It’s one of the most high-profile, and marginal, electorates in the country, and is jam-packed with hospitality and retail businesses. So which Auckland Central haunts do the three front-runners like to frequent? This story was originally published by Ensemble What do your favourite things say about you? Where you buy your regular coffee? Where you … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 19, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other NZ news. The essential campaign dates are here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m on aliceneville@thespinoff.co.nz 6.30pm: The day … Read more
In the latest in our series chronicling the ins and outs of dating in 2020, Alie Benge explains her reliance on the ‘friend committee’ to judge the suitability of every love interest. Abby came to my desk in a panic. She was meeting Sia that weekend. For the first time, she’d be going on a … Read more
Labour says this will be the Covid election. National says it’s about the economy. There’s something big being missed in the middle, writes Justin Giovannetti. It was the week the economy took centre stage. The scene was set in the pre-election fiscal update, which on Wednesday offered a sobering snapshot of what’s happening under the … Read more
What do a mosque shooting victim in Christchurch and a Hollywood supermodel have in common? Anke Richter looks at the mental health fallout of cult-like conspiracy movements. Three weeks ago, I sat in the High Court in Christchurch for the sentencing of the mosque terrorist and listened to 91 victim impact statements over four days. … Read more
Netflix drama Ratched aims to rehabilitate the villain from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but would do better in the electric chair. Nurse Ratched is, quite rightly, one of the most famous movie villains of all time. The source of all of McMurphy’s despair and angst in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written … Read more
The Fold host Duncan Greive speaks to NZ On Air’s new chief executive Cameron Harland about his first six months in the job and the findings of the recent Where Are the Audiences? report. Cameron Harland started his new job as the chief executive of NZ On Air in March, the week before the country … Read more
Tara Ward chats to Farmer Harry, one of the Australian bachelors looking for love on reality series The Farmer Wants a Wife. All Farmer Harry wants is a woman as reliable as his John Deere tractor, and Farmer Wants a Wife might be the answer to his farmy prayers. A chaotic mix of The Bachelor … Read more
Covid-19 and its economic impacts have wreaked havoc on New Zealanders’ mental health – especially in the workplace. But amid all the chaos and noise, there are small ways to keep yourself present and calm. It’s been nearly a year since Covid-19 first emerged into our lives, and the devastating mental health effects of living … Read more
The former wetland of Cranford Basin was all set to create 400 new properties as part of an exciting, and much needed, regeneration plan in Christchurch. Three years on, the land remains empty. What went wrong? Picture this: it’s the year 2020. In the north of Christchurch, the first of over 400 sections are being … Read more
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Hope in Hell: A Decade to Confront the Climate Emergency by Jonathon Porritt (Simon & Schuster, $38) Consider it a … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 18, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other NZ news. The essential campaign dates are here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 4.00pm: NZ First … Read more
The challenges of postnatal depression are increasingly part of our conversations around birth. But too often the mental distresses encountered while pregnant are misunderstood or unspoken. I didn’t know about antenatal anxiety until I had it. I’d been concerned about postnatal depression, and prepared to handle it as best I could. But I’d never heard … Read more
A new poem from Dunedin poet Emer Lyons. Elegy for God’s Own Country i too remember the sea of my insides waving at my face but why would anyone want to tame a magpie? it was during the gorse burn the intimacy of your hands as delicate as with new born lambs i’m afraid of … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Long forecast recession finally arrives, NZ First releases list for election, and scramble to come up with gathering guidelines for Auckland tertiary institutes. It almost doesn’t make sense to call this news, but the country has officially tipped over into recession. The reason it’s entirely unsurprising is … Read more
They might agree on a lot, but the minor party scene is being roiled by conflict around the emergence of Advance NZ. And as Alex Braae reports, the Outdoors Party has suffered many casualties. With the election rapidly approaching, the Outdoors Party has been hit by a wave of candidate defections. But it’s not just … Read more
Each week in the lead-up to the election, The Side Eye cartoonist Toby Morris is going to teach us how to draw a different New Zealand politician. This week, it’s the leader of the opposition. Click here for the rest of the How to draw series. Click here for the rest of the How to … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 17, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other NZ news. The essential campaign dates are here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7pm: The day … Read more
Te reo Māori is a taonga and the government of this country is compelled under the Treaty of Waitangi to protect it. So how do the campaign policies of our political parties stack up? In 1985, the Waitangi Tribunal report on the Wai 11 te reo claim found that article two of the Treaty of … 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. This week he talks to Dr Ju Zhang, CEO of Formus Labs. Hip and knee replacements are fairly common surgeries, but you’d be … Read more
An extract from Across the Risen Sea, the new climate-fiction novel from junior fiction superstar Bren MacDibble. We’re off the coast of Australia. Survivors of a calamitous sea-level rise live in small island settlements, gardening and fishing and scavenging in wet-to-the-waist skyscrapers. There are sinkholes, storms and massive sharks, and lots of crocs. In this … Read more
Ehara i te mea kua whakaturehia te kawenga kia aro ki Te Tiriti o Waitangi i te rāngai tūmataiti pēnei tonu i te rāngai tūmatanui. Heoi anō rā, e rongo ana te ao pakihi i ngā kura mātauranga ka hua ake i te tika o te mahi ngātahi ki te Māori. Read the English language … Read more
Engaging with Te Tiriti o Waitangi isn’t mandated in the private sector like it is in the public sector. But businesses are discovering the wealth of knowledge to be found through meaningful engagement with Māori. Read the Māori language version of this story here. Embracing te ao Māori represents an opportunity for New Zealand businesses … Read more
New Zealand’s economy is officially in a recession, with statistics released today revealing a record 12.2% decline in GDP. But as Jarrod Kerr of Kiwi Economics writes, it’s now time to focus on recovery. As economists, we love trawling through data. But we’ve never seen anything like this. This is traumatic. Service exports were stonewalled, … Read more
Activist and former politician Sue Bradford has been called an ‘angry radical’ most of her life. Leonie Hayden caught up with her to find out how she uses that anger for good. Watch On the Rag: Anger (full episode) here When I was tasked with thinking of women I admire that have been called “angry” … Read more
The U-turn follows statements from Ashley Bloomfield about expectations under current Covid-19 settings and outcry among students, writes Cameron Leakey. The University of Auckland has reversed a decision to return to on-campus teaching next Monday. It follows statements yesterday by the director general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, which questioned the university class size limit of … Read more
As much of Auckland Council grapples with slashed budgets, one department has avoided major cuts and is enticing investment into South and West Auckland, Justin Latif reports. Covid came at just the worst time for Geoff McKay. The Māngere-based concreter had his van and all his tools stolen a week prior to the lockdown and, … Read more
Campaign groups are trying to get issues around the welfare system, housing and poverty onto the election agenda. Alex Braae was in Wellington to see a deeply frustrating debate play out. Many election forums give politicians plenty of room to speak about whatever they want. But at a forum on inequality, the onus was reversed, … Read more
The uncertainty of Covid-19 has resulted in an explosion of online and phone-based scams. Here’s what the experts recommend to identify and defend yourself against these insidious rackets. It begins with a phone call. A tech support expert from your bank is on the line, urgently informing you there’s been a security breach with your … Read more