This month, Kiwibank reset its variable interest rates by 1%, from 4.40 to 3.40%. Kiwibank’s general manager of business banking Nigel Gaudin tells The Spinoff why this is a big deal for local businesses. Okay, what is a variable interest rate? And what have you done to it? A variable interest rate, sometimes called a … Read more
After being rolled as deputy leader and losing the spot running the campaign, the National MP and former deputy prime minister is quitting parliament after 15 years. In August 2019, when it was announced that Paula Bennett would be going list-only and taking on the role of chairing the National Party campaign, it was a … Read more
The true economic turmoil of the Covid-19 downturn is yet to be felt. However, some family operations are old enough to have endured – and survived – many of these types of shocks before. Every once in a while, at Gemmell’s shoe and bag repairer on central Auckland’s Symonds St, a customer brings in a … Read more
One would-be bidder who walked away was daunted by the commercial challenges they ran into, writes Pattrick Smellie for BusinessDesk. It is now getting on for three months since the German magazine publisher Bauer announced it was closing its New Zealand titles. Three months in which the company has hung onto well in excess of … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Fears for paramedic service after pay boost scrapped, rapid report into managed isolation system released, and Greens release sweeping new welfare and tax policy. We’re going back to last week for today’s lead story, but it’s a deeply important one with wide implications for the … Read more
Something very big is missing from the proposed overhaul of our health system, writes Professor Boyd Swinburn. The long-awaited Simpson review of our health sector makes a powerful call to refocus the system on creating better health outcomes through prevention. But something very big is missing. The focus is on the healthcare institutions themselves, like … Read more
While the pandemic has certainly exacerbated anti-Asian sentiment, New Zealand has a long history of turning a blind eye to racism of this kind. The culture of silence is maintained by both sides, says Liang Cui, but she knows first hand the importance of speaking out. When the first case of Covid-19 was discovered in … Read more
Three’s new rugby-themed drama is both original and feels like it could have come from nowhere else, writes Duncan Greive. Over the past decade, New Zealand’s prestige (read: most well-funded) drama has established a trend of revisiting some of the country’s most celebrated characters and notorious incidents. Dear Murderer, Runaway Millionaires, Resolve, Jonah, Jean – … Read more
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level one – read about what that means here. For official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff … Read more
A new season of Big Brother Australia starts tonight, but where did it all begin? Tara Ward travels back to 2001 to relive the best moments from the show’s inaugural episode. Hold on to your three-quarter cargo pants and get ready to dial up your modem, because there’s a lot of unexpected chicken content during … Read more
The government’s review of managed isolation facilities paints a picture of an under-resourced, uncoordinated and ad hoc system. Here’s what you need to know. What’s all this then? Housing minister Megan Woods and defence official Air Commodore Darryn “Digby” Webb were put in charge of New Zealand’s managed isolation and quarantine facilities last week, following … Read more
The inclusive and intimate Thai martial art has forced one new follower to reckon with her inner agreeableness and fight the impulse to be nice. Women have long been stereotyped as more apologetic than men. We are, apparently, more empathetic, caring, and better in tune with people’s emotions. The divisive YouTube celebrity and psychologist Jordan … Read more
Soup season is here! This flavoursome spiced pumpkin number is bulked up with the addition of grains and hearty greens. We’ve had four days of heavy rain, and this morning as we drove up the driveway on the way out to school, the sun finally came out and the top of Taranaki Maunga revealed itself, … Read more
Students are confused, uncertain and stressed by a flurry of institutional changes, writes Isabella Lenihan-Ikin, president of the NZ Union of Students’ Associations. In the last week, several universities have faced heavy criticisms from staff and students about their decisions to shift learning and teaching wholly or partially into online learning environments ahead of semester … Read more
