There’s a lot of confusion from media and commentators this week about the cultural identity of newly minted National Party leader Simon Bridges and deputy Paula Bennett. Here’s a handy guide to tell if you, or some you know, might have a touch of the Māori. Do you have a Māori ancestor? Yes? Congratulations, you’re … Read more
Rent Week 2018: Property managers. Two words to make the blood run cold, whether you are a tenant or a landlord. Rebecca Stevenson weighs up the data and anecdotal evidence, and her ruling is final: property managers suck. Hear me out. I’ve been on both sides; yes, I have been a landlord (pretty much by … Read more
A High Court hearing was this week shut off to everyone, including media – something even the judge calls ‘anathema to the fundamental concepts of fairness’. Andrew Geddis explains what’s going on. Something quite strange is happening at the High Court in Wellington this week. Journalists doing their regular rounds of that place’s pathos, bathos, … Read more
When he was in his early twenties, I used to joke with him about the Bridges administration, circa 2020. He can get there in three years, if he gets it right and things fall into place, writes former National Party cabinet minister Wayne Mapp. From the moment he declared himself in the contest, Simon Bridges … Read more
Art-pop innovator Grace Jones is playing Auckland City Limits this weekend. To help prepare you, The Spinoff retraces her career in 120 seconds. ‘Slave to the Rhythm’. ‘Pull Up To The Bumper’. A demented version of Sondheim’s ‘Send in the Clowns’. All of your pop faves owe what they do now to Grace Jones – new wave … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Vodafone Xone. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week Simon talks to Ben Reynolds about how his company Spalk is … Read more
If there was one word you wish you could take back in your parenting, what would it be? Gem Wilder questions the language of motherhood and the way we talk to our children. Motherhood comes with its own language. As soon as you find out you are pregnant you acquire a whole new vocabulary: Ante-natal, … Read more
The return of the patented Spinoff revolutionary live email interview, this time with Peter Wells, author of a new book devoted to the subject of “reclaiming Pākehā history”. Peter Wells is unwell. You may well have read about it in Hello Darkness, his intimate and sometimes harrowing series published at the Spinoff. It records his struggle … Read more
Welcome to the Cheat Sheet, a clickable, shareable, bite-sized FAQ on the news of the moment. Today, Alex Braae takes a look at a comically bad season for the Wellington Phoenix, who’ve just fired their coach, Darije Kalezic. Who? Kalezic is a Swiss/Bosnian/Dutch journeyman who arrived at the Wellington Phoenix at the start of the … Read more
Rent Week 2018: Madeleine Chapman spends a long, soul-sucking day at an Auckland tenancy tribunal. It’s 10:30am at the tenancy tribunal in Auckland District Court and everyone would rather be somewhere else. The first case of the day features two property managers in sleek attire who wait outside the courtroom and talk about friends and … Read more
Welcome to the Cheat Sheet, a clickable, shareable, bite-sized FAQ on the news of the moment. Today, Jihee Junn finds out what all the fuss is about with global doughnut brand Krispy Kreme, which launched in New Zealand this week. Doughnuts! Delicious! What’s your favourite? Can’t go wrong with a good ol’ glazed. There are few … Read more
Rent Week 2018: Māori and Pacific kids are sick of cold, damp, crowded houses. So when are we going to start treating poor quality housing as the health crisis it is, asks general practitioner Bryn Jones. This week Simon Bridges acknowledged that the National government might not have “shown it was doing enough on housing” … Read more
Rent Week 2018: With legislative changes set to increase costs for landlords, some smaller players may be forced out of the market. Property Investors’ Federation head Andrew King warns this won’t be good news for tenants. There appears to be a generally low opinion of people who provide rental properties for tenants to live in. … Read more
Welcome to the Cheat Sheet, a clickable, shareable, bite-sized FAQ on the news of the moment. Today, Henry Oliver answers your questions about Donald Glover’s mysterious Pharos Experience announcement. So… Donald Glover is coming to play a Childish Gambino show in New Zealand? Yes. Kind of. Yes – he’s playing. Well, Childish Gambino (his current, … Read more
What is the greatest New Zealand TV theme song ever written? Our search continues with a long forgotten Dave Dobbyn masterpiece from 1989. Previously in our search for New Zealand’s greatest TV theme song: Country Calendar Any major boomer will tell you: 1980s New Zealand was a different world. A world where you could smoke … Read more
