For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. An explainer on self-isolation is here, on social distancing here. For updated official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here. 6.40pm: … Read more
Jacinda Ardern has announced the unprecedented step of closing New Zealand’s borders to foreign nationals. Here’s what she said. Cabinet met this afternoon to assess the rapidly evolving situation relating to Covid-19 and made further decisions to protect New Zealanders from the virus. While there remains no evidence of community outbreak in New Zealand to … Read more
Rolling updates on the Covid-19 outbreak for March 19 as they happen, by Spinoff writers. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by Spinoff Members. To support this work, join Spinoff Members here. See the latest updates for March 20 here. 6.30pm: Borders to close to foreign nationals Jacinda Ardern has just announced that … Read more
Throughout the day rumours have swept the country that NZ is on the brink of a lockdown. This afternoon, Jacinda Ardern has addressed them. The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has urged New Zealanders to beware rumours circulating online. “This is not unique to New Zealand. In the midst of what is a global issue, as … Read more
Last night Amy Adams, who is resigning from parliament after 12 years later this year, addressed the House during the third reading of the Abortion Legislation Bill. The historic bill would go on to pass 68-51, removing abortion from the Crimes Act and making it legal to self-refer for an abortion up to 20 weeks. … Read more
Britain has changed course in the fight against Covid-19, after originally following an approach with significant scientific defects. Gary McLean, a New Zealand professor in molecular immunology and infectious diseases specialist at London Metropolitan University, explains. More than 200,000 people are now laboratory-confirmed cases of Covid-19, across 157 countries. Tragically, almost 9,000 people have succumbed … Read more
Andrew Geddis explores the legal issues around a possible postponement to the election date. There’s a lot we don’t yet know about how Covid-19 will impact us here in Aotearoa New Zealand. But the advice from experts – massive respect, as we used to say back in the day, to Siouxsie Wiles and her fellow … Read more
Rolling updates on the Covid-19 outbreak for March 18 as they happen, by Spinoff writers. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by Spinoff Members. To support this work, join Spinoff Members here. 7.40pm: Possible Covid-19 case in Samoa Samoa is currently testing a person suspected of being the country’s first Covid-19 case. The … Read more
Rolling updates on the Covid-19 outbreak for March 17 as they happen, by Spinoff writers. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by Spinoff Members. To support this work, join Spinoff Members here. Read the latest updates for Wednesday March 18 here. 7.45pm: Dunedin school closed after student tests positive Logan Park High School … Read more
The government is spending $12.1 billion to counter the Covid-19 crisis. Where is the money being targeted? Here are the essentials. What’s all this then? With recession bearing down on the country, and a large numbers of jobs at risk of being lost, the government has ploughed billions of dollars into the economy. The main … Read more
Rolling updates as they happen, by Spinoff writers. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by Spinoff Members. To support this work, join Spinoff Members here. New updates: To read new updates for Tuesday March 17, please join us here. 9pm That’s a wrap for today. We’ll be back up and running from 7am … Read more
With the exception of arrivals from the Pacific islands, those coming from every country in the world will be required to self-isolate for a fortnight. It follows the cancellation of the remembrance service scheduled for tomorrow in Christchurch and confirmation of a sixth positive Covid-19 case in New Zealand, a man who had been in … Read more
The British prime minister has been showering Budget lollies overnight, but he served up Kiwis a shit sandwich, writes Newshub’s Europe correspondent Lloyd Burr. Boris Johnson’s government has increased the National Health Service surcharge for a third time in just four years, which migrants must pay in order to live in Britain. An extra £224 … Read more
Just months from the referendum, myths and misinformation about cannabis legalisation continue to proliferate, writes Fiona Hutton. I was recently invited to Whanganui by the organisers of the Science Forum there – they wanted a panel of experts with knowledge about drug research to discuss the cannabis referendum. There was an audience of just over … Read more
Last year environmental campaigner Neil Miller wrote a comprehensive conservation policy setting out in detail a ‘billion-dollar boost’. Yet however many might agree that it is common sense, no mainstream political party has picked up the idea and run with it, he writes. My mistake was writing the policy for the wrong party. I was … Read more
