At 40 years old, filmmaker Rachel Judkins decided it was finally time to confront her hang-ups around talking about her period. It’s easy to imagine that everything you could say about periods has already been said. About Bloody Time!, an entry in this year’s collection of Loading Docs short documentaries, holds up a mirror to … Read more
The upheaval of this latest level three lockdown has hit South Auckland hard, particularly its young people. However, as Justin Latif reports, a youth-focused social change initiative has been helping them get by, and empowering them to help their own communities. Fereni Peti began to feel sick a day after attending her Māngere East church … Read more
Paying tax is one of the easiest and most useful ways to contribute to society, but a centuries-old law means churches don’t have to do it. In the latest episode of Bad News, Alice Snedden asks: is it time that law be reconsidered? Watch Alice Snedden’s Bad News – Churches and Charity and other episodes … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for August 20, bringing you the latest on New Zealand news and Covid-19 as it returns to the community. Auckland is now in alert level three and the rest of NZ is in level two. More details here. Official information here. Contact me at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7.15pm: The day in sum … Read more
As much of the world is brought to its knees by Covid-19, tens of thousands of New Zealanders are coming home. Alex Braae investigates what it could mean for the country. At this stage, all we really have is raw numbers. We don’t know exactly who the returning New Zealanders are, or what skills they’re … Read more
Last week, 97-year-old Cantabrian Willi Huber, a decorated Nazi officer lauded for his role in the establishment of Mt Hutt ski field, died. Juliet Moses says it is an indictment on this country that there has been no real reckoning with his past. Cantabrian Willi Huber died last week. If you’re not a skier, you … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for August 19, bringing you the latest on New Zealand news and Covid-19 as it returns to the community. Auckland is now in alert level three and the rest of NZ is in level two. More details here. Official information here. Contact me at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7.30pm: The day in sum … Read more
As racist and unfounded rumours swirl, how is the family at the centre of New Zealand’s newest Covid cluster and the wider South Auckland community responding? Justin Latif reports. A week after the announcement that members of a south Auckland household had tested positive for Covid-19, the family is getting the support it needs, according … Read more
Just over a week ago, Auckland had a full slate of live events going ahead. But this week and next? Silence. Sam Brooks reports on how returning to lockdown has affected Auckland’s live scene. If you were an Aucklander leaving the house on Tuesday morning, you might have been leaving that house with a full … Read more
When a stranger videoed Veronica Schmidt undressed in a changing room at Kmart, the store’s staff refused to call the police. Here she writes for RNZ about what it took to finally get the offender in front of a judge. Warning: This story contains discussion of sexual offending and trauma I spotted him before it … Read more
In all my dealings with the healthcare system I’ve received incredible service – so why isn’t this the case for all New Zealanders? Watch Alice Snedden’s Bad News – Healthcare Inequity and other episodes in the series here. When I was in primary school one of my great brags was that I’d never been to … Read more
All it would take is for New Zealand to enact a law that is already common in other countries, writes law professor Alexander Gillespie. There is no death penalty in New Zealand, unlike the United States. But the Christchurch terrorist, due for sentencing next week, will be going to jail for a very long time. … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for August 18, bringing you the latest on New Zealand news and Covid-19 as it returns to the community. Auckland is now in alert level three and the rest of NZ level two. More details here. Official information here. Contact me at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 6.45pm: The day in sum There were … Read more
New data from tech giant Google shows just how well Aucklanders are complying with our level three lockdown restrictions – and how their behaviour compares to those in Victoria. It’s been about a week since we learned that Covid-19 had returned to the community. A day later, on Wednesday August 12, Auckland was placed into … Read more
By day, she’s a GP in a Grey Lynn clinic. By night (and at weekends), Dr Sandhya Ramanathan is a WhatsApp and YouTube superstar. Two months ago, Sandhya Ramanathan began posting videos on how to manage Covid-19 at home. They were made for her family overseas, in countries where managing the virus was difficult: the … Read more
The racist and untrue rumour about the source of the latest Covid-19 outbreak in New Zealand began life as a much less inflammatory post on Reddit. It was deleted after a few hours, but the damage was done. Here, the man who started the rumour speaks for the first time. Last week, when a cluster … Read more
New Zealand has opted for an elimination strategy, but a vocal minority is calling for an alternative approach that would see an end to lockdowns and borders loosened. Dr Siouxsie Wiles explains why that would be a bad idea. Around the world, different countries are taking different approaches to dealing with the global pandemic. Here … Read more
Much has been made of digital divide, but as Justin Latif has observed in his role as a board of trustee member of Māngere Central School, schools in the area are making big strides to ensure students aren’t left behind. It’s hard to imagine what lockdown would be like without the limitless time-consuming options provided … Read more
Officially, Auckland playgrounds are closed, but people are still using them because poor signage is making it hard to tell if they’re out of bounds or not. Last time New Zealand went into level three lockdown, playgrounds were one of the first public areas that were closed to the public. Not only were they closed, … Read more
Our communities need us to listen to the people who have dedicated their lives to making ours better – not those who only want to exploit our fears, writes Christine Ammunson. One in five Sāmoans died when the 1918 pandemic hit our homes. Through whispers I remember elderly aunts recalling the horror of watching the … Read more
In New Zealand, as overseas, authorities are dealing with two parallel crises: the Covid-19 virus and the maelstrom of misinformation surrounding it. Hayden Donnell reports for RNZ Mediawatch. In the hours after prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced Auckland would be moving back into lockdown, Billy Te Kahika Jr did something he’d done many times before, … Read more
Yelling at them or trying to make them feel guilty probably won’t work. Instead, try appealing to the values they hold dear, suggests Claire Hooker. It could be a brother or sister. It could be a neighbour. It could be a person you work with. We probably all know someone who doesn’t wear a mask … Read more
After this is all over we’ll divide our lives into before and after Covid, but in the midst of the pandemic we’re already experiencing time in a new way, writes Tanisha Jowsey. If you’ve heard of epoch time chances are you think it has something to do with 01 January 1970 and computer programming. And … Read more
With the extension of alert level three set to stretch many South Auckland families even further, Justin Latif reports on how organisations are preparing to help feed those most in need. Food banks across South Auckland are scrambling to get themselves ready for an expected surge in demand, following Friday’s announcement that the level three … Read more
The current pandemic will be a brand new experience for most, but others have been here before. Kevin Hague explains what we can learn from the LGBTQ+ community’s experience of the HIV/Aids outbreak from decades past. If there’s one group in our country who really knows about beating pandemics, it’s surely the gay community. Before … Read more
She’s engaged, so why is the prime minister regularly appearing on a dating app? Zara Beauchamp investigates the strange case of Jacinda Ardern’s cameos on Tinder. I have recently gone back on dating apps. Since I was last in this murky, selfie-filled world of flirtation and despair, several things have changed – not least, a … Read more
Auckland is at alert level three, and the rest of the country level two, until midnight tonight. At 5.30pm this evening, we’ll find out what happens next. These are the factors cabinet is likely to consider in making the decision. During the first wave, the announcement we were moving into lockdown felt sudden. This time, … Read more
They’ve been through it all before, so how are Auckland students and teachers coping with the second move into level three? And how are other schools preparing for the possibility they’ll soon be doing the same? Last time the country went into level three lockdown, on March 24, schools had less than a day to … Read more
The blast that took at least 171 lives in downtown Beirut last week was the latest in a long line of official failures that have pushed the Lebanese people to the brink of despair, writes Kirsten O’Regan. As I began this essay, my partner was trying to fall asleep in our Beirut apartment. He had … Read more