There were more strikes last year than in any of the previous 10 years. RNZ political reporter Gia Garrick looks at why and whether Labour’s historic relationship with the unions could lose the party its public support. Labour’s Andrew Little gazes at the framed black and white picture of his idol Peter Fraser, one of … Read more
YouTube has been in the news a lot in the last few weeks and parents around the world are considering whether they should allow their kids to watch. Emily Writes decided it was time to give it up. Hi, my name is Emily Writes and I’ve been one week without YouTube Kids. This has been … Read more
Lunch at Downing Street, pottery retreats with Nigella Lawson and Yotam Ottolenghi… New Zealand’s best-known chef has built quite a life for himself in London, but, now more than ever, he yearns for Aotearoa. This content was created in partnership with The Collective He’s been a top chef in London for three decades, with a … Read more
New Zealand’s tax debate is not helped by Government hiring Cullen as CGT booster, writes National’s finance spokesperson Amy Adams. New Zealanders deserve a robust debate about the taxes they pay when the Government is looking at re-engineering the tax system to reach further into their back-pockets. But the Government is avoiding debate by saying … Read more
In the lead up to the student-led climate strikes, the Spinoff asked its readers for their own reasons for skipping school. A number of student strikes around climate change will take place all over the country on March 15. Thousands of students have pledged to attend, choosing to voice their thoughts on New Zealand’s climate … Read more
New Zealand researchers are developing alternative batteries from common material to go beyond lithium, skipping the solar cell and downsizing monster redox-flows. In today’s tech-hungry world, lithium batteries are ubiquitous. Everything from your mobile phone to the neighbour’s electric car rely on the metal, and it’s easy to see why. Lithium-ion batteries pack a serious … Read more
The People’s Harassment Report, a study undertaken by ActionStation and UMR, found one in three Māori online faced racial abuse in 2018. Here we look a bit closer at the methodology of the research. From August to October 2018, ActionStation ran a pilot project called Tauiwi Tautoko where 20 volunteers were trained and supported to … Read more
Alex Casey, Leonie Hayden and Michèle A’Court tackle the past month in women, news and popular culture, with thanks to our friends at The Women’s Bookshop. A very late February episode of On the Rag appears, complete with Michele’s pitch perfect Jordan B. Peterson impersonation, outrage over gender fluid clothing, and some scary truths about a … Read more
New work by Fern Flat poet Sugar Magnolia Wilson. Spent The night sky is full of stars but we are more clever than most – we know they are just burned bones. Nothing beautiful – not space sailors blown from their ships – the light from treasure quickly grasped in … Read more
Alex Casey can’t stop watching Jojo Siwa’s vlogs on Youtube. With the documentary Jojo Siwa: My World arriving to Lightbox this month, here’s your much-needed introduction to a young internet sensation. Most nights I find myself falling down a Jojo Siwa rabbit hole, lying on my side with 400 chins as I let vlog after … Read more
The only published and available best-selling 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. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 With the End in Mind: How to Live and Die Well by Kathryn Mannix (William Collins, $27) 2 Rufus Marigold … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the fifth week on Married at First Sight Australia, with special thanks to Nando’s. It’s another chaotic week on the pod, complete with phone calls to Nasser from the last season of MAFS, Duncan getting cancelled live on air and many, many Haribo lollies. Why is Jessika trying to sleep … Read more
The business partnership behind the controversial LGBTI Awards has gone nuclear with one director accusing the other of theft. Maria Slade reports One of the biggest rows Linda Riley ever had with her business partner Silke Bader was over the Topp Twins. The story as Riley tells it is that the twins were due to … Read more
In honour of International Women’s Day, Tara Ward rounds up the best BFFs you can hang out with through the screen. Not only are women taking over an entire day in the calendar, they’re taking over the bloody television too. Better living everyone, because TV keeps giving us brilliant and amazing women inspire us, make … Read more
