Australian music lovers were dancing up a storm in Byron Bay two weekends ago – but many of them were also helping to bring down Australia’s sexually transmissible infection (STI) rate at the same time. Could this be an approach we adopt in New Zealand? Australia’s premier music festival Splendour in the Grass was held … Read more
We think we are protecting children from failure because we don’t want them to get upset, but in effect we’re harming their ability to cope when things don’t go to plan, argues Derek Wright, interim executive director of the Waikato District Health Board After making some comments around the impact of modern life on young … Read more
Stuart Nash says it was just ‘a metaphor’, but that’s not good enough: for too long the drug debate has been blighted by wild and counterproductive hyperbole, writes Don Rowe Police Minister Stuart Nash’s comments that synthetic cannabis users are smoking “fly spray and grass clippings” are a continuation of a myth that fuels dangerous … Read more
Imagine all the wealth in NZ as a ten-storey apartment building. Imagine half of NZ crammed in a tiny corner of the bottom floor. Read the Inequality Tower 2015 on the Wireless here. Fill your boots with Side Eyes here. The Bulletin is The Spinoff’s acclaimed, free daily curated digest of all the most … Read more
Some who have successfully taken action against landlords at the Tenancy Tribunal are finding that getting them to pay the compensation demanded is another matter entirely, writes Esme Hall Victoria’s current flat is “pretty crap” – three of her flatmates sell drugs out of the house and have parties all the time. But it’s a … Read more
In the first of a new series on PhD students delving into fascinating subjects, Madeleine Holden talks to Madeline Henry, who is studying the critical psychology of digital sex work. “Farts. Hiccuping. Pouring squishy food on yourself. Pretending to be a dog. Wearing a bunch of sanitary pads at the same time. And lighting your … Read more
Sandra Ivanov and her family left Serbia in the 1990s to escape the wars that tore the region apart. She ended up in New Zealand, and this year went back to Serbia to volunteer to help the continuing wave of refugees passing through her birthplace. Here is her account of the continuing crisis. Thousands of … Read more
Sex is a struggle for most people, but it can be doubly difficult for those living with a disability, writes Caroline Moratti for the Otago University student magazine Critic. Is sex a basic human right? Not for your parents hopefully, don’t picture that. To access sex remains a struggle that plagues most of our lives. … Read more
When struggling families are being forced to take out loans to survive, they shouldn’t also be pressured to give money to their church, writes Aaron Hendry. Last week Manukau Ward Councillor Efeso Collins horrified us with stories of impoverished families who were being forced to take out loans in order to make ends meet, as … Read more
Being a tenant in New Zealand is often a difficult and disempowering experience. Hayden Donnell looks into what’s broken in our rental housing market. The bad news is many of you will probably never own a home. Average property prices are 10 times the median household income of $92,843 in Auckland, while in New Zealand … Read more
The third installment from our team film critics swarming the cinemas of Auckland and Wellington for the 2018 NZ International Film Festival. See also: Birds of Passage, First Reformed, Disobedience, 3 Faces In the Aisles, The Image Book, Apostasy, Brimstone and Glory You Were Never Really Here Not everybody likes Lynne Ramsay’s brand of cinematic … Read more
New figures from the coroner show close to 45 people have died in the past year due to synthetic cannabis use – up from just two across the previous five years. Katie Doyle reports for RNZ. There’s been a huge spike in the number of people dying from synthetic cannabis. Provisional figures from the coroner … Read more
The UN committee on women’s rights listened to our voices, and we cannot ignore their recommendations, writes Jackie Blue is the Equal Employment Opportunities and Women’s Rights Commissioner Every four years New Zealand women get a chance to voice their concerns about women’s rights to a United Nations committee of 23 independent experts, who then provide … Read more
Shaymaa Arif from Hamilton has spent part of this year volunteering as an Arabic interpreter at a medical clinic in Moria Camp, one of the camps in the Greek Islands where refugees are struggling to survive. She says New Zealand must not turn its back on the crisis. It is so easy for us in New … Read more
The results of more than 400 drug tests from across the festival season are in. Who is eating what? Our essential explainer. What’s all this then? Volunteer drug testing agency KnowYourStuff’s annual results are in, cataloguing 445 substances tested with FTIR spectroscopy and reagents across seven festivals this summer. What’s the skinny? There’s more MDMA … Read more