A minimum six month sentence for intentionally injurious assaults on prison officers or first responders does nothing to address the reasons why such crimes take place, writes Aaron Hendry. What sort of justice system do we want in this country? That is the question that NZ First MP Darroch Ball’s Protection for First Responders and … Read more
We’ve just had a taste of how the election campaign is going to go this year, with a raw and rowdy debate at the University of Auckland. Alex Braae recaps it. Unfortunately for voters, one of the most exciting versions of these big, multi-party free for alls has now already been and gone. Every year, … Read more
The donations scandal looks very different if we see ourselves not as Labour supporters or National voters but as citizens of a country whose politicians are selling us all out, argues Danyl Mclauchlan in the conclusion to our series on electoral funding, Money Talks. This series is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join Members to … Read more
Max Rashbrooke makes the case for reforms based on the democratic principle that we should each have the same influence over politics. We could do worse than starting by looking at Canada, he argues. The Money Talks series explores the rot in our donations system and ideas to fix it. It is made possible thanks to … Read more
The proposed merger of RNZ and TVNZ has one clear international precedent – Irish national broadcaster RTÉ. Michael Andrew asks what New Zealand can learn from the Irish model. There’s a touch of comedy in the idea of a merger between RNZ and TNVZ, almost as if the two organisations were unfamiliar step siblings forced … Read more
Time to place parties on an even footing and make elections a contest of ideas, not dollars, argues Cat MacLennan in this post, originally published by RNZ. Read more in The Spinoff’s Money Talks series on donations and electoral finance here. For donations to two of New Zealand’s largest political parties to be investigated by … Read more
Generation Zero and the School Strike 4 Climate movement have helped put climate change permanently on New Zealand’s political agenda. But here, two leading figures explain why they won’t be telling young people how to vote in the election. Aotearoa’s environmental movement has a proud and long history of remaining nonpartisan. It is something that … Read more
For the decade Sue Bradford spent in parliament as a Green MP, party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons led by example, bringing a quiet but steely determination to everything she did. The news of the sudden death of Jeanette Fitzsimons has been a shock. My heart goes out to her dear partner of many decades, Harry Parkes, … Read more
I have reason to believe that New Zealand’s reputation for being corruption-free and its sense of well-being don’t fully align with reality, writes Timothy K Kuhner. Read more from the special Spinoff series on electoral funding, Money Talks, here. This series is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join Members to support more of this important … Read more
Challenged this week over Shane Jones’s comments about Indian students, NZ First Party leader and deputy prime minister Winston Peters insisted that he had been ‘expressing the views of some in the local Indian community’. This week the Indian Weekender newspaper editor Sandeep Singh sought the views of the community directly. Here’s what they said. … Read more
In an interview with the editor of the Indian Weekender, Sandeep Singh, the prime minister has her harshest words yet for Shane Jones over his comments about Indian students. Below, the interview in full. See also: NZ Indian community leaders respond to Jacinda Ardern. Sandeep Singh: One of the most pressing issues that our community is … Read more
Ben Thomas, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Toby Manhire are not medical doctors or, in fact, doctors of any kind, but here they overcome this minor impediment and solve coronavirus. The Gone By Lunchtime trio look at the political and economic implications of the outbreak, weigh up Jacinda Ardern’s “don’t deport your problems” broadside at Scott Morrison … Read more
As New Zealand suffers from drought and the effects of climate change become more severe, now is not the time for New Zealand to be shipping water offshore, writes Cat MacLennan. At the bottom of the Pacific’s Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the world’s ocean, explorers in 2019 found four new species of crustaceans … Read more
All this week on The Spinoff, a series of pieces examine the crisis in our electoral funding rules. How did we get here? How might we fix it? Today, Elisha Watson proposes a completely different way to approach the problem, via ‘democracy dollars’. This series is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join Members to support more … Read more