Every day this week the Spinoff Review of Books is publishing a new poem in the build-up to the Phantom Billstickers national poetry day on Friday. Today: ‘Ascend’ by Bart English Ascend Inspired by Maya Angelou’s “A caged bird” I look Up at the sky And wish that I could fly, To grow … Read more
For better – and sometimes for worse – Colin Meads had a near matchless influence on rugby. Jamie Wall charts his influence. New Zealand and the rugby world is in mourning after the passing of the iconic Sir Colin Meads, a man who transcended both the sport he played and the society he lived in. … Read more
Spinoff Parents editor Emily Writes considers the things that are important to know when you’re a little human being trying to make your way in the world. My four-year-old has an almost insatiable desire to know everything there is to know about the human body. He has seen every cartoon guide to the body on … Read more
He leaves office largely unloved, but MP Peter Dunne did more than most New Zealanders realise. Russell Brown goes in to bat for the undercover drug reformer. I have spent a surprising amount of time in the past few years defending Peter Dunne. And given that the lightning response to the news of his retirement … Read more
Every day this week the Spinoff Review of Books is publishing a new poem in the build-up to the Phantom Billstickers national poetry day on Friday. Today: ‘The Dogs of Talimatau’ by Selina Tusitala Marsh The Dogs of Talimatau (for Uncle Siva) My son finds a tail on the lawn a paw on the drive … Read more
The election has thus far been dominated by Metiria Turei’s admission of historic benefit fraud, and its impact on both Labour and the Greens. But Dr Lance O’Sullivan argues that the conversation about welfare Turei wanted to start never really happened. I’m a product of a beneficiary, of a welfare dependant family. My mum was … 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 new four part video series with the Electoral Commission. Today, Angella contemplates the branches of government. I went to St Patrick’s School up until the age of 12. I … Read more
The latest party leader to be eaten by this election is Mr Ōhāriu. From the worm to the planking, thanks for the memories, writes Toby Manhire Three of the seven parties in the New Zealand parliament have seen a leader quit in the last three windswept weeks. Peter Dunne, leader of United Future and one … Read more
Three All Blacks who were there the day Sir Colin Meads famously played on with a broken arm recall the game for RNZ Eyewitness producer Justin Gregory. This story was first published in 2016. All Blacks first five-eighth Earle Kirton has always blamed himself for the broken arm that Sir Colin ‘Pinetree’ Meads suffered on the … Read more
Still feeling the chill? Tara Ward assembles some of the best fashions on Lightbox to warm the cockles of your cold heart. It’s International Fashion Day, everyone! If you’re sitting on your couch in your favourite pyjamas with the elastic waistband and the ripped crotch, eating stale pretzels and wondering how you can give such … Read more
Freshwater is fast becoming one of the hottest topics ahead of the September vote. What are the main policy differences when it comes to ownership, pricing and exportation? Nicole Buxeda dips her toe in This post is the first in the Policy A Day series which launches today at Andrew Chen’s Mashed Calculus and Differential … Read more
All week this week the Spinoff Review of Books devotes itself to poetry in the build-up to Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day on Friday. Today: an essay by the remarkable Helen Hogan, who brought poetry to a generation of young New Zealanders. In 1971, I edited an anthology of New Zealand poetry for secondary school … Read more
Climate change is going to dramatically disfigure New Zealand’s economy, cutting up to half our GDP, according to fund manager Lance Wiggs. The good news? We have a chance to lead in a new low-carbon world – or we could do nothing and perhaps see our economy, and society, collapse. Sometimes the future is easy … Read more
Buildings in Wellington that once housed almost 150 people have lain empty for five years, even as an intensifying housing crisis has rendered 40,000 Kiwis homeless – including hundreds of Wellingtonians. How did it happen? Marc Daalder explains. In 1959, as construction of The Terrace Flats in Wellington neared completion, the building’s architect died. His … Read more
The Town Hall campaign launch underlined the startling turnaround for the party under Jacinda Ardern, and the palpable power of momentum, writes Toby Manhire. The understatement of the day came from Jacinda Ardern herself. “I can only say that when we booked the Town Hall for this event we did not expect this,” she said, … Read more
