Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for December 17. 12.10pm: ‘Beginning of the next phase’ for Ihumātao The Protect Ihumātao campaign Save Our Unique Landscape (SOUL), which led the occupation of the land, has issued a statement responding to the announcement (see 12.00pm). “Today is a very significant day for our tūpuna and whānau of … Read more
What reasons did people list for opposing the vaccine? How does New Zealand stack up against the US? And what do we think about compulsory face mask-wearing? UMR Research executive director Stephen Mills on the company’s latest findings. An online survey by UMR from late November found 74% of New Zealanders said they were willing … Read more
The Spinoff launched a plan to bury a time capsule containing the epitome of this hell year before working out where we were going to plant the thing. Josie Adams was tasked with finding somewhere suitable. So, you want to bury a time capsule. First, stop. Does the future need this? Historians in a century … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for December 16. Reach me at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7.00pm: The day in sum An interim report by the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care was released, detailing systemic failures in the state’s handling of abuse claims. The Treasury’s half year economic and fiscal update (HYEFU) said economic recovery will be … Read more
Wellington has come in for a bashing recently, but complaints about house prices, weather and infrastructure only tell part of the story. Lucy Revill shares a few of the things she’s most excited about for summer in the capital. At some point in my mid 20s, I decided to stop staring mournfully into my long … Read more
An Auckland bar attracted heat last month for hosting a US election party attended by MAGA hat-wearing Trump supporters. Three former employees have come forward to say that incident is the least of its issues. Former staff of popular Auckland bar Hoppers have come forward with allegations about the working environment they encountered there, including … Read more
Ex-member of the exclusive Royal Auckland and Grange Golf Club and former New Zealand Herald owner Michael Horton has broken ranks with his former golf-playing peers to call out the club on plans to reduce the amount of rates it pays. Retired newspaper publisher Michael Horton and a small group of concerned South Auckland residents … Read more
Nobody loves collecting up things and trying to put them in another thing like Hayden Donnell, who gloriously failed in his life mission to get a bunch of items of national significance into Te Papa Tongarewa. Who better to unleash on our new project: The Spinoff Aotearoa 2020 Time Capsule. Most time capsules are infused … Read more
The global pandemic forced millions inside and online, changing the way the world interacts and does business, and accelerating technology adoption. George Driver discovers how this year, New Zealand brought the future a little closer. March 22, 2020: I am standing at the door of my tent in a deserted campground on a Northland beach, … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for December 15. Reach me at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 8.00pm: The day in sum The government unveiled its Covid-19 summer resurgence plan, including an instruction for New Zealanders to isolate in their holiday bubble and not return home, should Covid suddenly return. A Covid-19 vaccine would be ‘unlikely to replace all … Read more
They’re under parliament buildings, in opera houses, even floating through space. And now The Spinoff is about to bury one for 2020. While stashing stuff for future humans to unearth has been a tradition for thousands of years, when did ‘time capsules’ become a thing? At the beginning of high school, it is these days … Read more
The Royal Commission report makes it clear that foreign intelligence partners and domestic intelligence agencies saw right-wing extremism as a low-priority local law enforcement issue, not a pressing national security threat, writes Paul G Buchanan. If one phrase sums up the Royal Commission of Inquiry’s Report on the Christchurch terrorist attacks, it is “systemic failure”. … Read more
An NCEA history exam this year included a poem by Lionel Terry, a white supremacist and cold-blooded murderer. Chris Tse, who wrote a book inspired by Terry’s victim, explains why the exam question has caused such hurt within the Chinese New Zealand community. I have a complicated history with Lionel Terry, and it pains me … Read more
In the final part of Coming Home, hosts Duncan Greive and Jane Yee ask what can be done to keep returning New Zealanders on our shores post-pandemic. Over the first four episodes of Coming Home we’ve heard about what’s been pushing New Zealanders to live and work overseas for decades, and what pulled so many … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for December 14. Reach me at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7pm: The day in sum Quarantine-free travel with Australia is expected to be permitted in the first quarter of 2021. A commencement date for the travel bubble will be announced in the new year. Jacinda Ardern refused to confirm if a deal … Read more
