The strength of ties have been tested in recent months. NZ now needs to boost capacity to understand and engage with China, writes Stephen Jacobi of the NZ China Council The last year has been something of a roller-coaster ride for the relationship between New Zealand and China. Against a background of great power rivalry … Read more
Recruiting can suck, both for job seekers and employers alike. In the interests of improving the experience, HR expert Sylvie Thrush Marsh offers her top tips for winning the employment game. Job hunting is a pain in the proverbial. At worst, it’s stressful, discouraging, and an emotional roller-coaster ride. Until you’re established enough in your industry … Read more
Internal affairs minister Tracey Martin has announced that legislation that would allow transgender people to more easily change their sex on birth certificates will be deferred following concerns around changes made by the select committee which, said Martin, ‘occurred without adequate public consultation’, creating ‘a fundamental legal issue’. The decision, widely deplored by the trans … Read more
The landlord who wrote about her disgust at the industry’s ‘negligence and greed’ has sold her rental property. Here she explains why. It’s been two and half years since my husband and I bought our below average rental in its unpopular town, dragged it into the 21st century with a few improvements, and sat back … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Door opened to debate on GE Free policy, dollar figure put on the health cost of poor housing, and self-ID bill deferred by minister Tracey Martin. It has been one of the cornerstone policies of New Zealand environmentalism for the past two decades. New Zealand’s GE Free … Read more
The Shane Jones led scheme offers an incredible opportunity to invest in a sustainable future for people living in New Zealand’s regions, but at this rate it will be remembered as a byword for flawed ecnomic development policy, write Alex Penk and Julian Wood of the Maxim Institute What do the words “Think Big” bring … Read more
Through rain and shine, Splore 2019 shone bright for three days. Photos by Kelsy Scott, Federico Pagola, Connor Crawford, Glenn McLelland and Dane Scott. Read Simon Day’s journey into the 20 year history of the Splore festival here Read Simon Day’s journey into the 20 year history of the Splore festival here
An array of government measures including better insulation on rental properties, the end of negative gearing for property investors, and the potential introduction of a capital gains tax may force a mass rental stock sell-off, warns property management consultant David Faulkner. We’ve all seen the headlines. Teachers forced to bunk in with their bosses; over … Read more
You saw her in The Favourite and you obviously loved it, but where can you experience Queen (quite literally) Olivia Colman on the small screen? It may be wildly out of line considering she’s won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA and now an Oscar (!!!) but I don’t think it’s greedy to want Olivia Colman to … Read more
An excerpt from David Cohen’s Book of Cohen, featuring Steve Braunias and musings on erotic salvation. “Just listen to that,” Steve Braunias says to me. It’s 1987 and we’re having lunch at the Cricketer’s Arms, a Wellington pub. Steve, a fellow music writer, rarely looks so good at this time in the day — or … Read more
It’s one of New Zealand’s most picturesque locations, but what are the best bits? Piha local Mark Mitchinson, who plays rockstar-turned-radio DJ Terry Huffer in the Lightbox series High Road, takes us on a tour of West Auckland’s famous beach suburb. High Road is a Lightbox Original. Season two of High Road is available to … Read more
Taken from RNZ’s the Raising the Bar series, researcher Dan Hikuroa looks at the fate of our waterways and how matauranga Māori can help us read the warning signs earlier. “What if the river had its own voice?” asks Dan Hikuroa. “What would the river be saying to us?” Dismayed by the increasing degradation of our … Read more
In the debate about the safety of Lime e-scooters, one voice has been largely unheard – that of the disabled community, which has had serious concerns from the start, writes Chris Ford. As a disability-rights and pedestrian-rights activist, I applaud both my own Dunedin City Council and the Auckland City Council for their decisions to … Read more
You may be far from civilisation, but there’s no need to resort to the depressing or the dehydrated while getting amongst the wilderness. There is very little room for fanciness when you have to carry your whole kitchen on your back. When you take to New Zealand’s great wilderness, trekking from DOC hut to DOC … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Public health pitch in new rental standards, serious concerns raised about Man Up programme, and National puts out new ideas on the environment. A major overhaul in rental standards has been announced, a step towards fulfilling an important campaign promise from the Labour led government. We’ve got … Read more
Felix Marwick recalls near misses, close calls, sweary moments and other daily adventures in cycling in Wellington. It’s entirely possible there’s no worse city for safe and easy biking in New Zealand than Wellington. The roads are narrow, the hills are steep, and the local drivers just seem to have this habit of absolutely, positively, … Read more
The rain held off for Six60’s record-smashing show at Western Springs Stadium in central Auckland, an inclusive celebration of Kiwi good times, writes Waveney Russ for RNZ. Last night Six60 attracted the largest crowd of any NZ band ever to Auckland’s Western Springs Stadium, playing to around 50,000 people at the sold-out venue. Sure, Eminem … Read more
The government today announced a raft of measures aimed at making rental homes warmer, drier and healthier. If there’s one thing tenants enjoy more than totting up how much of their wages are going to fund an extension to their landlord’s Waiheke holiday home, it’s enumerating all the highly specific ways in which their own … Read more
From the ‘sunk cost bias’ to decision paralysis, being overly fearful of regret can lock us into bad relationships, jobs and habits. But it doesn’t have to be this way, writes Eyal Winter. How many times have you thought about starting a company, taking a year out to write that novel or leaving a loveless … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Danyl Mclauchlan: The subtle art of not giving a fuck about Jordan B Peterson “That’s the thing about Jordan Peterson. His name is Legion for He is many. You can watch hours of his videos on YouTube, listening to his insights on religion and psychology … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Jihee Junn taste tests Magnum’s new dairy-free ice cream. Being lactose intolerant (along with about 90% of the east Asian population), there are few things I miss more than chowing down on a nice cold Magnum. Growing up, my … 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 staff writer Jihee Junn. My kind of party is a YouTube party – … Read more
Five years ago, Mark Rickerby crafted code to analyse the full text of the Whaleoil blog after Dirty Politics. That experience, and the unveiling this month of a language model trained on internet text that can generate startlingly coherent prose, offer a profound warning of the dangers of allowing AI innovation to be controlled by … Read more
Every week on The Primer we ask a local business or product to introduce themselves in eight simple takes. This week we talk to Offcut founder Adrien Taylor whose company takes fabric scraps destined for landfill and turns them into hats instead. ONE: How did Offcut start and what was the inspiration behind it? I started the … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Whittaker’s controversial coconut ice ‘gender reveal’ chocolate. Whittaker’s latest release is inspired both by that classic Kiwi school fair staple, coconut ice, and by the bizarre phenomenon of the baby gender reveal party. (If you’re not familiar, that’s when … Read more
To celebrate the launch of New Balance’s 997H – the sneaker built for independents – The Spinoff spoke to Auckland synth pop duo Imugi about their musical influences, independence, growing up, and giving voice to bicultural experiences. We all have those years that define us for the rest of our lives, and for Yery Cho … Read more
The period of benign relations between New Zealand and China appears to be drawing to a close, writes Massey University’s David Belgrave. Until recently, New Zealand’s relationship with China has been easy and at little cost to Wellington. But those days are probably over. New Zealand’s decision to block Huawei from its 5G cellular networks … Read more
The only published and available best-selling book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 best-seller list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in Willis St, Wellington and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber, $33) “I read a few pages of the Sally Rooney book. It may say … Read more
Australian band Haiku Hands had a social media smash with their song ‘Not About You’, and they’re performing at Splore this weekend. Sam Brooks talked to them about their writing process, and how they carry their energy from the studio to the stage. The first few moments of ‘Not About You‘ are magnetic, it’s the … Read more