Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: New poll sets tone for election campaign, new testing criteria for Covid-19 outlined, and weirdness occurs around prisoner voting bill. We’re now three months out from the election, and the latest poll has returned to something approaching a balanced state of play. The One News Colmar Brunton survey … Read more
A new survey by Stickybeak for The Spinoff shows more than one in four would like to see Hamilton’s name revert to Kirikiriroa. But a Waikato kaumatua says he’ll continue to push for change. As statues come down around the world and long-venerated slave traders and colonialists have their actions put under the microscope for … Read more
South Auckland’s multimillion-dollar bike paths set a new gold standard, but getting locals on track with council’s grand plan has proved an uphill battle. A scene from the 1962 film The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner often plays through my mind as I ride along the relatively new multimillion-dollar award-winning cycleways around Māngere. The … 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
Finally, voting rights for prisoners serving less than three years has been restored. It’s a cause to celebrate, but it appears to have been overshadowed by some procedural games and unhelpful amendments, writes Andrew Geddis. Last night should have been a cause for muted celebration in parliament, with the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Bill’s … Read more
In 2001, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’s coughing scandal made villains out of British couple Charles and Diana Ingram. A new three part drama on SoHo (and Lightbox) suggest they may be innocent after all. There are few creative works that can be considered genuinely seminal; few that changed the game so entirely that … 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 Simon Cooke and Ryan Carville, founders of yeast company Froth Technologies. A lot goes into making good beer. … Read more
Online and blended learning could be the future for universities but that doesn’t mean it’s cheaper to deliver, writes Massey University provost Giselle Byrnes. Recently, politicians and students both here and abroad have been calling for a reduction in fees for courses and qualifications taught partially or fully online. There have also been discussions around “fair … Read more
A group of mothers, personal trainers, and physiotherapists have joined together to try to address New Zealand’s lack of post-birth care. Here’s why. In the year ending March 2020, 59,238 people gave birth. Many of them (more than you’d think) will suffer from urinary incontinence and vaginal prolapse. When you give birth you roll the … Read more
Plans for a modern, efficient light rail network have taken an unexpected detour. Greater Auckland editor Matt Lowrie recounts the brief history of how we got here, and how there may still be light at the end of the tunnel. The good news is we’re not going to be sending billions of dollars offshore to … Read more
It’s a self-righting jet boat equipped with harnesses, racing seats, and reinforced Israeli glass – and it’s spent the last 15 years in a shed. Michael Andrew investigates the origins of Wave Attack, the prototype that never got its debut. Imagine driving an immensely powerful sea craft that appears, to the awestruck onlooker, to be … Read more
Mistakes in the testing regime for people departing managed isolation have prompted alarm about the possibility the virus has been seeded locally. Dr Siouxsie Wiles offers a dose of perspective, and explains why the critical line of defence remains the isolation and quarantine process. Both the leader of the opposition Todd Muller and University of … Read more
It’s a nice hot day in the summer and you reach for a … polar pie? New Zealand companies are removing the word Eskimo from their products. Recently arrived Canadian Justin Giovannetti explains that the move to banish the harmful and derogatory slang is overdue. The word Eskimo is about to disappear from New Zealand’s … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Questions over stability of the government, health minister throws top official under the bus, and concerns raised over dolphin protection plan. After several days of frantically knifing each other at parliament, you’d be forgiven for thinking the coalition government is on the verge of collapse. The … Read more
A minister of health with a humility bypass creates a problem for Jacinda Ardern – especially when he’s contrasted with Ashley Bloomfield, writes Toby Manhire. With the cadence of a fingernail sliding down a blackboard, David Clark spent much of yesterday declining to accept responsibility. Speaking with Lisa Owen on Checkpoint, he spent several minutes … Read more
Auckland has made painstaking progress toward becoming a functioning modern city. Now its councillors may put that in jeopardy for a proposal that will save ratepayers an average of 47 cents a week. Hayden Donnell reports. In the depths of the Covid-19 lockdown, Auckland’s councillors started coming under pressure from a familiar antagonist. It was … Read more
The strain of the experience, writes a returning NZ citizen, is compounded by the opprobrium. Over recent days I have been struggling psychologically with the experience of returning home. Not only the experience of being detained, which while of course necessary is no easier for it, but particularly the experience of being the subject of … 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
While some countries have largely wiped the virus out, across the world the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating, not slowing, writes Adam Kamradt-Scott of the University of Sydney. Around the world, the Covid-19 pandemic is accelerating. While some countries such as Australia and New Zealand have managed to flatten the curve, in many other parts of … Read more
The Fold’s very first guest is back to tell Duncan Greive how she pulled off the media deal of the year. It will justifiably be lost in the tumult of Covid-19, but the chaotic couple of weeks which finally saw the end of the Stuff-NZME saga were riveting and strange, replete with stock exchange announcements, … Read more
This is not the time to ask for ‘a conversation’ about colonial statues, writes historian Giacomo Lichtner, but a rare opportunity for action. In 1944, when American troops liberated Rome and made their new headquarters in Mussolini’s flagship sports complex – the Foro Italico – they found a vast and hideous mural entitled ‘The Apotheosis … Read more
In the second of our pre-election events, a collaboration between Spinoff Members and Verb Wellington, Danyl Mclauchlan talks to Chlöe Swarbrick, the MP seeking to tip the table of politics from inside parliament. Chlöe Swarbrick first leapt into the spotlight with an audacious, cynic-defying and unsuccessful run for the Auckland mayoralty. After being courted by … Read more
There’s no doubt the young women of High School Mums will leave you feeling inspired. But the show should also spur change, says Emily Writes. It’s unlikely anyone could watch High School Mums and be unmoved by the incredible young women and their children in it. The TVNZ show follows a year in the life … Read more
It’s a grim time of year in Wellington, but not only the bleak weather is to blame, writes Danyl Mclauchlan. Then there was the bad weather. Wellington feels like it really only has two seasons, which stretch from solstice to solstice. For the first half of each year it is autumn, with maybe a few … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: New testing strategy unveiled by minister, Otago Regional Councillors preparing for leadership showdown, and PM dismisses Ihumātao reports. Every person known to have Covid-19 right now is in quarantine, including the two new cases at the border yesterday. With that said, Radio NZ’s Rowan Quinn reports the new … Read more
The CEO of Pango Productions and creator of some of Māori Television’s biggest hits, Bailey Mackey, lays out his vision for the future of Māori media – and there’s no place for Māori Television in it. I love Māori Television. I always have and always will. I started working there one week before it launched … Read more
Think people in hotel isolation here have it tough? As Trevor McKewen, an Australian citizen living in Auckland, writes, the Australians take it to a whole other level. It didn’t really feel like a choice when I boarded a plane to Australia from my home in Auckland. My brother is 56 and gravely ill. I … Read more
It’s one of the most influential games of all time, but where does its legacy sit now? Sam Brooks on what many call the best game ever, Deus Ex. The opening level of Ion Storm’s Deus Ex doesn’t look especially appealing to the modern-day gamer. The colours are so muted it’s like you turned the … Read more
When Elizabeth Heritage forgot how to read, poetry brought her back. This is the story of my reading of Funkhaus, the new poetry collection by Hinemoana Baker (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa, Te Āti Awa) writing from Berlin. I sing of fear and confusion: mine not Baker’s. Let me start with my favourite poem … Read more