This morning, an hour after news of a Real Housewives racism scandal broke, Duncan Greive spoke with Michelle Blanchard on the phone from the US about the episode. “This flat champagne, it’s driving me nuts,” says Michelle Blanchard, from an airline lounge in New York. She’s drinking in the afternoon, an hour away from boarding a flight … Read more
New Zealand’s greatest reality show doesn’t only offer a window into the lives of the rich and shameless, says Max Rashbrooke. It’s also a perfect distillation of how the country’s wealth is increasingly being concentrated at the top. In the first episode of Real Housewives of Auckland, Louise Wallace introduces herself with the immortal line, … Read more
In-house psychotherapist Ms X helps out a senior rugby administrator in an apology-shaped pickle. Dear Ms X, I’m having a bit of a problem getting people to believe I really am sorry about a thing that maybe happened. I didn’t actually do the thing that was bad, but I’m in charge of the people that … Read more
It’s Conservation Week, and we’re celebrating with a green-themed quiz. Dive in and discover how much you know about our wild places and natural resources.
The problem with the living costs loan isn’t just that it’s too low, says university student Jack Close. It’s how it unfairly advantages those who need the help least. It’s been nearly three years since I awkwardly navigated the StudyLink website for the first time. Moving to Dunedin from my middle-class home in Wellington, I … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Sophie Roberts, artistic director of Auckland’s Silo Theatre, about putting on their new all-female play Boys Will be Boys and being a tough bitch in a male-dominated industry. Let’s start with the show Boys Will be Boys – what’s it all about? Boys Will Be Boys is set in the world of … Read more
New Zealand 17-year-olds can’t vote, buy alcohol, gamble or marry. So why are they treated as adults once they’re arrested, asks Di White. Like an overachieving youngest sibling, New Zealand seems to be forever jumping up and down on the international stage, eager to be noticed and congratulated for its achievements. Whether it’s Lorde, our … Read more
Department of Conservation ranger populations are in decline, says Forest & Bird’s Kimberley Collins – and it’s having knock-on effects throughout our delicate ecosystem. It’s Conservation Week! Over the next five days, New Zealanders will unite in celebration of our nation’s unique and diverse wildlife and wild places. To mark our occasional successes in saving … Read more
Internationally renowned UK economist Ann Pettifor talks global finance, property speculation and debt forgiveness ahead of her upcoming public lecture series in New Zealand. Ann Pettifor is an international expert on sovereign debt. She is well known for correctly predicting the Global Financial Crisis and was a leader in the Jubilee 2000 debt campaign which … Read more
Is New Zealand a petrolhead nation? A glance at vehicle ownership, and how it’s changing. Inspired by the incredibly weird tale behind the Bashford Antiques clamping story, our friends at Figure.NZ have provided three graphic snapshots of motor vehicle ownership in New Zealand. Starting with the frankly absurd reality that most Auckland households own two … Read more
In October we launch The Spinoff Parents, edited by the incomparable Emily Writes and made possible by Flick Electric Co. Here Emily explains her vision for the section as a place for parents on the internet that won’t make you feel like a miserable failure. Parenting. It’s beautiful and incredible and joyous, glorious and so rewarding. It’s such … Read more
NZ Rugby hoped this week to draw a line under the scandal around the Chiefs behaviour at an end-of-season function. Fine, but we just have a few nagging, planet-sized questions, writes Hayden Donnell. Where is the report? Does it exist? Where is it? Just about all we’ve heard about this extensive report is from a … Read more
For this week’s quickfire examination: how much do you know about New Zealand and migration? Immigration and, to a lesser extent, emigration are hot political potatoes. Can New Zealand perform a near miracle and have a grown-up debate about it? You never know. In the meantime, facts are good. Test your own familiarity with the … Read more
There’s no reason to feel guilty about pulling the plug on a toxic friendship, says in-house psychotherapist Ms X. Dear Ms X, I’m writing to ask about maybe letting go of a long friendship. I’ve been friends with “Kate” for about a decade, since we were angsty teens in desperate need of some solid emotional … Read more
Yesterday, NZ Rugby held a press conference in relation to the Chiefs scandal, wherein they barely said anything at all. Today, the Human Rights Commission invites you to add your name to a letter calling for a change New Zealand rugby culture. The NZ Human Rights Commission has this afternoon published an open letter to … Read more
