To mark the anniversary of the signing of He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga, the Declaration of Independence, on this day in 1835, race relations commissioner Meng Foon has one message: land back. Whenua is fundamental to Māori identity and whakapapa. Whenua and housing are essential for wellbeing. Yet despite Māori resilience, land loss has impacted … Read more
Some of the smartest people in the country examine the effects of the pandemic on Aotearoa’s future in 400 words or fewer. Read part one here. Beyond the horrific global death toll and the economic shutdowns, there is hope that Covid-19 will allow us to build a better society in the future. While much of … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for October 27. All the latest New Zealand news, updated throughout the day. Reach us at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7.20pm: The day in sum There was one new case of Covid-19, and again no cases in the community Police reminded people not to spread unverified information on social media about an … Read more
What does it mean to find courage in the face of a global pandemic, race protests, border strife and climate anxiety? Books editor Catherine Woulfe writes: Christchurch’s Word spring festival opens tomorrow. In real life! A highlight will be the Brave Worlds gala on Friday night, at which luminaries (Becky Manawatu, Witi Ihimaera, Elizabeth Knox, … Read more
From antitrust suits to restrictive new laws, the world’s digital behemoths are in hot water. So who’s on the naughty list and why? Hal Crawford explains. All around the world, governments are moving against big tech companies. The US government last week filed a suit against Google in an era-defining antitrust case. The European Union, … Read more
In an effort to bring The Spinoff’s favourite format – the ranking – to its knees, Alice Webb-Liddall ranks the most boring thing she can think of: borers. If something is to be named after me when I have passed away after a lifetime of goodwill and national recognition, I would want a high-density housing … Read more
Halloween is just around the corner. If you’re a parent looking for spooky activities to entertain your beastly offspring, Emily Writes has got your back. What to do for Halloween during a global pandemic? It’s a question few parents care about or are asking, but I’m on deadline and so here we are. If you’ve … Read more
The jailing last week of New Zealand playboy businessman Eric Watson was nearly a decade in the legal making, writes the NZ Herald’s Matt Nippert in this Herald Premium article. The fall of Eric John Watson, from penthouse-dwelling playboy to prisoner in apparent penury, didn’t happen overnight. He’s also recently caught Covid-19, split from his … Read more
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic prompted New Zealand and much of the world to undertake something few of us had ever contemplated: a near-total lockdown of society. In this Lockdown legacies series, James Dann explores the impacts of those extraordinary measures, intended and otherwise. Today: the lifestyle changes it brought on. This project was made … Read more
Review: In their heyday they were invulnerable, but now the likes of Piri Weepu and Eroni Clarke are all too human. That’s what makes Match Fit so compelling, says Duncan Greive. Match Fit is aimed at the more casual class of rugby fan, but its audience would likely bristle at what lies underneath its code-heavy … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Unaffordable dental care in the spotlight, update on the two crops of Covid cases, and Billy TK quits Advance NZ alliance. One of the weeping sores of the health system is the high cost of dental care, and the health effects that flow from that. It’s … Read more
The pandemic has only exposed the systemic healthcare inequities that already existed, write two NZ health professionals working on the Covid response at opposite ends of the world. Far from being some “great leveller”, the Covid-19 pandemic has proven to be more like water in a New Zealand rental home: seeping into all of the … Read more
As it picks itself up from a drubbing, National needs to consider some new ways of doing things, such as reinventing the way we do social welfare, argues Liam Hehir. Yesterday was Labour Day. It has been Labour Month, in a way, with Jacinda Ardern’s party drubbing National in the general election 10 days ago. … Read more
Today marks the official end of the second wave in the Australian state of Victoria, with zero cases recorded for the first time in 139 days, writes Hassan Vally of La Trobe University. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews today announced the most significant easing of Melbourne’s coronavirus restrictions since the state went into “stage 3” lockdown … Read more
