With no new classes of antibiotics for decades and resistance to all antimicrobial drugs on the rise, an urgent search is under way to develop innovative new biological alternatives, explains Craig Billington of ESR The growing concern around the world about the emergence of bacterial strains showing resistance to all classes of antibiotics, highlights the … Read more
Here’s the latest on Auckland’s City Rail Link developments, courtesy of RNZ. The Australian parent company of a key firm involved in the City Rail Link has announced it is in administration. Here’s what we know so far about what that means for New Zealand’s largest ever transport infrastructure project. Perth-based RCR Tomlinson had gained $A100 … Read more
The government has just announced plans to regulate vaping and smokeless tobacco products in New Zealand. Here’s everything we know so far. So, what is it the government is doing exactly? The government has decided that next year, the Smoke-free Environments Act 1990 (SFEA) will be changed in order to clarify rules around vaping and … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. In our regular Business Chat special, Simon Pound speaks with Fleur Francois, director of New Zealand’s national metrology institute, and Karyn Scherer, senior copywriter at Callaghan Innovation. It’s been a big year in international measurement. A number of … Read more
In the same week that a petition was launched to ban “sexist” ride-sharing app DriveHer, Uber has launched a new initiative to end gender violence in their cars. Uber has launched a new safety initiative in New Zealand and Australia called Driving Change, part of a commitment to preventing gender-based violence for users of the … Read more
New verse by Pt Chevalier writer Jenny Blood. My mother My mother kept eleven glasses of water Beside her bed She would only eat bananas and tinned mandarins Her room stank She said they were trying To kill her I don’t blame them Jenny Blood, 2018 The Spinoff Review of Books is … Read more
Only 32 shopping days till Xmas! Get in early and peruse the week’s bestselling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury Press, $65) The cookbook of 2018. 2 Past Tense by Lee Child (Bantam, $38) Reacher! 3 Milkman by Anna Burns (Faber & Faber, … Read more
Today, Cystic Sisters, a documentary about women living with PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) is released on TVNZ on Demand. Comedian, actor and Great Kiwi Bake Off host Hayley Sproull, the documentary’s presenter, looks back on her experience with the disease. From as early as I can remember, I’ve always had a moustache. I used to … Read more
New research released by Good Shepherd New Zealand has exposed the country’s hidden economic abuse issue. The findings should be an important catalyst for action, writes Nicola Eccleton. Economic abuse is a powerful, silent weapon used to control women – stripping them of their independence and trapping them in coercive relationships. There are no bruises, … Read more
Once a US-only phenomenon, Black Friday sales are now firmly part of the New Zealand retail calendar. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of snagging a one-off bargain – but are shoppers being had? Black Friday is upon us once again. The annual ritual of deals kickstarts the Christmas shopping period. Retailers … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Radical restructure of Māori TV’s news announced, key City Rail Link firm goes bust, and Kiwibank responds to branch closure criticism. A sweeping restructure of Māori TV’s news service has been announced, with the loss of four major news programmes. Te reo news show Te Kāea will finish … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, José Barbosa bathes in the sugary warmth of US-style doughnuts. Bless America and the Americans. They’ve given us so much and we just want more and more. First came Dunkin Donuts; we mashed their rings of yeast into our … Read more
Leonie Hayden went in search of the people behind community access radio station Planet FM, and their newly minted and very silly Twitter account. She discovered a group of people who love their jobs and the communities they help. Community access radio station Planet FM gives good content. If you had any investment in this … Read more
It’s costume chaos week on House of Drag – but who surfs the waves and who gets washed ashore? Sam Brooks power-ranks episode three of House of Drag. After a shaky beginning, it seems that House of Drag is beginning to find its feet on the catwalk. Episode three is an altogether tighter ship, with clear narratives for the … Read more
Big businesses such as New Zealand’s largest ever transport infrastructure project are tackling “real” sustainability issues instead of the greenwashing of the past, organisers of the NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards say. “We’re all desperately looking for ‘how do you do this stuff’ now. I don’t think businesses would be deliberately doing things that would … Read more
Just like the New Zealand wine industry it champions, Fine Wine Delivery Co has been through quite a journey over the past two decades. Back in 1997, the average house price in New Zealand was $181,000. Jim Bolger was prime minister, with Winston Peters his deputy. The world mourned Princess Diana, Titanic was released, and … Read more
People are loving Red Dead Redemption 2 and its ultra realistic depiction of the wild west. Nothing says western more than shooting people’s hats off, so we’ve decided to attempt a hat shooting challenge. Our video journalist @morbid_slag_angel_69 takes up the revolver!
