Following a remarkable press conference by the Chief of the Defence Force, we point to the critical disputes about what took place during the 2010 NZ-led raid in Baghlan Province, Afghanistan. Starkly differing versions of events over what took place in a 2010 NZ-led raid in Afghanistan have been put forward by the authors of … Read more
Our regular round-up of new songs and singles, this week featuring Kendrick Lamar, Chuck Berry, Gorillaz, Blondie, Zayn and more… SONG OF THE WEEK Kendrick Lamar – ‘The Heart Part IV’ Kendrick vs Trump Coming along sooner than anyone expected, Kendrick Lamar’s new single is closer to the triumphant West-Coast anthems on good kid, m.A.A.d. … Read more
Spinoff Parents editor Emily Writes shares the fibs she tells at coffee groups to make her seem like a better parent than she really is. Being a parent is hard. Sometimes we lie to make it feel like it’s easier. It’s not a mean-spirited lie. It’s a fib to help us cope. There are no performance … Read more
In an interview with The Spinoff, Bill English said that he didn’t claim to be a feminist, because to do so amounted to ‘virtue signalling’. Former mayoral contender and current Greens candidate Chlöe Swarbrick says it is part of a wider problem Doom and gloom. The world’s getting hotter, relative inequality is rising, housing is … Read more
After watching both Adele and Justin Bieber storm Mt Smart Stadium one week apart, Alex Casey puts the pop heavyweights head to head. Last week I traveled back and forth to Mt Smart, more than any human should ever have to, all in the name of pop music megastars Adele and Justin Bieber. Among the flurry … Read more
After a brief flurry of media interest, the revelation that prisoners had been tied to their beds for up to 16 hours a day has quickly faded from the public consciousness. But that’s par for the course when prison inmates are routinely dehumanised, says Roger Brooking. Three weeks ago, the Ombudsman Peter Boshier issued a … Read more
Ever wanted to try out comedy? Ever wanted to be scared off doing comedy forever? We asked a few comedians for their tips on doing stand-up comedy for the first time. “Don’t bother trying hard, because you will just get your period in the finals and lose to someone from Wellington.” – Billy T winner Rose … Read more
Spinoff editor Duncan Greive looks back at rent week, a pop-up campaign which laid bare the numerous and vicious problems with renting in New Zealand. We first mooted a Spinoff ‘rent week’ in late 2016. It was based on the idea that the stories of home ownership were being told constantly, but the challenges and … Read more
The Chief of the NZ Defence Force, Lieutenant General Tim Keating, has wholesale rejected Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson’s account of events in their book Hit & Run (read a summary of its contents here), saying NZ troops have never operated in the villages where, according to the book, at least six civilians were killed. Hager … Read more
As more and more young and vulnerable people are locked out of the market, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has declared war on bad landlords, releasing their tenancy compliance team into the wild. Don Rowe talks to their leader. Some time during Rent Week, it might have been around the time a doctor … Read more
Compiling the best reading from your friendly local website, featuring a lot of rent week and Hit and Run. A Landlord: I’m a landlord – but the negligence and greed of other landlords makes me ashamed to admit it “And lucky, lucky us. It has cost us nothing, not a red cent of our own … Read more
Rent week: a reader shares the story of her struggles to buy a house. She’s done everything you’re supposed to do as an aspirant home-owner – yet the banks won’t lend to her. Here she shares her story. I’m one of what I presume are many embittered twenty-somethings who feel like Stuff and NZHerald are … 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: The Naked and Famous keyboardist, and Space Above founder, Aaron Short. Spinoff Music editor Henry Oliver talks to Naked and Famous keyboardist and producer Aaron Short about touring with Blink 182 and his new … Read more
The Spinoff Music team review albums from Drake, Laura Marling, Spiral Stairs and James Blunt. ALBUM OF THE WEEK Drake – More Life What you’ll be dancing to this weekend A few years ago, as the recording industry was drowning in free mp3s, I told a friend who works at one of the Big Three record labels … Read more