Rent Week 2018: Earthquakes knocked houses down in Christchurch and, unsurprisingly, rents went up. But it’s a different story now in the garden city, finds Jamie Small. Lots of people left Christchurch after the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes, and many who stayed were delivered another kick in the pants in the form of rent … Read more
The PM gets the Backbencher treatment in DJ pose, Winston Peters gets a refit, but the publican is unsure whether it’s worth bothering with Simon Bridges yet, writes RNZ’s Craig McCulloch Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been immortalised as a puppet DJ at the Backbencher pub across the road from the Beehive. But National’s new leader … Read more
Every week we ask a local business or product to introduce themselves through eight simple questions. This week we talk to Elisha Watson, who quit her full-time job as a lawyer to start Nisa – an organic cotton underwear company that employs women from refugee backgrounds. ONE: How did Nisa start and what was the inspiration behind it? Before … Read more
Alex Casey rounds up the highlights from a very funny RNZ interview with David Seymour about his very stupid and sexist t-shirt. Everyone knows that meat = sex. Ham steaks? They are boobs. Chicken breast? Also boobs. Sausages? Phwoar. Rump? Come ON. It is in this hot and heavy climate of carnal carnivores that David … Read more
The GBLT quartet chew over all the leadership changes. Coruscating analysis of the new leader of New Zealand’s biggest parliamentary party. Hot’n’smoky takes. Terrible but melodic puns. All that and more in a new audio content presentation from Annabelle Lee, Ben Thomas, Toby Manhire and a mostly grumpy, yet still comfortably most eloquent of the … Read more
In January, Sam Brooks made a studio visit to Rare Studios outside Birmingham in the UK to play the studio’s game Sea of Thieves, currently in open beta. He tells the story of an enchanting and slightly bizarre trip with a group of gregarious goofs. You start off in a bar, with four strangers around you. … Read more
Craig Marriner was a nobody who won the 2002 book of the year award with his first novel Stonedogs, a raw, rough, street-wise tale of bogan life. His second novel sank without trace – and so did Marriner, who disappeared. He returns after a long absence with an evocation of life and literature in his … Read more
Welcome to the Cheat Sheet, a clickable, shareable, bite-sized FAQ on the news of the moment. Today we explain what Sky has done to its prices – and why they’ve done it. What are they up to? Sky has announced “new pricing and packaging” today, vastly simplifying the way people buy its product, and likely … Read more
People of diverse genders have been completely left out of this year’s New Zealand census. Here a non-binary parent talks about their experiences of being ignored and erased. Jess Mio describes their life under the relentless gender policing and racism in our public systems and hopes for a better, more inclusive, future. Nō Tauranga ahau I tipu … Read more
The Race is an original piece of theatre about those marginalised by society, created by those who have been marginalised themselves. Simon Day spoke to some of the cast about the role acting has in their lives. His gappy grin beaming across the street, Rawiri Sears Ngatai was waiting at the top of the stone … Read more
An app that gives parents important information and rewards them for attending appointments is being tested on the East Coast. Rural New Zealand gets the sharp end of a lot of our worst stats – suicide, poverty, unemployment, health and wellbeing. Nowhere more so than the East Coast of the North Island, which includes the … Read more
Welcome to the Cheat Sheet, a clickable, shareable, bite-sized FAQ on the news of the moment. Today, Don Rowe takes a look at Vero, the so-called Instagram-killer. Vero? That’s an insurance company right? Yes! No! Both! Vero is the self-proclaimed ‘Instagram-killer’, a ‘new kind of social network’, or as I call it, ‘yet another fucking … Read more
Calum Henderson watches The Wall, the new extravagant quiz show that might just outrun The Chase. This is the summer of The Chase. An episode in the morning, another in the afternoon, a Celebrity Chase most evenings – for the last couple of months it has been possible to plan your day around appointments with … Read more
On some scores, the National Party is streets ahead on Māori representation. But, asks Morgan Godfery, is it progress? Every politician keeps a list of regrets, and Labour politicians keep lists longer than most: they were the neoliberals, the foreshore and seabed thieves, and the slowpokes. If things were right and proper Simon Bridges would … Read more