The Big Little Lies showrunner and one of its stars are back with an addictive new limited series – and they’ve brought Hugh Grant along for the ride. Nicole Kidman does a lot of walking in The Undoing. The new HBO murder-mystery miniseries features seemingly endless shots of her character, Grace Fraser, crossing busy Manhattan … Read more
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic prompted New Zealand and much of the world to undertake something few of us had ever contemplated: a near-total lockdown of society. In this Lockdown legacies series, James Dann explores the impacts of those extraordinary measures, intended and otherwise. Today: From traffic accidents and seasonal flu to heart disease, the … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for October 24-26. All the latest New Zealand news, updated throughout the day. Reach us at info@thespinoff.co.nz 1.00pm: No new community cases; five cases in managed isolation The Ministry of Health has just emailed through today’s Covid-19 case number update. This is how it reads: There are again no … Read more
Ensemble’s Lofa Totua explores the evolving nature of her understanding of activism, and asks those fighting against injustice about what being an ‘activist’ means to them. The other week I released a fear. The angsty knots of worry and imposter syndrome, untied, finally allowing me to breathe. “Sometimes, activism is as simple as breathing Lofa. … Read more
Timaru, Waihi, Greymouth and Woodville entered; only one could emerge the winner. Tara Ward looks back at one of the most exciting moments in regional New Zealand history: the grand final of Top Town. It was a hot summer’s day in 1977 when 10,000 people gathered in Whangarei’s Okara Park to witness one of our … Read more
LSD was criminalised across the world in the late 1960s, following a moral panic about the effect recreational use was having on young people. After a 40 year hiatus on medical use, LSD is being studied once more. Helen Glenny explains. Mel Elwin, 36, swallowed five large pills and washed them down with water. She … Read more
‘On one scale the coronavirus that plagues us is microscopic. On another we ourselves are made small.’ An essay by Alex Kazemi. Make a Moebius strip. Take a long rectangular piece of paper, loop it, then join the two ends after putting one end through a half twist. The resultant shape is three dimensional but … Read more
All his life, Duncan Greive has basically hated his undies and found socks annoying. And then he tried Allbirds underwear. It is quite accurate to point out that fields as varied as medicine, transport and 90% of humans are brutally compromised by sexism. This, naturally extends to underwear, with most bras notoriously created for the … Read more
David Hill’s beloved junior fiction book See Ya, Simon is 28 years old. The boy who inspired it died in his first year of high school. That backstory is well known but now, Hill fills in the detail, including the obligation he felt to his daughter, and the grief that kept him company as he … Read more
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic prompted New Zealand and much of the world to undertake something few of us had ever contemplated: a near-total lockdown of society. In this Lockdown legacies series, James Dann explores the impacts of those extraordinary measures, intended and otherwise. Today: part two, environmental impacts. This project was made possible thanks … Read more
Out of an office on Queen Street, the film buffs’ social network Letterboxd has thrown the rules out the window, attracting a young, progressive global base of users redefining what ‘good’ and ‘bad’ film is. New Zealand’s back in level one, and cinemas are back in action. Ish. Productions around the globe have locked down … Read more
Forest and Bird’s Kevin Hague recently wrote that the Greens and Labour should work together for the benefit of the environment. Here Justine Sachs argues that a seat at the table isn’t worth selling out the party’s soul. As a Green Party member, I am wary of the Greens being subsumed by Labour’s historic majority … Read more
Which parties spent the most on Facebook and Google, and was it really all worth it in the end? The election is over and the results are in: Labour swept the polls, National lost big, and the Greens and Act are set to return to parliament with an even bigger cohort of MPs than they … Read more
A unified rejection of the global trend towards right-wing strongmen or a blood debt from deeply conservative voters? Perhaps the election result was neither, writes Joseph Nunweek. Going by some of the electoral post-mortems, the weekend of October 17 was some kind of 4D chess triumph of the New Zealand right. I don’t claim to … Read more
An effervescent fermented beverage a bit like kombucha, water kefir is a refreshing drop for the warmer weather. Here’s how to make it. As I sit here typing, my kids are sitting at the table colouring in, sipping the glasses of water kefir I just photographed for this recipe. Our middle boy Ahi has just … Read more