There were a lot of nice words thrown around today at the New Zealand Rugby press conference detailing their inquiry into The Chiefs’ scandal. But what did they really say? Alex Casey translates. Today we got New Zealand Rugby’s definitive ruling on The Chiefs scandal. Last month a stripper named Scarlette alleged that while hired to … Read more
In a hectic schedule, comedian James Nokise finds time to tell Waikato journalist Annette Taylor about touring, the country’s faux class system and the sound of his aunty’s laugh. James Nokise has been called New Zealand’s favourite Samoan/Welsh stand-up comic. Over the years he’s been to the Edinburgh and Adelaide Festivals, lectured at universities and … Read more
Yesterday we dived into the murky world of Bashford Antiques and the clamp-mad Michael Daniel Albert Organ. Today David Farrier and Hayden Donnell reveal the origin story of the mysterious Mr Organ. It was meant to be a story about some weird Facebook messages. Bashford Antiques had featured in a Story story after clamping every person who’d suffered a stray thought about parking outside … Read more
Three Figure.NZ charts offer a snapshot of the people who work in New Zealand restaurants and bars – and where. New Zealand’s growing hospitality sector has been in headlines recently both in relation to immigration policy and the rapidly changing face of the industry itself. But who is cooking and pouring and serving, and where?
The owners of Bashford Antiques are in the news for aggressively clamping cars outside their Ponsonby store. But this story is much, much stranger than a simple parking dispute. David Farrier reports. Click here for part two of this weird saga. The only tweet I’ve ever been “forced” to delete was about Bashford Antiques. It happened about three years ago, when I was … Read more
Gregory O’Brien is one of dozens of artists, architects and others hoping to get between the Āniwaniwa Visitor Centre and the DOC demolition crew, which is set to begin work on Monday morning (SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES) A bevy of architects are on the road to Te Urewera this evening, hoping to stop the Department … Read more
Were you a baby once? If so, you’re perfectly equipped to tackle the second quiz from Figure.NZ for the Spinoff, all about babies and parenting in New Zealand. [qzzr quiz=’258055′ width=’100%’ height=’auto’ redirect=’true’ offset=’0′]
The response to this morning’s shake reinforces the urgency of authorising GeoNet to issue tsunami warnings, writes Philip Duncan. (Includes updated response to Civil Defence rejection of criticisms, below) This morning it took almost an hour before the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management acknowledged the severe magnitude 7.1 earthquake off East Cape that … Read more
This week Ms. X tackles a problem familiar to every coupled-up cat-owner in the country: why does it insist on staring at us while we’re getting down to business? Hi there What do you do with your cat while you’re having sex? If we leave ours in the room it sits beside the bed and … Read more
“Machines will eventually take 100% of our jobs, so we can all relax, a little,” wrote Oliver Carlé on The Spinoff last week. James Robins, for one, is not placated. The scene is a humble neighbourhood supermarket at dusk. Between the searing light above and the linoleum sheen below, you stand holding a desultory wine … Read more
Alex Casey, Michele A’Court and Leonie Hayden assemble in their she-shed to discuss a golden turd of a month for women in New Zealand. We survived the gold medal sexism of the Olympics, the Chiefs scandal, Kevin Roberts and much more to bring you this month’s bumper 80 minute episode of despair. As always, host … Read more
The law needs to be changed to allow Lecretia Seales’ wish to determine when she died. But we must take care that such a measure would not be a slippery slope toward some ambiguous twilight zone, says Sir Geoffrey Palmer Lecretia Seales died of a cancerous brain tumour in Wellington on 3 June 2015. She … Read more
In the second post from our new collaboration with Figure.NZ, a glance at the proportion of women bosses in New Zealand, plus how the numbers look in higher education. Last week Alex Casey spoke to Tara Moss, “activist, author, journalist and very cool legend” about her book Speaking Out, and why women have been so … Read more
Time to face facts – artificial intelligence will transform our world. Oliver Carlé, for one, is ready to welcome our new robot overlords. A month ago the NZ Herald ran the hair-raising headline “The robots are coming, should we be worried?” Under it were some alarming stats, like an Oxford University study suggesting 47% of … Read more