When you’re experiencing mental health issues, finding someone to talk to about it is key. Graham Panther tells the story of his own journey through the mental health system – and why he’s started a uniquely welcoming, no-questions-asked support group, The Big Feels Club. Not long after my 23rd birthday, my life fell apart – … Read more
The Sustainable Business Council this morning released its Election Manifesto, a collaborative report representing the views of leading New Zealand businesses including Air New Zealand, SkyCity and Spark. The council’s executive director Abbie Reynolds introduces the report’s findings. As the election looms, the Sustainable Business Council Election Manifesto has revealed many leading New Zealand businesses … Read more
Wellington recently introduced a voluntary Rental Warrant of Fitness. Mayor Justin Lester explains the scheme, and why the rest of New Zealand should follow the city’s lead. Like much of New Zealand, Wellington has a good opportunity to improve the quality of our housing stock. For a city that sees the occasional gentle breeze, we … Read more
In this special edition podcast, the On the Rag team do a roadie to the Spark festival in Hamilton to talk creativity and struggles. Arriving on a sugar high courtesy of Duck Island ice-cream and good vibes, Alex Casey, Leonie Hayden and Michele A’Court hit the couches at the Spark Festival to chew over what … 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: chapters three and four, covering tax and airport security. Read chapters one and two here. Chapter 3: A sense of proportion: The tax system “He’s spending a year dead for tax … Read more
We’re back for month two of Congratulations, She’s a Boy, a monthly column following the female-to-male transition of Wellington writer Felix Desmarais. Read part one here. Great news! One and a half months on testosterone, and like an almost decade-long tradition of uninspiring Labour leaders, my voice is breaking! #TopicalTrans. I just got a haircut. … Read more
Because dating isn’t already horrible enough, an app named Attractive World recently launched in New Zealand aiming to make it worse. Current members decide whether prospective members are hot enough to be allowed in. Lucy Zee went undercover to see if it was as shitty as it looked. Last month, Attractive World was launched in … Read more
For better – and sometimes for worse – Colin Meads had a near matchless influence on rugby. Jamie Wall charts his influence. New Zealand and the rugby world is in mourning after the passing of the iconic Sir Colin Meads, a man who transcended both the sport he played and the society he lived in. … 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 new four part video series with the Electoral Commission. Today, Angella contemplates the branches of government. I went to St Patrick’s School up until the age of 12. I … Read more
Buildings in Wellington that once housed almost 150 people have lain empty for five years, even as an intensifying housing crisis has rendered 40,000 Kiwis homeless – including hundreds of Wellingtonians. How did it happen? Marc Daalder explains. In 1959, as construction of The Terrace Flats in Wellington neared completion, the building’s architect died. His … Read more
For nearly 25 years Dr Fiona Measham has documented how and why humans do drugs. She spoke to Simon Day about how helping people know what exactly they’re taking is making doing drugs safer in the UK. For all of human history we’ve loved getting intoxicated. Almost every society, tribe and culture has taken drugs … Read more
Living in New Zealand and focusing on our very real social issues, it’s easy to forget that there are many things we do quite well. Or, to put it another way, that things are frequently a lot worse in other countries, even advanced prosperous ones. Over the next couple of weeks we serialise an epic … Read more
The horrific events of last weekend at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, brought back memories for Hye Ji ‘Erica’ Lee, a Korean New Zealander who studied there six years ago. In 2011 I was a student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, as part of an exchange programme with the University of … Read more
Leaked texts and sordid details have brought the Aaron Smith scandal roaring back into the news. Lawyer Natalya King assesses the fallout and its legal implications for Smith, the All Blacks and the media. Aaron Smith and the toilet tryst is back in the news, but this time around we’ve got all the detail we … Read more
