The housing market monster continues to grow, causing panic and rapture, depending on who you are. Michael Andrew highlights some of the most vexing stats. It was supposed to be a quiet summer – the lazy, festive period that would typically see the masses forgoing open homes for the open road, and property investors taking … Read more
Nancy Harris should have been in Auckland tonight for the opening of her play Two Ladies. Instead she’s been chatting with the cast via Zoom from locked-down Ireland, where live theatre is a distant memory. It was a surreal moment in a year of surreal moments. I was sitting in my mother’s living room in … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: RMA reform timeline unveiled, warning about avoiding the water after an earthquake, and Green MP explains why he went back to Mexico. It’s not exactly breaking news, but the repealing and replacing of the Resource Management Act is going to be among the biggest things … Read more
Its name and design are meant to evoke peace and reconciliation, but the proposed Olive Leaf building in historic Arrowtown has instead stoked division, backlash and now court action. Oliver Lewis reports. When the Eiffel Tower was proposed in Paris, a group of artists and writers lodged a petition of protest bemoaning it as a … Read more
A petition seeking an increase in subsidy for wigs and hairpieces is being presented at parliament today. Kirsty Frame reports. Alopecia can be unforgiving. Many of those with the autoimmune disease find themselves entirely without hair within weeks or across months, and the vicious cycle can relapse over a lifespan. It has neither known cure … Read more
Bachelor superfans Jane Yee and Tara Ward launch themselves into the highs and lows of the second week of The Bachelorette NZ. Subscribe to The Real Pod on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast platform for more The Bachelorette NZ chat. Tara Ward: After three nights of dates, mates and moley updates, I have one … Read more
From seemingly out of nowhere, the veteran tech giant has waded into the war between Facebook, Google and the Australian government – and may emerge the ultimate victor, writes Hal Crawford. The “big friendly giant” of the tech world, Microsoft, has shown in recent days it retains every bit of the cunning that has seen … Read more
New Zealand film-maker Roseanne Liang just brought her direct, funny and empathetic directorial voice to a big-budget American action thriller – Shadow in the Cloud, showing in cinemas in New Zealand now. She talks to Michelle Langstone about cosmic partnerships, her love of fight sequences, and how she inadvertently found herself caught up in a … Read more
Books editor Catherine Woulfe reviews Bethany Clift’s Last One at the Party. What lots of reviewers mean when they say “compelling” is, I think, something like, “Reading is my job now; thank god this one was actually quite good.” I’m going to say “compelling” about this one and I mean something closer to the dictionary … Read more
The next Rocket Lab mission will include a military satellite designed to improve targeting capabilities for US warfighters, reports Ollie Neas. This morning, Rocket Lab, the US-owned but NZ-based space company, announced details of its next mission which will lift-off from its Mahia Peninsula launch site in March. The mission will carry satellites for a … Read more
In the new episode of Final Mix, music journalist Yadana Saw takes Anna Coddington out to road test songs from her new album Beams. Along the way the kōrero moves from te reo journeys to sexism in the music industry. Anna Coddington’s song ‘Night Class’ describes a uniquely Māori experience – taking night classes in … Read more
The Resource Management Act is set to be repealed and replaced by three new bits of legislation. Alex Braae explains what has been announced this morning. What’s all this then? The Resource Management Act is on the way out. New Zealand’s primary bit of planning legislation was born 30 years ago and has aged rapidly … Read more
The Māori economy continues to grow, while employment drops and home ownership remains a distant dream for many. Business advisor Joshua Hitchcock explains the disconnect. The Māori economy is now worth almost $70 billion. That was the headline figure of Te Ōhanga Māori 2018-The Māori Economy Report 2018 recently released by BERL (Business and Economic … Read more
He quit politics to care for a wife who had suffered a brain haemorrhage. Today he holds leading roles at the apex of the two great challenges facing South Auckland: housing and health. Vui Mark Gosche tells Justin Latif why a change is coming. He is one of the most powerful people in South Auckland. … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Nurse overwork concerns at managed isolation hotels, Air NZ halts work on behalf of Saudi military, and Green MP in managed isolation after going overseas for personal matter. MIQ nurses are warning that mistakes will happen if understaffing and unsustainable workloads continue, reports Radio NZ’s Kate Gregan. Nurses … Read more
