Tis the season to be jolly? Oh fa-la-la-la-f**k off. If you hate Christmas, in-house therapist Ms X feels your pain and has some tips for getting through the season. Dear Ms X, I simply hate Christmas. I would much prefer if we went around singing summer songs, instead of carols. How simple would it be … Read more
Albert West goes sightseeing in Cairo, where the wonders of antiquity and the fragility of the modern world stand side by side. Omar led through an arcade of small shops to a large black door. Behind the door teenagers flounced across the bar with phones clamped to their ears. Others ignored them in favour of … Read more
I have heard firsthand stories of the atrocities Syrians have witnessed, writes Jay Adams. Duff’s appalling comments are an insult to New Zealanders’ tradition of trying to make a difference in the world. We no longer grow up in a time when we’re only exposed to problems that affect our immediate community. Instead we all … Read more
New Zealand’s social, cultural and economic pivot to Asia is well-documented, yet when we head off on an OE London remains the default destination. In the first of a two part series on The Asia OE, Duncan Greive speaks to a young New Zealand entrepreneur for whom Asia called and changed his life. Cowan Finch … Read more
The sudden appearance of two Banksy-style artworks on the walls of Tauranga buildings earlier this month ignited rumours that the mysterious graffiti artist could be in town. Don Rowe set off to uncover the truth. The first Banksy I ever saw was printed on a 100 baht t-shirt on Khao Sahn Road in Bangkok. I … Read more
Alex Casey chats to Chris Parker and Tom Sainsbury about putting on The Basement’s now-institutional Christmas show, and how to survive the holiday season. Unlike Santa’s darkest truth, it’s no secret that writers and performers Chris Parker and Tom Sainsbury are two of the funniest people in Auckland. At any given moment, their comedic powers … Read more
As a nation, we pride ourselves on our creativity, but when it comes to translating great ideas into successful businesses, New Zealand is still trailing behind. Colenso co-founder and serial entrepreneur Mike Hutcheson looks at what’s going wrong. I believe innovation to be the realisation of creativity, but innovation is a two-sided coin: one side … Read more
The Warehouse and Kmart are two of the busiest stores throughout the Christmas season. But which one is better? Madeleine Chapman dived deep into affordable late-night shopping and emerged with a scoresheet. We’ve all been there, desperately trying to find the last box of fairy lights because someone stepped on just one of the bulbs and … Read more
Eva McGauley is a 17 year old with terminal cancer who has decided to use whatever time she has left to support young victims of sexual violence. She explains why. Please note: this article contains discussion of sexual violence in New Zealand My name is Eva McGauley and I’m 17 years old. I grew … Read more
The government has announced a new set of tax proposals aimed at getting multinationals like Apple and Facebook to pay more on their NZ earnings. But do they go far enough? And what about a diverted profits tax? Taxation expert Andrea Black breaks it down. Waking up on Wednesday morning I found I had emails … Read more
What gives people the idea that they’re entitled to comment on your weight, or your appearance, or your eating habits? Our in-house therapist helps one reader deal with the endless unsolicited opinions. Dear Ms X, I am in a bit of a rage and I need to work out why before I go all blood … Read more
At last night’s NZ Rugby Awards, ASB chief executive Barbara Chapman electrified the room with a speech challenging the sport to reflect on the scandals of 2016 and do more to address diversity. Her speech is published below, following a note of introduction from Scotty Stevenson Last night New Zealand Rugby honoured its best and … Read more
Taxes: every politician’s favourite buzz word. But just how much tax are we paying? Take the quiz below. Having trouble viewing the quiz? Take it here.
