‘The book is the catalyst, the key.’ An essay by Scarlett Cayford about the secret society of book clubs. When I moved to London, I joined a book club. It was an easy decision to make – I wanted to meet new people, I’m terrible at most team sports, and I have a lot of … Read more
What was Steven Joyce really up to when he said Labour’s budget plan was missing almost $12 billion? Simon Wilson considers the possibilities. On Monday morning the minister of finance said the opposition finance spokesperson was so incompetent, he had produced a fiscal statement that overlooked nearly $12 billion worth of spending they should have … Read more
When you work at a decile one high school, you’re confronted with the realities of child poverty on a daily basis. Details of this article have been changed to protect privacy. It’s intended to show the challenges confronting students in low-income communities like Manurewa and therefore leaves unsaid the enormous achievements of the school and … Read more
Does being prime minister compel a person to lie? Of course, says Danyl McLauchlan, and thus far in this campaign it’s the more convincing liar with all the momentum. There’s a moment in Monday night’s NewsHub leaders debate I’ve been thinking about all day. It’s right at the beginning when the debate moderator and NewsHub’s … Read more
Jai Breitnauer talks about shared parenting in the 21st Century when you’re a one mother, one father family. Long, long ago, in a hemisphere far, far away, there was a little girl called Jaime who liked red ribbons in her hair, grapes in her lunchbox and horse riding at the weekend. Every morning after a … Read more
The good news is that The Real Pod team are back to talk some guff about reality TV and real life in New Zealand. The better news is that Mayor Phil Goff is listening (?). This week on The Real Pod, we continue our hot streak as The Spinoff’s most hard-hitting political podcast by doing … Read more
Prime Minister Bill English made an unexpected commitment last night to cut the number of kids living in poverty by 50,000 over the next three years, and another 50,000 in the three years following. What exactly does he mean by that, asks Max Rashbrooke – and could his plan ever even work? When Bill English … Read more
Annabelle Lee, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire weigh up the first big Bill English v Jacinda Ardern clashes, the shock National target on child poverty, the claims of a massive hole in Labour’s numbers and the poll convulsions. Advance voting opens on Monday, and election day is less than three weeks away. Burning hot with … Read more
Everyone is talking about which party leader ‘won’ the first round of major leaders’ debate, but nobody is asking which debate ‘won’. Until now. Unlike every other audience trend in traditional media, the numbers actually increased on 2014 when the 1 News Leaders Debate aired last week. Drop your e-readers, stop the Snapchats and put down … Read more
Yesterday Steven Joyce claimed there was a giant hole in Labour’s books. We asked a lot of economists and accountants whether the claim was correct. Extraordinary elections bring out extraordinary accusations. Yesterday brought the most monumental of this election so far, when National’s finance boss Steven Joyce claimed to have found a $11.7bn hole in … Read more
With a line-up boasting everything from Miyazaki to Spike Lee, Dan Taipua suggests you look no further than Māori Television for the best in free-to-air movies. When Māori Television launched back in 2004, it brought to the viewing public a new channel for the promotion of te reo Māori me nga tikanga Maori (Māori language … Read more
Almost a hundred thousand people have explored the main parties’ policy platforms on Policy since it launched three weeks on the Spinoff. And now it has an amazing new feature, blinkers, which challenges users to select the policies they prefer without a party logo beside them. The response to Policy has been overwhelming, both in … Read more
In our video series Kiwis of Snapchat, comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens and luminaries making the news. Today: Green Party hopeful Robin McCandless heads out to meet the voters. Click here for all our Kiwis of Snapchat videos.
