Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Local government proposals raise support and concerns, Wellington buses have been a mess, and Te Papa’s CEO defends job cut restructure proposals. We touched on the Local Government NZ conference a bit at the start of the week, but I think it deserves further exploring. The … Read more
Reports that the organisation holds human skull and crossbones are alarming – just because it’s ceremonial, doesn’t make it appropriate, writes bioarchaeologist Siân Halcrow I’ve often heard talk the Freemasons have strange rituals and traditions, but assumed this was essentially gossip. Last week, however, I was shocked to learn that a human skull and crossbones is apparently used … Read more
Adam Mamo’s new series ‘Rating your Kiwi Childhood’ is all about looking back on your formative experiences as a little kid in the 1980s and a bigger kid in the 1990s. Today, Adam tackles the highs and very low lows of Saturday morning sport. Love it or hate it, kids sport is a Kiwi institution. … Read more
Play It Strange CEO Mike Chunn met a young autistic drummer and quickly realised how hard things were for those with Autism Spectrum Disorder, especially the young. When Play It Strange and Rotary Newmarket supported the recording of 16-year-old Kane Chong’s song ‘We Are One’ – a track dedicated to his severely autistic best friend, Connor – … Read more
Lots of people can’t drive, including Haimona Gray. He talks to a few famous people who are similarly impaired, and gets behind the wheel in the only way he knows how: video games. My first memory of driving a car involves the 1994 Sega arcade classic, Daytona USA. As of writing, it remains the closest … Read more
Could a safety campaign called ‘Ask for Angela’ save women from creeps and predators in New Zealand? Katie Scotcher reports, in a piece originally published on Radio NZ. A safety campaign to help people whose dates go horribly wrong has launched in Sydney – and there are calls to bring it across the ditch. “Ask … Read more
From the alleyways of Běijīng to the Tibetan highlands, independent brewing is on the rise in the world’s most populous nation. When we think of China, chances are we don’t think of craft beer. You might put that down to the legacy of popular beers like Tsingtao, Harbin or Snow. Tsingtao, of the seaside city … Read more
Auckland has long been NZ’s economic engine, but these days the rest of the country’s doing pretty well too – and maybe even better, says Kiwibank’s chief economist Jarrod Kerr. In Auckland, things are starting to get a little chilly, not just in terms of the weather, but economically too – migration is cooling and … Read more
Kevin Hague of Forest & Bird is giving the Climate Leaders Coalition the benefit of the doubt on greenwashing. But he has a message for all businesses: we’re watching you. Watching the heads of 60 of the country’s largest companies promise to take action on climate change last week gives me hope that we might … Read more
Misleading remarks in the media erode public confidence in a pest-control tool we urgently need to save species, writes Nicola Toki, the threatened species ambassador for the Department of Conservation. Last Thursday night, Newshub led the 6pm news with a report about 75 kilograms of 1080 pellets being dumped and buried by a contractor to … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Winston Peters goes at it on the radio, nurses go back to the bargaining table, and Trump and Putin agree that the FBI is wrong. Acting PM Winston Peters went on Newstalk ZB for a long form interview with Leighton Smith yesterday, and there was no … Read more
When the n-word slipped out of former National MP Tau Henare’s mouth on national television last Sunday, Ātea editor Leonie Hayden realised she’d been harbouring a guilty secret. I saw a video on Twitter a couple of weeks ago where Kendrick Lamar, who is playing here this week, stopped a white fan from rapping along … Read more
Pearson Education’s role in evaluating the quality of education research conducted by New Zealand academics raises concerns over its for-profit programme in the Global South, not to mention that time they tried to sue Rangitoto College. Tertiary education organisations in New Zealand are lining up for their share of $1 billion from central government over … Read more
The future of screen formats is vertical, if Instagram TV has its way. And that may not be a bad thing, argues Lydia Burgham. Millennials have killed a lot of great things in this world: newspapers, analogue clocks, the music industry, face to face communication – but their greatest scalp of all may be horizontal … Read more
