A series of Māori Futurist events take place this weekend (July 6-8) at Ellen Melville Centre in Auckland’s CDB. Self-identified ‘Space Māori’ Dan Taipua picks out some highlights from the schedule. In a few hundred years time the world will be washed into a new shape. Today’s islands will have disappeared from the the light … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Huge interest in Kiwibuild houses as registrations open, Fonterra and Greenpeace find themselves on the same side of a dairy issue, and GCSB report comes out. Registrations of interest for the Kiwibuild ballot has boomed, after it was opened yesterday morning. As of the last figures being … Read more
Danyl Mclauchlan reads the 1977 book Bob Jones on Property, and wonders about the role it played in creating today’s distorted housing market. Sir Bob Jones has been in the news a bit recently. In February he published a column in the NBR suggesting that Waitangi Day be abolished and replaced with “Maori Gratitude Day”, in … Read more
Air New Zealand caused a storm by announcing the ‘Impossible’ Burger will be made available to a tiny sliver of customers – a move described as an ‘existential threat’ to the meat sector by NZ First’s Mark Patterson. And genetic engineering is central to the synthetic meat’s success, explains Dr Siouxsie Wiles This week, Air … Read more
Alex Casey goes for a stroll on the foot-shaped sands of Heartbreak Island, week four. Every relationship hits that point. You know the one. The golden playback dial gets put in the attic, if you know what I’m saying. You move from Foot Island to Dolphin Island, if you know what I’m saying. Mark Dye … Read more
Jogai Bhatt talks to the talent behind Nah Zone, a new underground collective showcasing music, writing and art on the internet and in the club. There’s no shortage of young talent in Aotearoa – it’s just a matter of keeping your ear to the ground. This is the ethos embodied by Nah Zone, an ambitious … Read more
Jam and Jerusalem. Bells and Smells. Tea and Cakes. Murder and Intrigue. Four of the classic double acts. And they all come together in the delightful investigation series Father Brown, five glorious seasons of which are available for your leisurely winter viewing on Lightbox. As any Catholic lapsed or otherwise will tell you, the greatest … Read more
Each week on The Spinoff TV’s Repressed Memories, James Mustapic delves into NZ pop culture’s graveyard and digs up the bodies. This episode: Shocking deaths, forbidden love, multiple Harry Warners and TK in a fedora – revisiting the glory of Shortland Street in 2009. Watch all the Repressed Memories videos here. The Spinoff TV screens … Read more
Squawk Squad is the social enterprise using modern technology to not only make predator traps more effective but keep its wider community of donors connected with its work. Every year, a massive 25 million native birds are said to be killed by pests, leaving many of our most beloved species – the takahē, kākāpō, and … Read more
Scout Barbour-Evans is pregnant and will be a dad. Here at The Spinoff Parents they share what it has been like so far. I am a boy. A pregnant boy. There is a foetus in my uterus. Yes, that’s possible. It was a planned pregnancy. I’ve desperately wanted to have a child since I was … Read more
The winter warmer package came in on Sunday, an extra $20-$30 a week to help pay power bills. Only, a big part of it is going to those who need it least. On Sunday, a whole bunch of New Zealanders who really need the help started receiving a little extra to help pay their power … 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, the old gang is back together with your regular scheduled programming of reality madness. We look back at the whopper finale of Dancing With the Stars NZ, which crowned Sam Hayes … Read more
Air New Zealand has been lambasted for serving Business Class passengers a burger without meat in it, which is obviously an assault on the NZ economy. Here The Spinoff’s leading New Zealander, Madeleine Chapman, recounts the day in the life of a true patriot Every night, before I slide beneath my All Blacks™ duvet cover, … Read more
Want New Zealand to continue to keep making good local film and TV? Then it’s time to get over rebates and subsidies for big Hollywood productions, writes film industry professional Rajneel Singh. People who have known me over the years know that I’ve never exactly lived the Hollywood lifestyle. I am single, I still live … Read more
The buyer eligibility rules for the government’s marquee house building programme have just been released. Do you qualify? Alex Braae has the skinny What’s all this then? Remember when the housing crisis became a real thing for the commentariat of New Zealand, because their sons and daughters were being priced out of the market? Well … Read more
