Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Māori language week starts te reo teaching conversation, Tax Working Group looking likely to reject capital gains tax, and landlords propose alternative to rental WOFs. So what exactly is the government’s te reo Māori education policy? As Māori Language Week has got underway, that’s been a … Read more
This generation’s Tomb Raider trilogy comes to a close – and it’s with a limp, not a wild leap into the future. Sam Brooks reviews. The Tomb Raider series is the Maria Sharapova of gaming. The games are always good, never great, and the reputation, or at least the fame, they hold far outstrips the actual quality of … Read more
Last week Terri Friesen saw her wrongful conviction quashed. Here law student Kelly Phillips recounts her crusade to secure exoneration – one which began when she saw an episode of I Am Innocent If my partner hadn’t insisted I watch I Am Innocent, I never would have met Terri Friesen. Terri spoke directly to the camera. She … Read more
If Don Brash can be invited onto national television to speak about Māori language week, then I can speak about almost anything, argues Madeleine Chapman. First published in September 2018. There are plenty of uninformed takes to be heard on the radio. People call into talkback and air an opinion that isn’t shared by a … Read more
Our queer and women comics have been charging ahead and spotlighting its issues with gender and sexuality. Dejan Jotanovic writes. Something huge happened last month. We did it. We won. We took home the mighty trophy, prompting an encouraging Instagram post from our humble PM. Rose Matafeo (Funny Girls) won ‘Best Comedy Show’ at the … Read more
What if there was a way you could show your willingness to kōrero Māori with others in public? Leonie Hayden talks to the brains behind a range of t-shirts, jumpers and badges letting people know the wearer can, or wants to, speak to others in te reo Māori. For Paul Andersen (Ngāti Raukawa) the challenge presented … Read more
Toilet training – there are all kinds of ways to make it work, and it’s fairly easy. Unless it isn’t. Spinoff Parents editor Emily Writes goes through the five stages of toilet training. I remember it as if it was yesterday. A mother asked me about toilet training. I had not toilet trained my son. … Read more
From Destiny Church and Israel Folau, to splinter groups opposing the Anglican Church’s acceptance of same-sex marriages, bigotry against New Zealand’s LGBTQ community is still well and truly alive, writes Aaron Hendry. On Friday, Chester Borrows wrote a piece for the New Zealand Herald extolling the virtues of Destiny Church’s ‘Man Up’ – a support programme … Read more
The offensive ads may have been confined to the annals of history (ie: YouTube), but the 100-plus-year-old cordial is still around, and still wrong on many levels. Kia ora — isn’t it a lovely word? It reminds me of my hometown and Suzy Cato and perky Air New Zealand flight attendants. It’s informal but sounds … Read more
Following the New York Times‘ hard-hitting exposé on Jacinda Ardern, Danyl Mclauchlan reports that life isn’t all trips down the road or chasing ducks in the park with her ragtag bunch of mischievous friends. New Zealand – or, as the locals good-naturedly call it, HairyMaclaryLand – is a small, adorable little nation state all tucked up and snuggly … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: PM starts new week after three on the back foot, Herald launches economic inequality series, and huge house building programme announced for Mt Roskill. The Prime Minister starts the week after a few that she’d probably rather forget. Three weeks in a row now have finished with … Read more
If NZ wants to continue to build the relationship with China, we need to get serious about the initiative that defines the country’s view of its place in the world, writes Stephen Jacobi of the NZ China Council Five years ago when he announced his grand vision for investment-led development along ancient trade routes linking … Read more
After Europeans arrived, moa were used a metaphor for the feared extinction of Māori themselves, write the authors of a new study. Tracing extinctions that happened centuries ago is difficult, but our collaborative analysis of ancestral sayings, or whakataukī, found that early Māori paid attention to their local fauna and environment and recognised the extinction … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Hayden Donnell: What is happening? Mike Hosking and Mark Richardson both made great points “Stash some canned food under your bed. Fashion your garden implements into makeshift weapons. Sprinkle the blood of a lamb or goat over your home’s threshold. For behold; the seven seals … Read more
