People who are ‘just managing’ in New Zealand are not heartless if they support policies that will help their family most in the short term. But there is a better, more positive way to ease their pain, writes Jess Berentson-Shaw. Yesterday I had a play with the Herald’s income inequality tool created by Max Rashbrooke, … Read more
Today is Women’s Suffrage Day; in four days’ time, the country goes to the polls. Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Dr Jackie Blue reflects on the meaning of a New Zealand woman’s vote. Kate Sheppard. Her face is on our $10 notes for a reason, but how often do we think about what that reason is? … Read more
Consider this: while you’re at work, slaving away, putting in hours for The Man, your car is sitting at home doing a whole lot of nothing. Like some apathetic teenager it sulks in the garage, taking up space and contributing basically nothing to the household finances. No more! With Yourdrive, a peer-to-peer car rental service, … Read more
Black Sheep is a new Radio NZ series about the shady, controversial and sometimes downright villainous characters of New Zealand history, presented by William Ray. This week, he looks at the bizarre story of the Nazi assassination plot that wasn’t. In 1942 the head of New Zealand’s first spy agency, the Security Intelligence Bureau (SIB), … Read more
Dr Barbara Disley tells Jess McAllen we need a call for action, not another review. This story first appeared on The Wireless. Read the rest of the series here. Newspaper headlines from 20 years ago look surprisingly familiar (“Mental Health’s Revolving Door”, “The Depressing State of Mental Health”, “Conveyer Belt to Psychiatric Ruin”). In 1996, after a damning … Read more
What’s in a name? Only everything, writes Miriama Kamo. I didn’t always love my name. When I was in primary I used to wish I was called Lisa or Michelle, something easy that didn’t raise eyebrows. As I recall this, another memory comes to mind. I remember plucking a flower from a tree on the … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Madeleine Chapman finds an old friend on the road. We all like to pretend we love long walks, but have you ever walked the length of the country to prove it? Finn Egan is three weeks into his estimated … Read more
Mental health workers and suicide prevention strategists tell Jess McAllen that while the public system has its flaws, the unrelenting attention on a ‘broken’ system is dangerous too. This story first appeared on The Wireless. Read the rest of the series here. Six hundred and six pairs of shoes are currently making their way around New Zealand. They … Read more
More needs to be done to help those at risk, so let’s get the facts straight, says Jess McAllen. This story first appeared on The Wireless. Read the rest of the series here. Suicide is a tough issue to talk about. With 606 suicides last year, there’s no doubt more needs to be done to support those most … Read more
Momentum around mental health is gathering. But where are the voices of the people who will be impacted first-hand by any policy change? Jess McAllen investigates. This story first appeared on The Wireless. Read the rest of the series here. On a Friday evening in May, police released a photo of Vincent Clayton. He had escaped from … Read more
Disability Rights Commissioner Paula Tesoriero on what the recent flap over a National candidate parking in a disabled space reveals about our attitudes towards disability. It’d be easy to dismiss the recent news story about disabled National candidate Katrina Bungard, who’s been called out for parking in a disabled carpark she’s entitled to use. Someone … Read more
Systematic overfishing and dumping has left numbers dwindling, and recreational fishers are demanding an urgent response from politicians, writes Scott Macindoe of LegaSea. The world is running out of fish faster than we thought. Since the late 1990s the consensus has been that fish numbers around the world are declining. Massive industrial-scale fishing activity is … Read more
How does New Zealand get out of the housing hole it’s bought and sold itself into? Property and construction professional James Goodhue has a comprehensive plan. Decent housing is a basic human right. Affordable housing and balanced rental legislation are fundamental needs for an equitable society. Home ownership and secure housing tenure are important ingredients … Read more
Following local actor Rene Naufahu’s guilty plea to charges of indecent assault, Madeleine Holden looks at the pattern that occurs when prominent men are accused of sexual abuse, and the role that both the media and the public play in perpetuating rape culture. Lee Rene Naufahu, of “ambulance driver Sam from Shortland Street” fame, pled … Read more
Black Sheep is a new Radio NZ series about the shady, controversial and sometimes downright villainous characters of New Zealand history, presented by William Ray. Here he introduces the story of Robert Logan, the NZ administrator of Samoa in the early 20th century, whose incompetent response to the influenza pandemic has coloured NZ-Samoa relations ever … Read more