If you need a little help getting yourself out of bed during these chilly autumnal mornings, this should do the trick. With an abundance of blackberries in our freezer, and being rather partial to oats for breakfast, I dreamt this recipe up to add a little variety to the morning staples. It is amazing how … Read more
Re-introducing On the Rag, The Spinoff’s feminist podcast that is launching as a webseries next Wednesday. Any woman that has ever been to a sleepover, a coffee group, or assembled drunkenly in a bathroom knows that a very special thing happens when we get together in a tight circle. Safe from the rest of the … Read more
International Women’s Day is a day to reflect on how far women have come, and how far we still have to go. Family Planning chief executive Jackie Edmond looks to the future and what sexual and reproductive health barriers remain to be overcome. In 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding voting rights, … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Queenstown to hold referendum on visitor levy, Willie Apiata VC says he got no support for PTSD, and Rugby World Cup concerns for rural households. It turns out that announcement about Queenstown that was teased yesterday was actually pretty important. Local mayor Jim Boult says there will … Read more
Commentator and former Black Fern Melodie Robinson has become the first New Zealander to be given the Barbie treatment. Melodie Robinson used to imagine she was a superhero and her power was the ability to turn her eyes blue. Not so that she could see in the dark or shoot lasers, but to look more … Read more
Annabelle Lee, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire send their lifeboats into the great capital gains tax minestrone ocean. Michael Cullen’s Tax Working Group report has been published, sending the nation into untold capital gains tax convulsions. The Gone By Lunchtime panel piles in. How is Jacinda Ardern faring in making the case? What case is … Read more
Anika Moa Unleashed finished up its second season with its most coveted and triumphant get yet: a 20 year reunion of TrueBliss. Okay, so it’s not all of TrueBliss. But one less Carly Binding and one plus Anika Moa is still a pretty damn good effort at a reunion. I’m getting ahead of myself, though. I’m … 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: men’s clothing subscription company Asuwere. Dollar Shave Club, My Food … Read more
Left Alive has been released this past week to harsh reviews and studio backpedalling, signalling another failure in the rare people-in-robots genre of game. Sam Brooks back at the storied history of these games. It’s not a good sign when a studio forbids a game from being streamed mere days after its release. It’s the gaming equivalent … Read more
A new study analysing the number of racist versus supportive comments in two large online forums reveals some sobering facts about Māori experiences online. To illustrate the difference in the Māori and Western/Pākehā worldviews about the power of speech, it’s worth looking at two different whakataukī or proverbs. The first is the old adage that … Read more
Plans for two massive concrete mooring structures jutting out from Queen’s Wharf are another assault on our harbour. We must stop endlessly eating into Auckland’s most valuable asset, writes Michael Goldwater of Stop Stealing Our Harbour Four years ago I made a rash phone call to my friend Barry Copeland. We had just attended a … Read more
Working on my Night Moves is the latest show from award-winning theatremaker Julia Croft and marks a philosophical change for her. Julia Croft is one of Auckland’s most essential theatremakers at the moment. The work she makes is consistently engaging with the zeitgeist in performative, accessible ways. The difference, according to the artist herself, with Working on … Read more
Richard von Sturmer reviews the new novel by Wellington author Carl Shuker – a tense, razor-sharp story of a surgeon who makes a fatal mistake. The story that Carl Shuker tells in his novel A Mistake is delivered in a concise, razor-sharp style without an ounce of fat left on the bone. Such imagery is appropriate: … Read more
Six seasons in, Below Deck remains the wildest drama on the high seas. Now’s the perfect time to catch up on this hugely entertaining boat-based reality series, argues Dominic Corry. Vanderpump Rules and the various Real Housewives shows may dominate the Bravo brand, but a world away from those land-based shenanigans, there’s another Bravo reality … Read more
Tomorrow, early childhood educators and support staff around New Zealand will be wearing black and white. Teacher Mel Burgess explains why. There are plenty of ways to mark International Women’s Day on Friday 8 March. You can take some time out to honour women who have blazed trails in the past or look to those … Read more