Thanks to Freeview On Demand, finding your next favourite New Zealand television show is now easier than Minogue and O’Leary finding a thirsty vampire on Wellington Paranormal. Tara Ward explores the library of local content. It’s the Te Papa of television, that gathers our national TV treasures into one special place for us all to enjoy. … Read more
Pipi beds die and algae blooms, but iwi are repeatedly told ‘there’s nothing to see here’, writes Graham Cameron. When the Tainui canoe entered Tauranga harbour a millennium ago, it had the misfortune to run aground on a then prominent sandbar called Ruahine that sat below the waterline between Matakana Island and Mauao. The Tainui … Read more
Winston Peters says the Orion is to implement UN sanctions, but that’s only half the story, writes former Green MP Keith Locke We all know the erratic nature of Donald Trump’s policy towards North Korea. One moment he’s threatening a military assault. The next moment he’s all buddy-buddy with Kim Jong-un. So why on earth … Read more
Today rapper Mac Miller passed away from an overdose. James Roque writes about his passing, and the effect Miller’s music had on him growing up. This morning the world awoke to the tragic news of the passing of artist Mac Miller. I found out after rolling over in bed, checking my phone and seeing a … Read more
Our usually meat-eschewing food editor proves she’s got the chops for the job by getting acquainted with some dead animals. People often presume that because I don’t eat meat, the thought of others eating it must horrify me. Anything from munching a ham sandwich in my presence to simply mentioning the nice steak they had … Read more
The Fitz has been closed for almost a decade and Palmy is no longer defined by student culture and sheep. Now it’s home to a new crop of innovators and startups who are thriving in the slower, more stable Manawatū business environment. Keri Welham talks to some of the key players shaping this North Island … Read more
If you expected one pop singer to have five sold-out shows at Spark Arena in 2018, would you expect them to be P!nk? Sam Brooks says why you absolutely should, you fool. Note: This isn’t about P!nk’s superhuman arms. If you want to know how to get swole like P!nk, I am of zero use … Read more
This weekend, at hundreds of churches around New Zealand, congregations will offer up a prayer for the media. Why? Alex Braae finds out. Back when I used to produce talkback radio, a caller who I didn’t put on the air told me she’d pray for me, then hung up. It didn’t sound like a positive … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. In a bleary Friday afternoon edition of The Real Pod, we reconvene to talk about a truly mad week in reality television. What was David Seymour doing on The Block NZ? How intense was Cass … Read more
New verse by Christchurch writer Jeffrey Paparoa Holman. Kei te whakaako au i taku kurī/I am teaching my dog Māori I am teaching my dog Māori. Nobody will object outside the supermarket when I tie Tiaki to the bike stand and bark, “E noho!” tenderly. “Enoho, what a lovely name!” … Read more
Welcome back to Waterdeep Mountain High, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast set in a below average school in the mystical land of Faerun. “I call him Kate because he resembles Kate…Moss…who is another student at school, which is weird because this is clearly an Italian man.” The gang attempt to charm a witch and get … Read more
I work for the prime minister but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of her agenda and her worst inclinations. The Spinoff is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior member of the Ardern administration whose identity … Read more
The week’s biggest-selling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington, and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON 1 Women, Equality, Power: Selected Speeches from a Life of Leadership by Helen Clark (Allen & Unwin, $45) “Helen Clark continues to assert her toughness, time after time. When she faced off against Sir Ray Avery over his proposed … Read more
Toby Manhire is back to review the last seven days of New Zealand news, and with the prime minister in Naura for the Pacific Islands Forum, it was a very bad week for both Mike Hosking and Leighton Smith.
Every week on The Primer we ask a local business or product to introduce themselves in eight simple takes. This week we talk to Jo Blair, founder and director of Brown Bread – a marketing and communications agency from Christchurch that focuses on championing the arts, philanthropy and social good. ONE: How did Brown Bread start and … Read more