All this week on The Spinoff we’re delving into broadcasting legend Mike Hosking’s unique position in New Zealand culture. First up, Pete Douglas delves into his complicated relationship with Hosking, and interviews his father about the family connection which helped create the multimedia monster we know today. Growing up in suburban Wellington I was often … Read more
The housing minister insists the government is limited to getting ‘the incentives’ right. But there’s plenty more they could do. And there’s only one Auckland mayoral candidate with a policy solution, writes Geoff Simmons. The average price of a house in Auckland is predicted to pass $1m when official figures are released later this week. … Read more
In the second post from our new collaboration with Figure.NZ, a glance at the proportion of women bosses in New Zealand, plus how the numbers look in higher education. Last week Alex Casey spoke to Tara Moss, “activist, author, journalist and very cool legend” about her book Speaking Out, and why women have been so … Read more
Time to face facts – artificial intelligence will transform our world. Oliver Carlé, for one, is ready to welcome our new robot overlords. A month ago the NZ Herald ran the hair-raising headline “The robots are coming, should we be worried?” Under it were some alarming stats, like an Oxford University study suggesting 47% of … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Duncan Greive: Real Housewives of Auckland is brilliant and utterly appalling “How you respond to the show will depend entirely on whether you can ignore the grotesquerie it represents for long enough to revel in the very real pleasures it provides. My gut … Read more
Patient autonomy is crucial, but the belief it should trump all other considerations should be viewed with caution, writes Medical Association chair Stephen Child. Dr Stephen Child will join David Seymour and others as part of next week’s Spinoff-Ika Table Talk, hosted by Jeremy Elwood, on August 30. More details here. The issue of voluntary … Read more
Polling expertise from David Farrar and insightful chats on the mayoral race, the council budget and tensions between the government and Super City. All that and more on the latest War for Auckland podcast. Joining marine commandos Toby Manhire and Hayden Donnell in the fourth War for Auckland podcast are the Auckland Central MP and … Read more
The best-seller chart at Unity Books for the week just ended: August 26 AUCKLAND STORE 1 White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World (Text, $37) Geoff Dyer Reliably unreliable narratives. 2 Things That Matter: Stories of Life & Death from an Intensive Care Specialist (Allen & Unwin, $37) by Dr David Galler Op lit. 3 The Girls (Chatto & … 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. How do companies that don’t have an innovation mindset get one? What … Read more
For over 16 years one of New Zealand’s greatest trans-Tasman triumphs has been overshadowed by one of our most crushing rugby losses. Jamie Wall remembers the day TrueBliss absolutely owned Bardot in a pre-Bledisloe Cup national anthem sing-off. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game … Read more
To mark National Poetry Day, Steve Braunias reveals his correspondence with one of the world’s most celebrated poets. A few weeks ago I thought: hm I know, let’s see if any of the world’s most well-known living poets will write a poem for the Spinoff Review of Books. I drew up a list and got in … Read more
Racists, body shamers and wannabe pickup artists: This week, Ms. X shares some terrible Tinder profiles supplied by you, her readers. Hello Callers, Cast your minds back a few weeks, when I butted into a Tinder conversation between reader ‘Linda’ and a gentleman whom I christened, for admittedly obscure reasons, ‘Guilty Denver’. Seemingly inspired by … Read more
Test yourself on our new weekly quiz immediately, so you can say you were there before it was cool. Earlier in the week, we launched the first Spinoff-Figure.NZ feature, in the form of the Chart of the Week. Today, the chart’s evil twin: the quiz. And in a week that the government announced plans to … Read more
A Spinoff/SSI poll shows National’s support slipping in Auckland. Tim Murphy looks at why the blue tide might be going out in our biggest city (Hint: it has something to do with a housing Apocalypse). One intriguing result from this week’s Spinoff-SSI poll of voters is that the Government’s lead in the party vote has fallen considerably … Read more
Alex Casey interviews Tara Moss, author of Speaking Out, on why women still need to fight to have their voices heard. Tara Moss is an activist, author, journalist and very cool legend. I devoured her latest book Speaking Out from cover to cover, desperately trying to absorb all of her scorching takes on where women’s voices are at … Read more