The social media mob that was so quick to condemn NZ Breaker Tom Abercrombie and his family need to understand the intense challenges faced by autistic people – especially children – in restricted environments like MIQ, writes Denise Carter-Bennett, an autistic mother of an autistic child. Last week, media reported that professional basketball player Tom … Read more
Ahead of Waitangi Day, UK schools and education companies tried to engage with Māori culture. But a string of examples, ranging from ignorant cultural appropriation to harmful and inaccurate depictions of history, show colonial attitudes remain entrenched. After 200 years, Aotearoa is finally incorporating what’s hoped to be a more accurate and nuanced teaching of … Read more
Our politicians love a PR opportunity to talk about their support for the queer community, but when the time comes to act, they hesitate again and again, writes Shaneel Lal. When I wake up every morning, I don’t look in the mirror and say, “oops, I’m trans, better fix that”. But in the summer of … Read more
Our students’ maths knowledge in their first year of high school is worse than ever – and that has grave implications for the future, say mathematics professors Gaven Martin, who chairs the Royal Society panel that’s tackling the decline, and Jodie Hunter. Maths is an essential part of our lives, from everyday living to educational … Read more
Ockhams-longlisted novel Sorrow and Bliss is set to be a film and we at The Spinoff Review of Books could not be more excited. From the press release, which we got our mitts on first due to our abject and enduring public love for this novel: “New Regency has acquired the film and television rights … Read more
Not many people have swum across the Cook Strait – fewer still have turned around and swum all the way back again too. Scratched meets Meda McKenzie, endurance swimmer. Meda McKenzie could swim. She was never a particularly fast swimmer, and never went to an Olympics or Commonwealth Games. It was her stamina and endurance … Read more
Journalist Ali Mau joins Duncan Greive for a conversation about the first three years of Stuff’s MeTooNZ project, the challenges of publishing stories about alleged abuse and misconduct, and her 30-year career in the media. In 2017, the Me Too movement brought some of Hollywood’s elite crashing down under allegations of serious sexual abuse and … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Air New Zealand’s Saudi war shame, Robertson to outline budget priorities, and new tenancy laws coming into force today. A strange and shameful story erupted last night: Air New Zealand has secretly been supporting the Saudi military in their blockade of Yemen. This story, from One News political … Read more
Achieving our emission reduction obligations means changing the nature of our homes. Here’s how we can do that. New Zealand’s homes need a refresh. Mouldy, leaky, cold homes that leach any semblance of heat to the outside world won’t cut it any more – if they ever did. Aside from the health benefits, making homes … Read more
He doesn’t call himself an environmentalist, but a timber-processing factory owner is at the forefront of a renewable energy revolution. Alex Braae went to Te Puke to talk to him. The bright, warm sunshine of Te Puke already helps grow some of the best kiwifruit in the world. Now a local factory owner is harnessing … Read more
Last year a swathe of new rental reforms were passed into law. This week, a number of those finally come into effect. So what can you expect? What’s all this? The Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2020 delivered one of the most significant updates to our rental regulations in years. While some of those changes are … Read more
Doctor Emma Espiner watches TVNZ’s The Checkup, which promises to tell you the things about health that you really want to know. I lie to my doctor. It’s even worse now that I’m a doctor too and she treats me like a colleague. I pretend to know things that I don’t just so she doesn’t … Read more
Bigger, better, faster responses are needed to meet future bio-threats: no more acting like ‘stunned mullets’, is the message from independent review leader Helen Clark, writes Nick Wilson. The world must decide what needs to change to prevent events like the Covid-19 pandemic happening again, according to the former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark. … Read more
For all its faults, writes Danyl Mclauchlan (whose new book Tranquillity and Ruin is itself published this week), the Labour-turned-ACT politician’s 1996 books speaks for something that now seems almost old-fashioned: a group of true believers that had a vision of how the world works. Read Richard Prebble’s reflections on I’ve Been Thinking, 25 years … Read more