As South Africa prepares to unleash a confusing new three-team version of cricket on the world, it’s time to settle once and for all: which cricket format is the best? Cricket is a sport steeped in tradition. One of the proudest cricketing traditions calls for purists to express outrage any time a new format of … Read more
Sam Brooks talks to actor-director Miriama McDowell, fresh from a top billing in Head High and directing Ahikāroa. There’s a moment in the second episode of Three’s new family-and-rugby drama Head High that stands out for me. A committee, entirely made out of bureaucratically-aligned adults discussing a student’s future in rugby, descends into personal attacks … Read more
This month, the Ministry of Education’s Creatives in Schools programme received a $4 million boost. But leading arts educators say the scheme fails to create lasting change for a system in crisis. New Zealand has led the world in this area before, writes Mark Amery. From the 1880s through to the 1930s, influential American philosopher … Read more
Nadia Lim taught Sam Brooks to cook. He talks to the beloved celebrity chef about her new cookbook, and filming an entire TV show in lockdown. Lockdown brought us together as a nation. Together with our team of five million, together with our families and flatmates, but most importantly? Together with our ovens. As supermarkets … Read more
What’s the best way to get adults reading? Get them reading when they’re children – and there’s no better place to start than the Unity Children’s Bestseller Chart. AUCKLAND 1 Mophead by Selina Tusitala Marsh (Auckland University Press, $25, 5+) A finalist in this year’s New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, and … Read more
A new mall in downtown Auckland prizes food over shopping and public transport over private. Duncan Greive digests it all. Next year St Lukes, the venerable icon mall of Auckland’s inner west, will turn 50, showing the enduring power of the imported American shopping innovation. It arrived just eight years after New Zealand’s first, Lynnmall, … Read more
New Zealand leads the world in rugby, flightless birds and egg white based desserts. But despite a claim from National, the national economic response to Covid-19 isn’t world-beating, writes Justin Giovannetti from the Beehive. On the same day the National Party unveiled its first election hoardings, which promise more jobs and a better economy under … Read more
New polling shows New Zealanders expect to see the environment take a back seat to economic recovery, little change in fortune for low-paid essential workers, and a long wait for tourism to return to pre-Covid 19 levels, writes Stephen Mills of UMR Research. There’s been a lot of speculation about what changes the Covid-19 pandemic … Read more
A video of the arrest of a Māori man has gone viral, as police violence goes under the microscope globally. The police say the man violently resisted and their behaviour was appropriate. But the video reveals a familiar cycle, argues Emilie Rākete. A week ago, police commissioner Andrew Coster stood in St Peters Church in … 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 Know Your Place by Golriz Ghahraman (HarperCollins, $40) A memoir. Ghahraman wrote an essay for us when it released last week … Read more
A new poem by Christchurch poet Erik Kennedy. There Is a Man Dancing on the Rudder of an Enormous Cargo Ship having arrived as part of a protest flotilla of kayaks and inflatables and paddleboards, a semi-cohesive squadron of possibility and guerrilla tactics that are half surprise party, half interview with the parole … Read more
The government has proactively released a whole bunch of Covid-19-related documents. Alex Braae has been trawling through them to bring you the highlights. The last time a whole lot of Covid-19 papers were released, it was controversial. They came out late on Friday afternoon, and seemed to be a case of overwhelming the nation’s journalists … Read more
Over lockdown, people who worked live gigs had their careers shut down. Thanks to technology, the connection between music makers and audiences grew and now, they’re more in sync than ever. In the final days of level two, Auckland venue The Tuning Fork tested the waters of post-Covid connection. Soul singer Hollie Smith was performing … Read more
Alex Casey gives her boobs some TLC with help from Breast Cancer Foundation NZ. Here’s a confession: I went 28 years before checking my breasts properly. I mean, I’ve definitely checked that they are there, I’ve done that terrible pencil test to check if I could pull off going braless (I can’t), but I’ve never … Read more
Driving around with an expired warrant of fitness after the deadline was extended in March? You may want to get that looked at if you want your insurance to pay out. What’s all this then? When New Zealand went into lockdown and all non-essential business had to stop, a lot of motorists were suddenly left … Read more