Book of the Week: In which Spinoff Review of Books literary editor Steve Braunias commissions Murray Edmond to review an anthology of New Zealand poetry – first appearing on the Spinoff Review of Books – published by Steve Braunias The cover of The Friday Poem: 100 New Zealand Poems is a photo of someone riding a bike … Read more
The renewal of the takahē population is one of the most remarkable stories of survival in New Zealand’s conservation history. Alison Ballance was there for the 70th anniversary of their rediscovery. This piece was originally published on RNZ. It can be listened to as an Insight documentary here. Seventy years ago, takahē – thought to … Read more
When you need dessert that’s more than an ice cream from the dairy but less than a Great Kiwi Bake Off technical challenge, make this. Sometimes it’s not necessary to labour things, and this recipe is a good example of that. Fried simply in butter and brown sugar, the pineapple turns a lovely golden colour, and … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on the Real Pod, we power through a delicious week on Bake Off, a bridesmaids scuffle on Project Runway NZ and a huge showdown on House of Drag. Jane and Duncan share their … Read more
For a brief moment in the late 20th century, New Zealand produced some of the dopest hand-painted clothing on Earth. Don Rowe talks to the founders of Kozmik Klothing. Most everyone in the 1980s dressed like shit. That’s just a fact. But for a brief moment in the late 80s, on Auckland’s North Shore, there … Read more
Earlier this week a trade unionist wrote for The Spinoff about the rise of public service strike action under the Labour government. Today former Green Party education spokesperson Catherine Delahunty shares her perspective. I have heard more than a few complaints that teachers did not strike under National, so why are they doing it now? … Read more
At tonight’s NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards, Z energy – a fossil fuel company – is a nominee. Z CEO Mike Bennetts explains how this could possibly happen. At Z, we believe there are three legs to the sustainability stool – social, environmental and economic. We need to do all three of these well if … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Call for Hit and Run inquiry to be open and transparent, scale of risk from rising sea levels revealed, and paracetamol supplies could run short. The long-awaited inquiry into the events described in the book Hit and Run has got underway. To recap: Hit and Run was a book … Read more
Washington and Beijing won’t be fooled by the bridge and broker rhetoric. They know that should push come to shove New Zealand will have to make a choice writes security consultant Paul Buchanan The Labour-led government in New Zealand has settled on a new mantra when it comes to addressing the US-China rivalry. It claims … Read more
Tax law makes it pretty clear: services being provided in New Zealand attract goods and services tax. So why can’t the US electric scooter ride share phenomenon clarify whether it’s collecting it? Update 22 November: For Lime’s response to this story, see the comments at the the bottom of the page. As Hayden Donnell wrote … Read more
Alice is taken back to Blighty by an old-school bitter, and Henry paints the town millennial pink. GALBRAITH’S ALEHOUSE BOB HUDSON’S BITTER 440ml, 4%, $7.99 from Fine Wine Delivery Co English pubs were where my passion for beer truly took hold. I arrived in London as an innocent, fresh-faced lass from the colonies (OK, I … Read more
Auckland writer Kirsten Warner on the continuing horror of the Holocaust for second generation survivors. A Facebook friend recently made contact to say he’d heard me talking on National Radio about my newly published novel The Sound of Breaking Glass. His wife was, like me, the child of a survivor of the Holocaust. He said he’d … Read more