The great Australian writer Tim Winton talks to Linda Herrick. Australian writer Tim Winton has dedicated his new book of essays The Boy Behind the Curtain to his mum and dad, now in their 80s. His subjects include surfing, asylum seekers, and other issues in the wider world, but a stand-out essay in the collection is … Read more
My boyfriend was meant to have surgery today to prevent further paralysis. For us, the stakes in the doctors’ strike could hardly be higher, writes Laura Taylor My partner and I are two twenty-something students who, in a surreal turn of events, for the past year and a half have found ourselves up close and … Read more
When it was scrapped in 2000, teachers and parents thought they’d seen the last of bulk funding, the hugely unpopular scheme for funding schools. Now it might be back. Donna Eden, a teacher with 20 years’ experience and a mother of two, explains why that’s a terrible idea. The first I knew about this bulk … Read more
Last week Metro editor-at-large Simon Wilson hosted a Spinoff debate at Auckland’s Ika Seafood Restaurant about the future of the Labour Party. But does the party have a future at all? He’s not convinced. The Unitary Plan debate in Auckland opened another faultline in the progressive movement, just in case you didn’t have enough to … Read more
This is Auckland, where new money meets old. Alex Casey is going to try and laugh at The Real Housewives of Auckland through her weekly power rankings – because if we can’t laugh then all we have is the void. Click here for previous instalments. This episode started so calmly and innocuously, with Gilda having a comical altercation with … Read more
In this week’s final episode of #realpod, Jane, Duncan and Alex discuss cats, pigeons, and what’s next in a life without Real Housewives. With Alex currently wearing face masks in Japan, the team assembled last week (whoah) to discuss episode ten of The Real Housewives of Auckland, a week that saw multiple cats being thrown amongst … Read more
Known for over a decade as a social pages fixture and little else, Gilda Kirkpatrick blazed into sharp relief on the just-completed first season of Real Housewives of Auckland. Duncan Greive sat down and drank a bottle of wine with her for On the Lash, our interview series brought to you by Australian wine geniuses Vinomofo. Photography … Read more
This can either read as a huge list of thank you notes to those who joined the fight for Auckland’s soul, or if you’re Richard Burton or Mike Lee, a list of enemy collaborators. The War For Auckland began as a dark kernel of Duncan Greive’s rage. Our Spinoff Net Tsar spent most of 2016 … Read more
You think convicted drink driver Adam Holland sounds like an arsehole? It gets worse. Janie Cameron explains. Self-described “anarchist” and Auckland mayoral candidate Adam Holland has been convicted of driving at five times the blood alcohol limit after he rear-ended a stationary car with a mother and two young children inside, TVNZ reported yesterday. “Everybody … Read more
As shows like The Bachelor and First Dates finally make their way to New Zealand screens, Zoe Scheltema presents the wonderfully bad dating shows of the United Kingdom. When you mention the UK these days, people are most likely screaming about Brexit and immigration and Kiwis being banned from doing an OE or whatever is happening re: that. But among … Read more
Margo White reviews the greatest novel ever written from the point of view of an opinionated and somewhat pompous foetus – Nutshell, by Ian McEwan. We might as well start with the novel’s memorable opening sentence: “So here I am, upside down in a woman.” Ian McEwan has said the sentence came to him when … Read more
What is it like to raise your children in a country where people are openly hostile to you because of your race? Natasha Johnson looks back on her own childhood experiences of racism and speaks directly to people of colour living in Aotearoa. I’m sure this will be uncomfortable reading for some, but Natasha’s words … Read more
They say everyone has a book in them – even assorted Real Housewives – but how many of us actually get published? And how healthy is the industry that supports our novelists, poets and non-fiction writers? Two charts from Figure.NZ take a closer look. For more data on the New Zealand publishing industry, check out … Read more
Trish Harris developed acute arthritis when she was six. In this extract from her memoir The Walking Stick Tree, she ponders her relationship with her lifelong worst enemy – pain. How do children cope with pain? How does anyone live with it? How did I manage it, survive it, and what about now? When I was growing … Read more