In the lead up to the election, comedians Melanie Bracewell and Angella Dravid take a journey through the voting process in Make Me Tick, The Spinoff’s four part video series with the Electoral Commission. Today, Angella visits the voting booth. Last night, I forced myself to walk to the post box to submit my enrolment … Read more
When you work at a decile one high school, you’re confronted with the realities of child poverty on a daily basis. Details of this article have been changed to protect privacy. It’s intended to show the challenges confronting students in low-income communities like Manurewa and therefore leaves unsaid the enormous achievements of the school and … Read more
PL8spotting is a kind of urban trophy hunting where competitors shoot selfies with rare or exotic personalised plates. The sport’s inventor Henessey Griffiths counts down her personal favourite spots. Personalised plates are truly one of the most underappreciated art forms in our society. Whether it be a simple ‘XSAMYX’ or a witty pun like ‘NVRL8’, … Read more
A New York Times feature on the new breed of Washington lobbyists lays bare the weird connection between the New Zealand embassy under Tim Groser and Robert Stryk, a Trump-connected political player. Catherine McGregor explains. The night of 20 January was a massive one on Washington DC’s party circuit, as Republican politicians, lobbyists and assorted hangers-on thronged … Read more
We conclude an epic essay from the New Zealand Initiative’s Eric Crampton, exploring what life is like in and out of New Zealand. Today: chapters seven and eight. Read chapters one and two here, chapters three and four here, chapter five here and chapter six here. Chapter 7: For your own good The way [the Nutri-Matic Machine] functioned was very interesting. … Read more
For Auckland teenager Grace Stratton, using a wheelchair means also having to sit in one particular place on the school bus. But does that have to define her? I live in on a farm in Warkworth, but I go to school on the North Shore. You could say that I have one foot in the … Read more
The High Court has agreed that the payout for the miscarriage of justice was insufficient. Law professor Andrew Geddis explains the basis for that decision When the government announced in June of 2016 that it would be giving Teina Pora some $2.5 million as compensation for wrongfully convicting him and so keeping an innocent man … Read more
We continue serialising an epic essay from the New Zealand Initiative’s Eric Crampton, exploring what life is like in and out of New Zealand. Today: chapter five, on drinking. Read chapters one and two here, chapters three and four here and chapter five here. Chapter 6: Driving you to drink Trillian did a little research in the ship’s copy of … Read more
Researchers at Motu Institute have found that women who bring exactly the same value to a private firm as the men who work there are paid on average 16% less. Jess Berentson-Shaw considers what that means – and how the stubborn pay gap can be fixed. Whenever the gender pay gap is discussed in the … Read more
Queenstown’s growth has rapidly inflated house prices and rent; incomes not so much. Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust executive officer Julie Scott says we need to start thinking differently about the Kiwi dream. It’s worrying to hear the government state there’s no housing crisis in New Zealand. The 460 households on our waiting list disagree. … Read more
In the lead up to the election, comedians Melanie Bracewell and Angella Dravid take a journey through the voting process in Make Me Tick, The Spinoff’s four part video series with the Electoral Commission. Today, Melanie discovers the value of one vote. Whenever I talk about voting with my friends, they often say they can’t be … Read more
Tired of clickbait and myth, Charles Anderson set out to find the real story behind New Zealand’s housing crisis, creating a major interactive documentary premiering on The Spinoff today, funded by New Zealand on Air. Perhaps we were masochists but we were under no illusions. When we set out to create a documentary about the … Read more
We continue serialising an epic essay from the New Zealand Initiative’s Eric Crampton, exploring what life is like in and out of New Zealand. Today: chapter five, on policing. Read chapters one and two here and chapters three and four here. Chapter 5: Policing “So are you going to come quietly,” shouted one of the cops again, “or … Read more
Everything conspires against affordable housing: the regulations, the cost of building and most of all the market. But all that can be fixed. AUT construction professor John Tookey explains how. Housing in New Zealand is in trouble in so many ways. Quality, cost and sustainability all have roles in the discourse. But the critical issue, … Read more