Hold onto your hoodies as José Barbosa hacks into the astounding hidden gems of Mr Robot. Get out your magnifying glass and search for more hidden clues by watching Mr Robot, exclusively available on Lightbox This content, like all television coverage we do at The Spinoff, is brought to you thanks to the excellent folk at … Read more
Steve Braunias runs deep surveillance on the judges of the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Here come de judge! A dozen of them, as the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards today announces the “12 eminent academics, writers, journalists, librarians, curators, commentators and booksellers” who will judge next year’s awards. Writers who are eligible … Read more
Former New Zealand Herald editor Gavin Ellis claims New Zealanders are sleepwalking through an all-out assault on their democratic rights. Ben Thomas thinks Gavin Ellis should chill out a bit. “The country in which we live is not quite as free as we like to think,” warns former New Zealand Herald editor Gavin Ellis, who ditched the … Read more
Stephen Daisley will speak in Christchurch and Dunedin this weekend about his novel Coming Rain, which won the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards book of the year. But is it actually any good? Owen Marshall slips on his gown and his powdered wig, and passes judgment. The strongest and best expressed relationships in Stephen Daisley’s award-winning … Read more
Alex Casey talks to TV writer and author Steve Hely ahead of his appearance this weekend in the WORD Christchurch festival. Steve Hely has written for some of the most iconic television comedies of the golden TV era, so it was only fitting that I give him a call whilst wearing a Liz Lemon-style slanket … Read more
Apartments: long has the debate raged over whether building them would destroy Auckland. Today a special Spinoff pictorial exposé can reveal they’re already here – and loads of them are fantastic. Photography by Rebecca Zephyr Thomas. Story based on research by Catherine Smith. Nothing scares a certain kind of veteran Aucklander more than an apartment. … Read more
Craig Sisterson interviews exciting new crime writer Ray Berard, a hot favourite to win one or even two Ngaio Marsh Awards in Christchurch this weekend. The giant driver of the battered Bluebird didn’t need to screech the tyres or slam the door to announce his presence as he parked on Pukuatua Street in Rotorua. Unfolding himself from … Read more
In the second episode of our Real Housewives of Auckland podcast, Jane, Duncan and Alex assemble on the swing day bed to dissect the first week of New Zealand’s greatest reality show. The Housewives are in full swing this week, the drama spiralling out of control faster than Michelle’s handrail-free staircase. Luckily, the #realpod team are … Read more
Opposition among disabled people to assisted suicide stems from long experience of encountering negative attitudes and human rights abuses, writes Robyn Hunt. I assure David Seymour that assisted suicide is a really big and complicated deal. It is no coincidence that disabled people all over the world oppose it. Our opposition arises from a (largely … Read more
The Spinoff/SSI survey reveals the extraordinary impact of housing crisis on residents of New Zealand’s biggest city – and the extent to which Aucklanders blame foreign speculation. There is a housing crisis in Auckland, and it has already bitten hard across the city, according to the latest results from polling conducted by SSI for the Spinoff … Read more
This is Auckland, where new money meets old. Alex Casey is going to try and laugh atThe 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 the first instalment. 1) Marley Blanchard Just when you thought Real Housewives couldn’t get any … Read more
Turns out that the people of Auckland think the blueprint for the future of the city is pretty bloody good. The Unitary Plan, which The Spinoff and others have been banging on about recently, was signed off by Auckland Council with a surprising lack of rowdy opposition last week. It turns out our newly reformed pro-density … Read more
Linda Burgess examines the case of American novelist Cathleen Schine, who seems more famous for leaving New Yorker film critic David Denby for another woman than she does as a writer who is adored by Meg Worlitzer and Alison Lurie. One of the things you can judge a book by are the author’s acknowledgements. If … Read more
After bonding over their shared love of The X-Files and cryptids, David Farrier speaks to pal Rhys Darby about how he annoyingly ended up on Farrier’s favourite show. I met Rhys Darby years ago when I interviewed him for TV3’s Nightline about his starring role in HBO’s new show, Flight of the Conchords. We filmed our talk in … Read more