Was this the feted mother of all scandals? Is it the bastard son of Dirty Politics? How many of Bill English’s children were on the stage at the National launch? Is Bob your uncle? This and more in NZ’s top genealogy-based election podcast. Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee and Ben Thomas take a moment’s pause from … Read more
Following last night’s love fest, Tara Ward walks back down a very long aisle of dramatic Shortland Street nuptials. Romance flowed like a punctured box of cask wine on last night’s episode of Shortland Street, spilling its emotional load over Ferndale in a sparkly celebration of all things love and motorbikey. With the groom’s eternal … Read more
The Winston Peters superannuation affair has put National’s ‘no surprises’ rules for government ministries and departments in the spotlight. Good, says Ben Thomas: everyone should know just how rotten the policy has become. We can only imagine how the National Party would have reacted if it was Helen Clark’s office. A crisis meeting would be held … Read more
The radical reimagining of the suffragette movement, That Bloody Woman, is back for Auckland Live’s International Cabaret Season. Alex Casey spoke to Esther Stephens about her role as Kate Sheppard – and how, this year, Sheppard’s fight is more relevant than ever. The night before the nation votes in this year’s general election, the spirit … Read more
There is no more reliably rowdy candidate meeting than the one held just off Aro Street in Wellington. Danyl Mclauchlan puts on his waterproofs and heads to the hall. “Like Back Benches on mescaline,” is how MC Bryan Crump billed the 2017 Meet the Candidates evening at Aro Valley Community Centre. The meeting is famous … Read more
Researchers at Motu Institute have found that women who bring exactly the same value to a private firm as the men who work there are paid on average 16% less. Jess Berentson-Shaw considers what that means – and how the stubborn pay gap can be fixed. Whenever the gender pay gap is discussed in the … Read more
Queenstown’s growth has rapidly inflated house prices and rent; incomes not so much. Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust executive officer Julie Scott says we need to start thinking differently about the Kiwi dream. It’s worrying to hear the government state there’s no housing crisis in New Zealand. The 460 households on our waiting list disagree. … Read more
The next women’s Rugby World Cup should be defended by a team named the All Blacks, argues Jamie Wall. The Black Ferns won the World Cup on Sunday, beating England 42-31 in a highly entertaining advertisement for women’s rugby. Not only did it spark celebrations for an unprecedented fifth Rugby World Cup title, it also … Read more
Choosing to relegate te reo into a group of languages is an insulting breach of treaty obligations, revealing a serious lack of commitment to the revitalisation of the language, argues Graham Cameron. Among the key messages the National Party wanted to highlight from their 2017 election campaign launch was their proposed education policy package. The … Read more
The NZ election campaign coincides with a crunch time for the future of the Trans Pacific Partnership. In the absence of the US, attempts to renegotiate an 11-member TPP risk scuppering a deal that could bring enormous benefits to New Zealand, argues Stephen Jacobi, executive director of the NZ International Business Forum. Good ideas never … Read more
It’s not every day you can say you expressed milk in the presence of world leaders. Gemma Gracewood looks back at that time she breastfed at the United Nations in New York, and considers what it’s like to work while parenting in the world of film and TV. One of the things about being a … Read more
In the lead up to the election, comedians Melanie Bracewell and Angella Dravid take a journey through the voting process in Make Me Tick, The Spinoff’s four part video series with the Electoral Commission. Today, Melanie discovers the value of one vote. Whenever I talk about voting with my friends, they often say they can’t be … Read more
The New Zealand First leader is paid almost $200,000 a year in public money. Shouldn’t he be leading the conscientious objectors rather than claiming superannuation, asks Duncan Greive. This column was written in 2017, before Winston Peters was in government. As deputy prime minister, his salary is now $334, 734. The “mother of all scandals” … Read more
Jane Yee recaps the week on The Block NZ, including illuminating dart boards and an X Factor NZ cameo for the ages. Calling all penises! It was Garage Week on The Block and according to the male Blockheads, Mark Richardson and even bloody Jason Bonham, garages are all about guys, so basically it was a … Read more