In the latest episode of their Spinoff TV segment looking at stuff white people inexplicably like, comedy group Frickin Dangerous Bro – Jame Roque, Jamaine Ross and Pax Assadi – investigate women’s mysterious love for brightly coloured yoga pants. Previously: Frickin Dangerous Bro review kombucha and bath bombs Watch The Spinoff TV, Fridays at 10.45pm … Read more
Alex Casey chats to Dynamo, one of the world’s greatest living magicians, ahead of his arena spectacular in Auckland. Dynamo is sitting way too close to a giant steak knife for my liking. If he was any other magician – and yes, there have been others – I would be worried that he might end … Read more
It’s free, four hours long and promises ‘A World of Adventure and Discovery’. But does the Gloriavale concert present a true reflection of the fundamentalist group? Anke Richter heads along. Fog hovers over Lake Haupiri while the sun sets behind dense West Coast bush. A yellow sign at the turnoff from the empty road says … Read more
Yes, anti-abortionists should have the right to protest. No, they shouldn’t be allowed to bully, intimidate or harass people accessing abortion services, writes Amy Pearl. Update, October 2018: A parliamentary petition is seeking to establish a no-protest buffer zone surrounding Wellington Hospital to protect people seeking abortions from harassment. The petition closes on October 26. … Read more
Can the meek obedience expected of children in some religious traditions make them more vulnerable to abusive relationships as adults? One domestic abuse survivor tells her story. Content warning: This post describes a violent and manipulative relationship. If you are in an abusive relationship, help is available. The 0800 Family Violence Information Line (0800 456 … Read more
Spinoff revelations about sexual abuse within the Jehovah’s Witnesses underline the need for a community-wide response to child sexual abuse, writes the children’s commissioner, Judge Andrew Becroft New Zealanders as a whole have only recently come to understand the full extent and cost of child sex abuse. There are many reasons for this. One is … Read more
A disability advocate is urging the government to make accessibility a central part of the Kiwibuild programme. Alex Braae reports. The government’s flagship Kiwibuild policy has always intended to lead the way on housing, in the creation of good quality, affordable homes that first home buyers can spend years or even decades in. But advocates … Read more
To help end homelessness, we need to be the sort of people who are willing to get involved each other’s lives, writes Aaron Hendry. The closure of Tiny Deane’s night shelter in Rotorua highlights what’s lacking in much of the public discussion around ending homelessness: humanity. Homelessness is not simply a “problem we need to … Read more
What’s that sound? It’s the rumbling of every bus user in Wellington moaning. But Spinoff Parents editor Emily Writes is trying to look on the bright side. A few months back I got a letter encouraging me to give my feedback on some ideas for a new bus system being put in place in Wellington. … Read more
It may sound like a sweet gig, but halls of residence can be incubators of stress, anxiety and awful mental health problems. This article was first published in April 2018 in the Otago University student magazine Critic Te Arohi. My parents may not be legally obligated to look after my drunk ass after age 18, … Read more
Beneath the snowflake jokes and the racism, it’s pretty clear that the far-right really likes playing the victim, writes Philippa McLoughlin The recent decision to ban Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux from council venues in Auckland has highlighted a disturbing trend in the way that some New Zealanders are willing to take action to suppress … Read more
We’re fighting a losing battle for patient safety, says this Auckland nurse – and it’s everyone’s problem. There’s been a lot of chin scratching by the political-pundit class in New Zealand about the nurses strike lately. Why, do they wonder, have nurses waited to take industrial action until a more labour-friendly government is in power? … Read more
“Both the board and college leaders have been crystal clear this behaviour cannot continue.” Otago University halls of residence Selwyn College has shut down its controversial tradition of second years secretly voting on and publicly awarding nicknames to freshers at their AGM after previous recipients accused the awards of being “sexist and bullying”. Among the … Read more
If our adult mental health system needs to be restructured, our youth mental health system needs to be completely obliterated and rebuilt from the ground up. This content discusses suicide and may be triggering for some people, if you need help please see a list of helplines at the bottom of this article I’ve been … Read more