What do you see when you look at the Canterbury logo? If you’re one of the estimated 50% of New Zealanders who are oblivious to its true meaning, sit down, take a deep breath, and prepare to have your world turned upside down. Hayden Donnell reports. You’ve probably looked at the Canterbury logo thousands of … Read more
Things might be very bleak internationally, but as we close out 2016 there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about our own economic future, as Sam Stubbs explains. In spite of recent earthquakes, real and political, I’m as bullish on New Zealand’s economic future as I’ve ever been. Setting aside the deeply troubling social … Read more
Trans people remain one of New Zealand most discriminated-against groups – and nowhere more so than in the provision of healthcare. Why are people in desperate need continuing to wait decades for potentially life-saving surgery, asks Madeleine Holden. If 2015 was the year of trans visibility, then the protection of trans rights has became an … Read more
Critics are seizing on a new report that says the Ultra Fast Broadband rollout has had no direct impact on business productivity. But those who dismiss the scheme as corporate welfare are missing the big picture, says telecoms commentator Paul Brislen. I’ve had more arguments about broadband than just about anything else including (but not … Read more
From broadcasters to philosophers to the Spinoff, economic illiteracy has abounded in response to the Opportunities Party’s tax policy, argues Gareth Morgan. Thanks to Paul Henry and Jamie Whyte we have a live discussion about where the burden should fall in making New Zealand fair again. At the Opportunities Party our view is that prosperity … Read more
Property expert and housing strategist Leonie Freeman sets out why – despite the housing crisis – there are still so few new homes being built. We all know that house prices are at an all-time high and demand far exceeds supply. Economics 101 says that when demand is greater than supply, it’s opportunity time for … Read more
Last week an economist-turned-politician and a broadcaster exchanged verbal salvoes over the idea of taxing certain assets as income. Jamie Whyte explains why he’s siding with the broadcaster. Gareth Morgan has a PhD in economics. Paul Henry does not. On Thursday, Henry interviewed Morgan about his new political party’s tax policy. An argument about economics … Read more
What do you do when someone you’re close to on Facebook – or someone you hardly know at all – is talking about suicide or exhibiting signs of acute emotional distress? Kyle MacDonald talks to the head of Facebook’s ‘Compassion Team’ to find out how you can help. We Kiwis love Facebook. As a nation … Read more
It’s a place with low wages, stratospheric property prices and housing stock that’s often near-uninhabitable. Sound familiar? But this isn’t Auckland – it’s Queenstown, where the worst aspects of our growing economic inequality are writ large, as Peter Newport explains. It’s possible you can tell almost everything about a town or city by its job … Read more
The real value of assessments such as TIMSS and PISA lies not so much in the crude comparisons as the painstaking analysis of particular strengths and weaknesses that revealed in our students’ performance in particular areas of the curriculum, writes John O’Neill. The last fortnight has seen the release of results in the 2015 Trends … Read more
When does heavy social media use become a problem? In-house therapist Ms X discusses good and bad Facebook usage, and strategies for breaking the network’s vice-like hold on your day-to-day life. This week I talk to a reader who asked for advice on escaping the sticky grip of social media. Our caller reported that he … Read more
Graeme Lay bids a belated farewell to Auckland’s least glamorous but most useful shopping centre. It was one of the ugliest buildings in Auckland’s central business district, in a part of town where there was tough competition for that distinction. It was the building known as ‘Downtown’. Flanked by the HSBC and ZURICH towers, its … Read more
Over the past month, buried in the finance and markets pages of the Herald and elsewhere, there’s been a war brewing over KiwiSaver. The cause is the arrival and quick success of Simplicity, a not-for-profit Kiwisaver scheme. Simplicity’s Sam Stubbs responds to the latest, most aggressive attack from the sector. Something strange is happening to … Read more
In The Great War for New Zealand, historian Vincent O’Malley tells the story of the Waikato War of the 1860s – how it set back Māori-Pākehā relations by generations and changed the course of New Zealand history for good. Here, in an original essay for The Spinoff, he explains how the war helped create modern … Read more
The refusal to mount an independent inquiry on behalf of those who suffered horrendous physical, sexual and psychological abuse in state care is staggering, writes Elizabeth Stanley. This morning the prime minister, John Key, has joined his social development minister, Anne Tolley, in defending the government’s approach to victims of horrendous physical, sexual and psychological … Read more
A conversation on the byelection result, politics and Asian communities, and whether Michael Wood’s big win points to a Labour resurgence, with two longtime Mt Roskill residents who happen also to be Tze Ming Mok’s parents Tze Ming Mok was born and raised in Mt Roskill by immigrant parents from Malaysia and Singapore. Her parents, … Read more