We’re halfway through the school holidays and you’re probably running out of things to do with the kids. Never fear – Tara Ward to the rescue, with the ideal time-filling shows on Lightbox. Welcome to the school holidays, the magical period when whānau bask in the glow of two weeks of quality time with their … Read more
Hussein Moses speaks to Majid Jordan, the Toronto duo making noise thanks to one hell of a co-sign from Drake. While Drake might be experiencing whiplash right now after getting owned in a rap beef he started then breaking records with his album Scorpion, the Canadian superstar has put together an impressive roster of artists … Read more
We were all horrified to see children ripped from their parents’ arms at the US-Mexico border last month. Sadly, this kind of thing happens in Australia, too, under their mandatory detention policies. Thalia Kehoe Rowden talked to a human rights lawyer about one family that has been separated for the last three years. Content note: … Read more
Dr Lance O’Sullivan has issued a challenge to Phil Twyford after concluding state housing is a direct cause of kids becoming chronically ill. I recently moved from Northland to Auckland and coming from there I thought I knew what poverty was. On my second day of working as a GP here in Auckland I was … Read more
From tax incentives to cash grants, ‘price signals’ are the key to increasing the uptake of electric vehicles in New Zealand, writes Victoria University’s Lisa Marriott. On Friday 13 July, Climate Change Minister James Shaw stated that in order for New Zealand to meet its zero carbon pledge nearly all the country’s cars will have … Read more
Based on one of the most notorious murder cases in New Zealand history, Mistress, Mercy finds itself hamstrung by the limits of the doco-drama genre. In 1989, Renee Chignell and Neville Walker were convicted of the murder of Peter Plumley-Walker. Police alleged they had thrown him into the Huka Falls after a bondage session with Chignell, … Read more
A new film following five courageous families healing in the wake of suicide premieres at the NZ International Film Festival this month. Kayne Peters meets the Albert whānau of Maui’s Hook. Content warning: suicide. Suicide is a topic many Kiwis shy away from but the reality is, every three days a young New Zealander takes … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Wild weather from the weekend isn’t over yet, government abandons police mental health funding plan, and a culture war at DOC is revealed. Heavy flooding around the Upper North island has caused a significant amount of disruption over the weekend, and it’s not over yet. The NZTA’s Journey planner … Read more
The debate about lunchbox shaming risks leaving us powerless to combat a far greater health emergency, writes public health consultant Victoria Mulligan. Dr Rebekah Graham last week called to end food policing and “lunchbox shaming”, claiming that it’s hurting our most vulnerable families. Her research uncovered the challenges that some families face in providing food … Read more
Only five survivors are left battling it out for the money and glory, and honestly, it could be anyone’s game at this point. Could our winner be pharma-hunk Dave, who in immunity challenges is always the runner up, never the bride? Or maybe Tara, who no one in the jury is particularly angry at for … Read more
Teens have smoked weed from the side of a can for decades, and probably always will. But doesn’t that give you Alzheimer’s? Don Rowe called a real life scientist to find out. There is nothing on earth quite like smoking weed off a can. Bending, crimping, poking a rush hole just so – it’s the closest … Read more
In the midst of the bad prequels, after a slew of bad video games, and before the contested sequels, there was Knights of the Old Republic. Sam Brooks looks back at the critically acclaimed Star Wars game on its fifteenth anniversary. In 2003, the idea of a good Star Wars game was like the idea of a Star Wars sequel at … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Hayden Donnell: All the times our new Free Speech Coalition really hated free speech “It’s hard to get people to give money to worthy causes. Climate change. Poverty. Fuel taxes. There are so many issues, and we’re all stretched thin. But this week we’ve found out there’s … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Hayden Donnell reviews all New Zealand roads after driving 2500km in four days. The route over Takaka Hill is less a road than a rickety goat track hewn into the side of a mountain. It’s afflicted by slips and … Read more
In the best drinking cities in the world, sharing a punch bowl with your mates at a bar makes for a splendid evening. To have a similar experience here, you’ll have to stay home. “Red fruit, Raro.” “Very drunk 21-year-old Christians.” “Red wine, Sprite Zero, half-sugar Just Juice, vodka.” “Berocca, white wine, vodka, pineapple juice … Read more