This has been a year of amazement and endurance. Let’s bury it together. How do you tell a story like 2020? The lockdown year. The bubble year. The suppurating mouth ulcer year. As with just about every media operation around this infectious planet, we’ve been wondering how to sum up such a terrible and cacophonous … Read more
On Auckland’s waterfront more than 90 years ago, thousands of people flocked to our very own Luna Park. Louise Fisher recounts its short, trouble-plagued history. Long before there was a Disneyland or Six Flags, there was Luna Park in Auckland. Operating from 1926 to 1931, the park’s main attraction was the ‘big dipper’, a gentle … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for December 12-13. 6pm: The weekend in sum An Air New Zealand crew member has tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving in New Zealand on a flight from the United States on December 9. Early results from genome sequencing suggest they were infected in the US, not New Zealand. … Read more
The Spinoff Members enjoy many benefits, including a special treat in their inbox every Thursday – the Bulletin World Weekly, an international news round-up focusing on the best journalism from around the globe. As a festive bonus, we’re sharing the final one of the year with all our readers. In the last Bulletin World Weekly … Read more
The UN’s ‘Nelson Mandela rules’ state that you can take away someone’s liberty, but not their humanity. New Zealand’s punitive abuse of Māori and Pacific peoples in prison is trampling all over that, writes Meg de Ronde, executive director of Amnesty International New Zealand. There’s an oft-used quote attributed to Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela: “It is said … Read more
Thousands of former students and their families have now been affected by the last-minute postponement of Otago University and Polytechnic graduation ceremonies due to a security threat earlier this week. Among those set to graduate, the news was met with disappointment and disbelief, reports Sinead Gill – and a little relief. For an event that … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for December 11. Reach me at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 2.35pm: Disney announces possibly too many new films, TV series Culture editor Sam Brooks breaks down the literal shit tonne of upcoming releases: Today, Disney announced in their classic fashion – a massive Twitter thread – what they’ll be working on for … Read more
Two Māori University of Auckland students tell Sherry Zhang about their struggle to get coffee with racist imagery removed from campus – and why they think it’s emblematic of a bigger problem. A few weeks ago, The Spinoff received a peculiar email: Subject: Auckland University Racist Coffee!! Body: Please investigate! Photos Attached: Caricatures of a … Read more
As New Zealand’s property market breaks new records, and politicians wring their hands about what to do, Child Poverty Action Group’s Frank Hogan suggests it’s actually the worst time to promote schemes to get people on the housing ladder. The New Zealand housing market has never looked more like a Ponzi scheme than it does … Read more
Instead of asking why so many Māori people are in prison, maybe we should be asking why we’ve created a prison system that’s obsessed with putting Māori people in it. If you don’t want to go to prison just don’t do any crimes, right? Unfortunately, it’s a little bit more complicated than that. When we … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for December 10. Get me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7.15pm: The day in sum For the first time in nine months, no Covid-19 update was released by the Ministry of Health. Going forward, updates are to be released on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. An investigation is underway after two UK … Read more
Inez is a funny, kind, smart 11-year-old kid. But life for her has been very difficult in a way that will resonate with a lot of families. Inez is part of Frame, a series of short documentaries produced by Wrestler for The Spinoff. Inez wakes up at 6:30am every day, but some mornings she’s still late to … Read more
David Hill reflects on his mother’s life of servitude, and that of many others like her. My mother spent most of her adult life being a servant. We don’t have servants now. We have service industries (I actually thought all industries provided services), but we don’t call their employees “servants”. They’re enveloped in euphemisms: “personal … Read more
The government has accepted the Royal Commission’s recommendations, but the job is far from done, says Abbas Nazari – we underestimate the threat of white supremacy at our peril. With the government making an “in-principle” commitment to all 44 of the recommendations made by the Royal Commission, no doubt the response to the Christchurch mosque … Read more