Dr Collin Tukuitonga pays tribute to his mentor, Dr Joe Williams, who passed away yesterday after a battle with Covid-19. I have a lot for which to be thankful to Dr Joe Williams, or Papa Joe as we call him in the Pasifika Medical Association family. I was a refugee from the military coup in … Read more
A public health professor at the University of Otago says a debate about capping Māori and Pasifika medical school admissions has come ‘out of the blue’. Te Aniwa Hurihanganui reports for RNZ. Pressure is mounting on the University of Otago Medical School to front up to Māori and Pasifika about a proposal to cap admissions … Read more
From the rights of migrant sex workers to the euthanasia debate, the eight new episodes of Alice Snedden’s Bad News have wrestled with some of the most confusing and contentious political and social issues confronting Aotearoa in 2020. Catch up on the full season here. Episode One – Migrant Sex Workers Sex work is decriminalised … Read more
In the second of our series on Alie Benge’s dating journey, she ponders if that intangible, unpredictable thing that is spark is really as crucial as she’d always believed it to be. I usually leave dates feeling buzzed from the interaction, regardless of how well it went. A few weeks ago, for the first time, … Read more
The struggle of an early life that included hunger and homelessness is a critical part of what led Shelley Pilkington to put her hand up for the National Party. This election, she’s ranked 75th on the National list. Read more from The Spinoff’s Last on the List series here. “Disappointed with last on the list?” … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for September 5, bringing you the latest on New Zealand news and the Covid-19 pandemic. The whole country is now in alert level two, with extra restrictions in Auckland. Official information here. Contact me at aliceneville@thespinoff.co.nz 6.40pm: The day in sum The Ministry of Health was investigating a potential … Read more
With six weeks to go to election day, the Labour leader sits down with Spinoff political editor Justin Giovannetti to cast ahead to the world and New Zealand of the post-Covid future. For a leader whose brand was built on ideas of transformation and an optimistic projection of the future, Jacinda Ardern has spent a … Read more
Dozens of major cities are building cycleways and pedestrianising streets as they adapt to the post-pandemic world. Hayden Donnell asks why Auckland hasn’t experienced a similar level of transformation. All over the world, cities are transforming as they adapt to an age of lockdowns and social distancing. London’s Soho district has been almost completely pedestrianised, … Read more
All the illustrations and animations in one place. The animations and illustrations created by Toby Morris in collaboration with Siouxsie Wiles and published by The Spinoff have been shared in their hundreds of millions over the last couple of months. For ease of reference we’ve put them all together in one post. You can also … 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 Searching for Charlie: In Pursuit of the Real Charles Upham VC & Bar by Tom Scott (Upstart Press, $50) “There … Read more
A poem from essa may ranapiri’s chapbook Polemic. Hook & Cook as a kid I would confuse Captain Hook with Captain Cook their names so similar both pirates in fancy dress one scared of a crocodile with a clock in its mouth the other a man who sails on our 50 cent one a cartoon … Read more
After six months of film delays and cinema closures, Tenet is New Zealand’s only blockbuster hope, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund. Black Widow, No Time to Die, A Quiet Place 2. All were big-budget should-be hits scheduled to open in New Zealand cinemas during the time of Covid-19. Now, they won’t be hitting screens until, at the … Read more
Away tries to be a space drama and a family drama, but fails massively at both. There’s a good reason why outer space is such a popular setting for fiction: the stakes are so obvious. Just off camera, just off the page, is an endless void that can kill your protagonists if a single thing … Read more
What do the masks of those in power – or vying to be – say about them? The co-founders of fashion and culture website Ensemble cast their style eyes over face coverings from the halls of power. Never before has an accessory become a must-have item so swiftly. Masks are fast becoming the ultimate symbol … Read more
In this edition of The Spinoff’s media podcast The Fold, Duncan Greive unpacks the most important data points from a seismic new report into audience behaviour. NZ on Air’s biannual Where are the Audiences? report is unique in the way it attempts to measure the behaviour of a diverse set of audiences across all media … Read more