A memoir by Dave Armstrong about how he got it into his head to jump in his rusting Japanese car and spend six weeks covering the 1996 election campaign – and then wrote a book about it. During the first part of 1996 I had a job writing comedy sketches for a Wellington television company. … Read more
Bill English and Jacinda Ardern met this evening in their second big campaign set-piece, this time with Patrick Gower moderating. How did they fare? Ben Thomas: The drag race is on Jacinda Ardern’s second debate and probably her whole campaign could be summed up by her response to Bill English rattling off statistics about impressive … Read more
Steven Joyce and Grant Robertson traded hearty fiscal blows today. But what on earth were they on about? Over to you, Keith Ng. You think we’d all be numbed to the election year crayfest, but then comes an election year scandal to end all election year scandals: bad accounting! National and Labour’s finance spokespeople have … Read more
Last Friday night, The Others Way festival took over almost every music venue in the K’Rd area. Henry Oliver and Don Rowe were there. This is what they can remember about it. Henry Oliver: I arrived late, delayed by a busy parenting schedule and not-as-tired-as-they-should-be children, to see Tiny Ruins play at Galatos. She was … Read more
How would you earn your living if you and your child had a severe disability? One mother shares how she has found a job that makes her life just a little easier. I’m young, Māori and a sex worker, and my life is harder than you can imagine, but not for the reasons you’re thinking. … Read more
Tonight on Three at 8.30pm, Jacinda Ardern and Bill English meet again, in the first leaders’ debate since the other day. It’s a feature-length 90 minutes tonight, so here’s something to keep your energy up. We strongly advise using apple juice. Take a sip when you hear/see: Gower guffaws “Paddy” “The fact of the matter” … Read more
With the third season of Scottish time-travel romance Outlander swooping back to Lightbox next Monday, The Spinoff assembled a handy recap video to get you up to speed. One week to go until Outlander does the highland fling back onto Lightbox. Watch the two previous seasons exclusively below:
PL8spotting is a kind of urban trophy hunting where competitors shoot selfies with rare or exotic personalised plates. The sport’s inventor Henessey Griffiths counts down her personal favourite spots. Personalised plates are truly one of the most underappreciated art forms in our society. Whether it be a simple ‘XSAMYX’ or a witty pun like ‘NVRL8’, … Read more
Watching the New Zealand election from London, Jono Hutchison is getting a bit of déjà vu. What follows is a cautionary tale of two conservative governments picking fights with human rights. Bill English and Paula Bennett yesterday announced a big crackdown on methamphetamine and gangs. The plan came with a big price tag – $82 million … Read more
Jane Yee takes a hammer and nails to week 10 on The Block NZ, including bum tattoos and twin peaks/troughs. “Apparently a certain nationality quite likes it on the outside of the toilet” This is just one of the many lessons I learned during Entrance, Stairwell and Powder Room week on The Block, as well … Read more
In our video series Kiwis of Snapchat, comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens and luminaries making the news. Today: Bill and Paula may have finally hit on a way to show they’re as cool as Jacinda. Click here for all our Kiwis of Snapchat videos.
A New York Times feature on the new breed of Washington lobbyists lays bare the weird connection between the New Zealand embassy under Tim Groser and Robert Stryk, a Trump-connected political player. Catherine McGregor explains. The night of 20 January was a massive one on Washington DC’s party circuit, as Republican politicians, lobbyists and assorted hangers-on thronged … Read more
Pollwatch: An eagerly awaited Reid poll for Newshub gives National a slim lead, but the most fascinating numbers are NZ First’s. The Colmar Brunton / 1News poll on Thursday night that put Labour ahead of National for the first time in 12 years had heads spinning through the first leaders’ debate and deep into the night. But … Read more
National’s new policy giving police powers to search gang members’ houses at any time to check for weapons shows them returning to their base with a vengeance, writes Duncan Greive. For weeks now we have watched National struggle to know how to respond to the “Jacinda Effect”. It has floated dismissing a lack of substance … Read more
The party led by Te Ururoa Flavell and Marama Fox is at once clinging by a thread and on the brink of the balance of power. Morgan Godfery examines the crucial battlegrounds in the Māori seats Don Brash is waking each morning at 3am, cold sweat crawling across his face, and reaching for his iPhone. … Read more
TV3 has a new poll out tonight. Simon Wilson unpicks what it will mean for the different parties if that poll reinforces the trend to Labour revealed in TVNZ’s poll three days ago. Warning: this story contains some outrageously unprovable assumptions. Here’s an interesting proposition about the election outcome, based largely on one big assumption: … Read more