Bangkok, he didn’t know what to expect. He … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Don Rowe: Swastikas and semi-automatics: Auckland gun club neighbours speak out “In January this year, the neighbour, who we have agreed not to name, woke to find a large swastika and the words, ‘If your reading this ur in range’ spray-painted on their shed … Read more
My YouTube Party of Five is a new series in which we invite people to share their five favourite YouTube videos – the ones hold closest in their heart, the ones they’ll play at 2am while drunk at a party. This week: Spinoff senior writer Alex Casey. Animals are good. Humans are bad. Here’s my … Read more
After years of hammy performances and ropey writing, The Bad Seed represents a landmark for New Zealand serialised drama. Duncan Greive reviews. Serialised New Zealand television drama is something of a paradox. It’s our most lavishly funded screen form – a single season will often cost more than the entire current affairs programming sector gets … Read more
The first fisherman shows Simon Day how to fillet a fish using the famous Gisborne method. On a dull January afternoon, Clarke Gayford took two of The Spinoff staff into the Hauraki Gulf on a fishing expedition. I was there to take photos, while Spinoff editor Toby Manhire interviewed Gayford about his famous partner’s first … Read more