Getting Your Shit Together is a monthly column on everyday mental health from Auckland mindfulness educator Kristina Cavit. This month she’s talking about the effect yoga has had on her own life, and on those of the prisoners and children she works with. Growing up in New Zealand’s ‘toughen-up’, rugby-dominated sports culture, our school P.E … 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 new four part video series with the Electoral Commission. Today, Melanie gets hyped for the history of democracy. When Angella and I were told that the first topic we were … Read more
Given Australia’s deputy PM seems to have been a New Zealander all along, he should join his compatriots in embracing marriage equality and allowing a free vote, writes Kerry McBride. On 17 April, 2013, I stood in Scotty & Mal’s on Cuba Street singing ‘Pokarekare Ana’ as New Zealand celebrated the legalisation of same-sex marriage. … Read more
‘This is not my New Zealand.’ Ahead of her speech to the UN this week, the Race Relations Commissioner calls on politicians to stand on principle and do right by the victims of institutional abuse. Earlier this year I was on the same train in America where a week before a man had murdered two … Read more
Last week ActionStation and the Morgan Foundation launched Liz and Sam’s story. Since then, the pick-a-path game based on the lives of New Zealand families living on low incomes has been played close to 16,000 times. Its co-creator Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw explains the two years of research underpinning the game. Read Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw’s previous … Read more
Charles Arthur Allen Aberhart was 37 when he died in 1964, the victim of a gay hate crime that would later inspire the New Zealand homosexual law reform movement. His relative Nicole Skews-Poole tells his story. Content note: This article includes a description of homophobic violence. Under layers of Holden memorabilia and orange-toned photos of … Read more
The deputy PM is the latest Australian politician who could have to quit over dual citizenship rules. Fear not, top Ockers! The Spinoff’s legal dept has come up with a 100% foolproof solution to your pickle. To be fair it does seem a bit of an underarm delivery on the constitution’s part. The dreaded Section 44 rules that no … Read more
Just days after the sacking of a Google engineer who shared an anti-diversity manifesto came the reckons of a New Zealand software executive who thinks that women just aren’t ‘wired’ for tech. Sacha Judd stopped eye-rolling long enough to compose a response. When I was a university debater in the nineties, the two most common … Read more
New Zealand’s shameful rates of family violence place us at the bottom of the heap when it comes to intimate partner violence and child abuse in the OECD. Māori are among the greatest offenders and victims alike. Simon Day spoke to Denise Wilson about the history of family violence in this country and her solution … Read more
Listen to Alex Casey, Leonie Hayden and Michele A’Court tackle the past month in women, news and popular culture. PLEASE NOTE: OUR GRAPHIC DESIGNER IS TOO GOOD FOR US AND THAT IS NOT THE REAL JACINDA ARDERN This month the gang is back together to tackle the past month-ish in New Zealand media, news and … Read more
If the government won’t do something about housing, then Queenstown mayor Jim Boult will – or at least, that’s the plan. Peter Newport finds out how he proposes to fix the town’s affordable housing crisis – now officially worse than Auckland’s – and why he’s calling on Wellington to loosen its iron grip on local … Read more
While politicians debates the pros and cons of decriminalising cannabis, another even safer soft drug is already freely available in New Zealand. Scott Hamilton explores the history and importance of kava in the Pacific Islands, and why it could be the drug of New Zealand’s future. New Zealand is debating whether to decriminalise marijuana, and … Read more
New Zealand already has some of the highest tobacco taxes in the world, and now some campaigners are calling for them to raised much further. But how effective would that be? Not very, say tobacco-control experts Marewa Glover and David Sweanor. What’s needed are solutions that empower smokers, not punish them further. The government’s new … Read more
Today ActionStation and the Morgan Foundation launch Liz and Sam’s Story, a pick-a-path game based on the lives of New Zealand families living on low incomes. In the first of a two-part series, the Morgan Foundation’s Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw discusses the in-depth research behind the game. After spending two years writing a book about what … Read more
Human Rights Commissioner Dr Jackie Blue has some strong words for those asking about Jacinda Ardern’s intentions with her womb. As many women will have predicted, it was only a matter of time before media coverage of Jacinda Ardern’s rise to leader of the labour party was overtaken by discussion about her womb and whether she … Read more