Tara Ward brings you her rankings for Shortland Street last week, including super-yacht surgery, love triangles, and the arrival of a brand new cocky doctor. 1) Drew: oh Captain, my Captain Talk about better work stories: “Kylie, remember that time we were cooking tenderloins and were suddenly taken hostage on that super-yacht? With the anaesthelogist who … Read more
Despite all the headlines bemoaning apathy over local body elections, voter turnout is on the rise in Wellington. Jeremy Baker, communications director at Wellington City Council, sticks the boot into traditional media and trumpets the council’s polarising ‘Declare Your Love’ campaign. Last week Bryce Edwards, the high-profile political commentator and academic, announced he didn’t vote … Read more
Baby not sleeping? Feeling like you’re gradually going insane yourself through lack of shut-eye? Never fear, Spinoff Parents editor Emily Writes is here to help. Getting your baby to go to sleep is quite simple. All you need to do is change your diet, their diet, your environment, your lifestyle, and be prepared to rid … Read more
Blaming homelessness on bad choices misses the core of the problem – we created the circumstances that allow such deprivation to flourish, Moira Lawler of Lifewise tells the Spinoff. Images of families living in cars and dilapidated garages thrust the plight of homeless people into headlines in 2016. One of the groups at the sharp … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Natalya King: Aaron Smith got screwed – and Stuff could end up getting sued “In the legal sense, an invasion of privacy is the “highly offensive” disclosure of private facts. That is, if Aaron had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the facts … Read more
This week Ms X advises a letter writer who can’t stand her flatmate – but suspects she might be the problem, not him. Hi Ms X, I have a weird dilemma about my flatmate and would love some advice. Our new flatmate has been living with us for a few months now, and I don’t … Read more
The decision to use medication to treat depression is an individual one – what’s best for one person may not be so for another. Julia Kerr explains why antidepressants are the right choice for her, in a special post to mark Mental Health Awareness Week. It takes guts to talk about the things people don’t … Read more
To mark the release of a new online film about intelligence agencies and privacy, seven New Zealand artists reflect on self-censorship in the surveillance age. As many as 11% of Yahoo Chat conversations involve naked participants. That is what British surveillance agency GCHQ discovered while testing their surveillance powers in the operation “Optic Nerve”. While … Read more
It’s late on a Friday afternoon and the weekend beckons – what better time to test your knowledge of occupations and employment in New Zealand? Having trouble viewing the quiz? Take it here.
New verse by New Plymouth poet Elizabeth Smither The heart heals itself between beats When the Middlesex Hospital was coming down I walked through empty corridors to the chapel and stood behind a rood screen, admiring self-sacrificing matrons and eminent surgeons. The heart heals itself between beats. The heart heals itself between beats. … Read more
A Wellington school’s use of a ‘seclusion room’ to isolate autistic children has been dismissed by officials as a sorry aberration. But the school cell speaks to a much bigger problem with special education in New Zealand, says Giovanni Tiso, the father of two children with autism. There are few things more distressing and painful … Read more
The Spinoff presents TGI Funny Girls, an exclusive look at a brand new Funny Girls sketch every Friday. Season two of Funny Girls is well underway and the Spinoff are proud to present a first look at one of the sketches featuring in tonight’s episode. ‘Stuck for life’ is a parody of a family sitcom with an … Read more
The weekly best-seller chart at Unity stores in Wellington and Auckland, for the week just ended: October 14 WELLINGTON STORE 1 Broken Decade: Prosperity, Depression & Recovery in NZ 1928-39 (Otago University Press, $50) by Malcolm McKinnon Meticulous new study. 2 Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, $25) by Hera Lindsay Bird “Take me out … Read more
Beauty pagents are often thought of as outdated, superficial and sexist. Lucky nobody told the folk at Miss Universe New Zealand, who recently gathered twenty of the country’s most beautiful women together to compete for a sparkly tiara and a huge bunch of flowers. Miss Universe NZ 2016 was a bizarre old night. The audience screamed like they were … Read more
What is it about being childless by choice that seems to invite everyone you know – and a few you don’t – to weigh in? Elizabeth Heritage, for one, has had enough. Earlier this year I wrote about being happily childfree by choice and it hit a nerve. One of the things I learned from … Read more