Our two main political parties are pretty similar. The NZIER public good team uses an economic tool called Hotelling’s law to explain why National and Labour are creeping closer together. On October 17, we resident adults will elect New Zealand’s government to see us through the next three years, including what’s left of 2020 – … Read more
Charting the British actor’s trajectory from teenage pop star to her brilliant turn in I Hate Suzie. For someone who has been in front of our eyes for 20 years, Billie Piper’s career has been more diverse than many appreciate. From teenage pop star to companion of Doctor Who, to critical acclaim on the screen … Read more
The topic of racism has been at the forefront of conversations both in New Zealand and overseas since the Treaty Partnership episode of Bad News was made. Co-hosts Alice Snedden and Kura Forrester sat down to talk about it. Watch Alice Snedden’s Bad News – Treaty Partnership and other episodes in the series here. Kura: … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for September 4, bringing you the latest on New Zealand news and the Covid-19 pandemic. The whole country is now in alert level two, with extra restrictions in Auckland. Official information here. Contact me at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 5.00pm: Man in 50s with Covid-19 dies in Middlemore Hospital A man in … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Family support looms as election policy battleground, warm winter heralds climate change fears, and warnings of insolvency cliff looming for government supported businesses. National has launched a policy package around support for new parents, reports Stuff. The headline announcement in it is a package of $3000 to … Read more
Wellington will be home to up to 80,000 more people by 2050, and the question of where they’re going to live is becoming increasingly pressing. Should the look of the central suburbs really take priority over warm, dry, affordable housing? To say there’s animosity towards Wellington’s housing stock among young people like myself would be … Read more
Major reports published in the New Zealand Medical Journal today highlight ongoing inequity for Māori in health. Two papers published today, written by a combined 16 Māori and non-Māori academics and researchers, uphold what is known to be true by many: that Māori and Pasefika experience different health outcomes to everyone else. The first, a … Read more
They’ve received acclaim and opprobrium for digital media campaigns for everyone from NZ’s National Party to the Australian Liberals and Boris Johnson’s Brexiteering Tories. Topham Guerin worked, too, for the NZ government Covid response. But, New Zealand’s international digital campaign wunderkinds tell Henry Oliver, their agency’s future is not political. In these politically polarised times, … Read more
One of our finest speculative fiction writers on how the Lord of the Rings fandom is damaging mana whenua. There are kākā on my porch. They are circling each other, fanning their beautiful green and red feathers. They’ve found the pāua shell my flatmate picked up on the beach last week. It is shiny, so … 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 Stacy Gregg, author of Pony Club Secrets and The Princess and the Foal. After building a successful career … Read more
Stuck for ideas this Father’s Day? Amanda Thompson rounds up a small sample of the best gifts (plus jokes!) for the dad in your life. Dads are great, they’re nice to have around. Or so I’ve heard. I’ve always been a bit vague on the finer points of having a dad since mine was more … Read more
Just because few parties have released LGBTQI+ policies doesn’t mean the rainbow community won’t hold them to account. A new policy tool highlights the rainbow policies that matter this year, and which parties support them. “For Queer people, politics is personal – we neither have the luxury nor privilege to keep our lives outside politics.” … Read more
Māori women are far more likely to experience perinatal distress. Reclaiming traditional practices has helped many wahine Māori find better mental health outcomes, writes Arihia Latham. The story of Hine-tītama, the guardian of the dawn, becoming Hine-nui-te-pō, the atua of death, resonates with my experiences of becoming a mother. She was the child of Tāne-mahuta … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for September 3, bringing you the latest on New Zealand news and the Covid-19 pandemic. The whole country is now in alert level two, with extra restrictions in Auckland. Official information here. Contact me at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 8.00pm: The day in sum There were two new cases of Covid-19 in … Read more