Adam Goodall has cast off all his familial attachments in favour of a new tribe of loved ones, the Fire Emblem Heroes – a game so addictive he’s calling for the mobile game of the year award to be conferred early. It’s been a couple of weeks since I last called my parents. Truth be … Read more
Economist Shamubeel Eaqub’s ‘Generation Rent’ helped quantify the massive changes to the way New Zealanders owned and rented in 2015. Here he looks at what can be don to fix the problems that created. The statistics are clear: fewer Kiwis are living in their own home – more Kiwis are renting. The home ownership rate … Read more
Have a question about renting? The CAB, the independent service which helps the public understand their rights and obligations, is here to help. We asked them for some tips for anyone who rents (or lets) property, and this is what they told us. Tenancy agreements A tenancy must be covered by a written tenancy agreement. … Read more
On Monday we asked for your renting stories, good and bad, and the response so far has been overwhelming. This is the third and final installment – for now (read part one here and part two here). Better Call Saul‘s Bob Odenkirk rented before he was famous: I lived in the basement of an apartment building. … Read more
Charlotte Fielding wants another child. In this, the final in a four-part series, she writes about the end of her attempt to use the dating app Tinder in an attempt to complete her family. Read part one and part two and part three if you haven’t already. Alright, time to end the suspense. The things I have written … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. 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. News broke recently that Callaghan Innovation has a new boss. Callaghan Innovation … Read more
Don Henley from the Eagles played a gig at the Vector Arena in Auckland on Thursday night. Steve Braunias was there, and he reviewed it in a single paragraph tapped out on a bus trip today. As soon as Don Henley started playing Hotel California in the encore of his show on Thursday night at … Read more
The Spinoff Auckland editor Simon Wilson loathed Wednesday night’s Rufus Wainwright concert. But onwards: this weekend at the Auckland Arts Festival looks to be full of wonders. There was a moment about halfway through Rufus Wainwright’s vainglorious “symphonic visual concert” Prima Donna (a concert version of his opera) when I thought the diva might be … Read more
Jess McAllen takes a tour through the Tenancy Tribunal’s decisions to find bleak scenes of landlords and letting agents running amok. It’s a tale as old as time: treating yourself to a succulent chicken rotisserie from New World on Sunday night and putting the other half in the fridge for Monday sandwiches. But what happens … Read more
From the Māori-Mana deal to the Labour no-list gambit, short-sighted strategies risk excluding Māori voters from the conversation about Māori aspirations, writes Graham Cameron The popular analogy for the Māori seats in the last year has been Game of Thrones. However, outside the number of kingdoms and the genuine dislike people seem to have for … Read more
The internet has been buzzing over the fact that a guy made a toad some hats. Natasha Hoyland needed to know more. More than more, she needed to know why. So she tracked him down in Alabama and asked. You may have seen some images circulating around the net lately. Specifically, some images of a toad wearing … Read more
Rent Week continues with Alex Casey on the woes of owning a pet as a renter, and ways you can convince landlords that furry flatmates are fine. Here is a concise list of things I have managed to do inside my home as a human adult woman: 1) Tripped down the stairs holding a giant … Read more
Today we’re celebrating Rent Week with some cold hard facts and figures. Test your knowledge of the New Zealand rental market below. Having trouble viewing the quiz? Take it here. This post is part of Rent Week, a series about why the experience of renting a home in NZ is so terrible, and whether anything can … Read more
In celebration of Rent Week, Calum Henderson watches the hilariously bleak docu-series Renters and finds Kiwi comedy gold. On the face of it, the TVNZ 2’s Renters show seems to exist solely to reinforce every negative stereotype about tenants in the Evil Landlord Handbook. It cynically takes all the worst and most extreme examples of bad … Read more
Over three nights from Friday 31 March, Auckland’s Classic Comedy Bar will host an exceptional line up of comedians donating their time and talent to raise money for three worthy causes. Sam Brooks sat down with organiser and MC Ben Hurley to talk about it. Ben Hurley (7 Days) has gathered a posse of like-minded … Read more