Danyl McLauchlan writes an epic and extraordinary essay drawing threads from the past and present of political history and discourse and various books that, he says, ‘might be peripherally relevant to the 2017 General Election but to be honest probably won’t be’. This story first ran in the leadup to the 2017 election ‘Because you … Read more
When Jeremy Clarkson left Top Gear in 2015, the show seemed doomed. Yet it soldiers on, boring but unbowed, while Clarkson’s profile is much diminished. Duncan Greive asks whether the fading of Clarkson, Paul Henry and Bill O’Reilly means the end of an era looms for a particular species of male broadcaster. Jeremy Clarkson, most recently … Read more
For nearly 25 years Dr Fiona Measham has documented how and why humans do drugs. She spoke to Simon Day about how helping people know what exactly they’re taking is making doing drugs safer in the UK. For all of human history we’ve loved getting intoxicated. Almost every society, tribe and culture has taken drugs … Read more
Climate change is the defining challenge of our times. The Spinoff is devoting a week of coverage to the issue, its advocates, complexities, and solutions. Today, former President of Kiribati Anote Tong says that while the rest of the world ignores the gradual onset of climate change, the lives of Pacific peoples are already being … Read more
Living in New Zealand and focusing on our very real social issues, it’s easy to forget that there are many things we do quite well. Or, to put it another way, that things are frequently a lot worse in other countries, even advanced prosperous ones. Over the next couple of weeks we serialise an epic … Read more
Our regular round-up of new songs and singles, this week featuring Neil Finn, P!nk, Robert Plant, Kings and more… SONG OF THE WEEK Neil Finn – ‘Second Nature’ The second single from Neil’s month-long live-streaming project Every Friday this month, Neil Finn and a handful of his friends have been getting together to rehearse and … Read more
Not content with plastering billboards and bus stations in the real world, fast food giant Wendy’s are inserting themselves inside virtual worlds too. It’s a trend that makes Don Rowe feel nauseous. Anyone halfway familiar with the term microtransaction is well aware that many of the entities which slither about the swamp we call the … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores known to God. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Strange Beautiful Excitement: Katherine Mansfield’s Wellington 1888-1903 by Redmer Yska (Otago University Press, $40) Brilliant retracing of KM’s footsteps when she lived in Wellington. Charlotte Grimshaw’s review is due to run in The Spinoff Review of Books any day now. 2 A Moral … Read more
Welcome to Top of the Pile, a gaming series in which the participants are forced to play a game at the top of the ‘just released’ list. This ep, watch as a cuddly Portuguese man singlehandedly takes down his hapless co-host in a contest of skill and grit: the classic just re-released football game Super … Read more
If it’s your last speech in parliament, you might as well throw a little shade around, right? Sam Brooks reads the politicians’ farewell addresses so you don’t have to. When the Spinoff politics editor asked if anybody would be keen to pull out some of the best lines from the recent lineup of parliamentary valedictory speeches, … Read more
Connor Mcleod is a youth worker and activist with InsideOUT, an organisation that is trying to make New Zealand a safer place for our children. He’s calling on parents to help in this vital and important work. Young people of minority sexualities and genders need our help and support. Our young people are out there … Read more
Global warming is a fact, it’s caused by humans, and it’s going to change our world. Oh, and one more truth: you may never be able to convince your libertarian, climate change-denying uncle otherwise. Dave Hansford explores the psychology of denial. The annals of inaction — the long, sorry history of human inertia — are … Read more
New Zealand and Australia have always enjoyed a well, special, sporting relationship. But if this week has proved anything it is that the Wallabies and the All Blacks barely have a relationship at all any more, writes Scotty Stevenson. Once upon a time this was the contest that defined rugby in this part of the … Read more
New Zealand has a long history of introducing foreign insect predators to control crop pests and weeds. How risky is that? Thanks to a lack of long-term monitoring of our native insect populations, nobody really knows, explains the University of Auckland’s Margaret Stanley. “Is there any evidence that an introduced insect, other than a social … Read more