Pete Douglas listens to the new Queens of the Stone Age album and discovers a band still finding ways to make rock n’ roll sound fresh. Over the course of the first fifteen years of their existence, Queens of the Stone Age at times seemed less like a band, and more like a broad banner … Read more
In the latest of our series that uses science to caption the parties’ campaign commercials, we examine National’s jogging sensation. In 2014, the National Party metaphor division pitted the blue people boat against the motley people boat, all to the tune of a pretty legal Eminemesque soundtrack. After three years of deep thinking and fresh … Read more
What does adolescence look like in New Zealand? Bloody teenagers. Always having a good time despite the deep boringness of New Zealand life. A new book on the history of Kiwi adolescence shows teenagers having fun in boring towns where they attend boring schools and get boring jobs; over 230 snapshots, plus writings taken from … Read more
The Spinoff presents the video premiere of ‘You’re So Cool’ by Jonathan Bree, and the video’s director of photography, Benjamin Zambo, explains how it was made. Jonathan pitched ‘You’re So Cool’ to me as a performance-based music video in the style of a mod era TV broadcast. We were both big fans of the 1960s and … Read more
Tired of clickbait and myth, Charles Anderson set out to find the real story behind New Zealand’s housing crisis, creating a major interactive documentary premiering on The Spinoff today, funded by New Zealand on Air. Perhaps we were masochists but we were under no illusions. When we set out to create a documentary about the … Read more
The National Party’s response to the new Labour challenge was laid out at their big event yesterday. Toby Manhire joins the blue sea in Henderson It was a family affair at the National Party campaign launch in west Auckland yesterday. Dr Mary English was alongside her husband all afternoon, and esteemed at length in his … Read more
Labour leader Jacinda Ardern visited Māngere and Ōtara on Saturday. Simon Wilson went along to see how big the wind is really blowing. What a storm in a shopping centre. Labour MP Aupito William Sio, who’s the big man in Māngere politics, introduced Jacinda Ardern in the Māngere Town Centre on Saturday morning. He said they’d had the Jacinda … Read more
When astrophysicist Jordan Alexander was given the chance to travel on the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy, he leapt at it. It was as if I’d become trapped in a cold, noisy, enormous, and super hi-tech elevator, filled with row upon row of technical equipment – including a telescope. The elevator was a 747 aircraft, converted … Read more
Alex Casey spends a night at the New Zealand Social Media Awards, and meets both the influencers at the top of the food chain, and those trying desperately to climb the ladder. Joel Thomas took the photos. A sales rep for Mitsubishi Electric specialising in heat pumps and refrigeration, Tama was proudly sporting a t-shirt … Read more
Following a stellar campaign, the Black Ferns play England in the Rugby World Cup final tomorrow. Former Black Fern Melodie Robinson urges the New Zealand Rugby Union to properly back the only major growth area in the sport in NZ. The future of the Black Ferns will be determined following Sunday morning’s Rugby World Cup … Read more
Our regular round-up of new songs and singles, featuring Taylor Swift’s return and an attempted relevance revival for Rod Stewart and Hot Chocolate… LEISURE – Alone Together Ahhhh Leisure, the sex gods of New Zealand music, and maybe the world. I think all of us except for killjoy Henry Oliver can agree the band’s self-titled … Read more
We continue serialising an epic essay from the New Zealand Initiative’s Eric Crampton, exploring what life is like in and out of New Zealand. Today: chapter five, on policing. Read chapters one and two here and chapters three and four here. Chapter 5: Policing “So are you going to come quietly,” shouted one of the cops again, “or … Read more
Traversing through the seven circles of hell that is social media has been made a journey of redemption this week, thanks to a beautiful, beautiful try at the Rugby World Cup. Madeleine Chapman breaks it down frame by frame. Is there anyone on this godforsaken planet who doesn’t enjoy a highlights video? It doesn’t matter … Read more
Right now the polls suggest Labour and National are sharing about 80% of the vote. If they draw level at 40% each, who will get into parliament and who will get thrown out? And what about the Greens? We’re not saying they’re going to get 40% each. But that does seem to be the number … Read more
The Spinoff and Spark proudly present Pod On The Couch, a weekly podcast exploring music and the people that make it. This episode: Henry Oliver talks to Leonie Hayden and Kate Robertson about the Silver Scrolls finalists. Spinoff Music editor Henry Oliver talks to Spinoff staffer Leonie Hayden and contributor Kate Robertson about the 2017 Silver Scrolls finalist … Read more