Gather round, hop-loving harridans of Aotearoa, for now is our time. This story originally ran in Stone Soup “Smash the beer patriarchy” is a phrase I trot out good-naturedly whenever I encounter an example of everyday beer sexism — the likes of being immediately directed to the wine list at a dedicated craft beer bar, … Read more
The Spinoff presents the video premiere of Tami Neilson’s ‘Devil in a Dress’, featuring the O’Neill Twins. Tami Neilson says: I was watching the TV series The Fall and there was a scene that directly inspired this song. When a constable wants to use the word ‘innocent’ to describe the killer’s victims in a press release, Gillian Anderson’s character … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. And to all of our mates in the USA, happy Independence Day. In today’s edition: Teachers have voted to go on strike, Kiwibuild eligibility criteria out today, and former PM says not in my backyard to charity concert. Primary teachers have rejected a pay offer from the ministry of … Read more
Medical student Kera Sherwood-O’Regan on what the student loan extension means for Māori studying medicine. “Have you seen the news?!” There’s nothing like waking up to dozens of messages and tweets to jolt you out of bed with a deep sense of dread. I tried to keep a lid on the panic as I wondered … Read more
The impact of forestry on the East Coast came to the fore last month as Tolaga Bay was deluged with offcuts. How did it come to this, asks Michael Smith Satellite images show how the disaster in the forests at Tolaga Bay on New Zealand’s was a long time in the making. The length of … Read more
Former National cabinet minister Wayne Mapp asks what the party’s green policy might look like. The National party has won plaudits for pledging to support the new Climate Change Commission. Climate scientist James Renwick, for example, writing for The Spinoff, welcomed the prospect of “meaningful and long-lasting policies implemented that genuinely reduce our greenhouse emissions”. … Read more
Mukbang is a South Korean video craze in which a host eats huge amounts of foods while interacting with their audience. Comedian and mukbang superfan Rose Matafeo decided to make her own mukbang, so she bought $60 of takeaways from Double Happy in Te Atatū South, west Auckland, and got to work. The Spinoff’s food … Read more
Everybody Cool Lives Here is one of Wellington’s most exciting theatre companies, and their work Big J Stylez comes to Auckland’s Herald Theatre this week as part of Matariki Season. Sam Brooks interviews artistic director Rose Kirkup. “The award-winning theatre company Everybody Cool Lives Here produces art that reflects and celebrates Aotearoa’s unique and diverse identity,” reads … Read more
Simon Day has a meal with a criminal narcissist. Somewhere between the sweet-and-sour tripe and the dramatic dissection of the five-spiced suckling pig, we discover that our entrancing new acquaintance named Alex is actually called Wayne, and is one of New Zealand’s most prolific conmen. Over the course of the evening, and four courses of … Read more
Huzzah! We announce the winners of New Zealand’s most coveted writers residency in central Auckland. An author who wants to write a book about professional mermaids – there is such a thing, and it’s worryingly kind of huge – is the winner of the 2018 Surrey Hotel Steve Braunias Memorial Writers Residency Award in Association with … Read more
A new documentary following New Zealand’s Joseph Parker offers fascinating background on the make-or-break moments of boxing, writes Don Rowe. Half an hour into Metamorphosis, the new documentary following Joseph Parker in the build up to his championship fight last March, there is an interaction that those of us on the far temporal side of … Read more
Mike Hosking’s latest ‘modern parenting’ whinge is about children not walking to school. Jacquelyn Collins explains exactly why he’s wrong, and why parents are right to be concerned for the safety of their children on the school run. Mike Hosking is a keen and frequent participant in the popular modern pastime of reminding parents that … Read more
The High Court has slammed the MSD after it ‘misconceived’ the rules around beneficiaries borrowing money. It should now halt all High Court debt recovery, says Catriona MacLennan In what parallel universe would the agency charged with assisting our most vulnerable citizens cut a mother’s benefit because she borrowed money from her family and her … Read more
Alex Casey, Sam Brooks and Madeleine Chapman round up the new content coming to Lightbox this month, including the return of TV juggernauts Suits and UnREAL. Harlots S2 (Express from July 12) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmUP1idcOhU If you missed out on the first season of this, what are you doing? Two of England’s best actresses – Dame Lesley Manville (not actually a … Read more