Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Challenges loom in matching unemployed with rural jobs, trans-Tasman travel bubble agreed in principle, and Greens push for urgent Fair Pay Agreements. It is increasingly becoming clear that one of the country’s biggest economic challenges over the rest of the year will be matching people … Read more
Yesterday Ian Foster was announced as the new coach of the All Blacks, having already spent eight years as part of the coaching setup. Here, Jamie Wall recounts first meeting Foster in Buenos Aires, and how he marks a departure from Steve Hansen. It was a Friday night earlier this year in Buenos Aires when … Read more
The process to appoint Steve Hansen’s successor looks increasingly like a farce as quality candidate after quality candidate rule themselves out. Was it all preordained, asks Jamie Wall. For an awful lot of 2019, I was one of the select few that sat in a room with Steve Hansen several times a week. There’s something … Read more
By reference to history and science, we predict which way tonight’s crunch game in the Rugby World Cup is likely to go. 1 The semifinal falls two days after the New Zealand release of JoJo Rabbit, the new movie by acclaimed filmmaker and Hurricanes talisman Taika Waititi. The last time an England versus All Blacks … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: NZ First holds crucial party conference, roving AOS trial sparks concerns, and Mediaworks facing dramatic days ahead. The most pivotal political party in the country right now has held their annual conference, a year out from what will be a make or break election. NZ First … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Former Air NZ boss confirms he’ll go for National’s Botany nomination, apology tour to Nicky Hager continues, and beneficiaries turn to sharks to pay MSD debt. So it’s official now: Former Air New Zealand boss Christopher Luxon has confirmed he will go for the National … Read more
On Saturday, South African fans sang loudly over the top of the All Blacks’ haka in the opening round of the Rugby World Cup. Opposing sides and crowds can do what they want, writes Louisa Tipene Opetaia, but they should heed the lessons of the past. Four years of build-ups culminated in the highly anticipated … Read more
The history of tattoo art in Japan is deep-rooted and complex – and so is the cultural aversion to tattooed bodies, explains Brian Ashcraft, the author of a book on subject. Tonight, when the All Blacks take the field, they’ll likely be covering up. In order not to run afoul of Japanese cultural niceties, players … Read more
In this episode of our new tarot reading show Wild Card, The Spinoff’s resident psychic divines the outcome of the All Blacks’ opening match against the Springboks on Saturday. In the first and potentially only episode of Wild Card, we have a focus on sport. The Spinoff’s psychic-in-residence, Jo Sees, specialises in divining breakups and … Read more
Loved Linda Burgess’s essays for The Spinoff? Now she’s written a whole book of ’em. And it is, predictably, terrific. With love, Linda Burgess writes simply in her dedication. With love, and god there is so much of it here, in these essays, this “memoir of sorts”, you’ll get to the end and feel like … Read more
A squad of New Zealand’s big sporting bodies just announced they were ‘taking a stand’, to ‘create a positive experience for all young people playing sport’. If they’re serious about achieving both a healthier national culture and a slew of world-class athletes, the model should be Norway, writes Trevor McKewen. “It’s time to change our … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Environment minister blocks Waitaha River power scheme, Britain shaken by parliament suspension plan, and measles outbreak spikes in South Auckland. The government has made an important decision to not allow a West Coast hydro power scheme to go ahead. Stuff reports environment minister David Parker declined the … Read more
At Eden Park on Saturday night, the Wallabies were on the receiving end of a ruthless players’ revenge, writes Scotty Stevenson The rain came. It always seems to at Eden Park, just as the Wallabies warm up on the pitch, dreaming of ending a drought. It came from the west, the only threatening thing that … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Mayors launch bids to return in Auckland and Wellington, Hamilton’s skyline could change significantly, and support for cannabis legalisation plummets in poll. Two incumbent mayors have launched their re-election campaigns over the weekend, with a bigger fight on their hands than they may have expected. In … Read more
With the acquisition of global rugby streaming leader RugbyPass, Sky might have just secured its future, writes Trevor McKewen. For several months now, the war between Sky and Spark Sport for the peerless prize of All Blacks and New Zealand rugby rights from 2021 onwards has been escalating. Every week, one of the two corporate … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Nervousness about latest batch of tourist numbers, Waitangi Tribunal hammers prisoner voting ban, and more refugees heading for smaller provincial centres. The tourism industry is showing definite signs of a wobble, with arrival number growth looking flat and certain key markets dropping away. Despite 2019 being … Read more
Air New Zealand released their new safety video this morning, featuring the legendary Louis Litt from legal drama Suits. Tara Ward buckles up to watch. Prepare yourself for the brace position, because Air New Zealand just dropped its latest safety video. In typical Air New Zealand safety fashion, it’s filled with famous faces like Cliff Curtis, George … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: National launches major policy on cancer drug funding, popular support swells for Ihumātao protectors as govt steps in, and ski industry workers face snow drought. National have announced big plans for cancer drug funding if they win in 2020. At the party’s annual conference, leader Simon … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Skifield snowmaking a sign of the future, vaccination rates fall alarmingly, and construction industry encouraged to lower emissions. Snowmaking has saved the ski industry from disaster this year, after the weather didn’t create the desired winter wonderland. The ODT reports that South Island mountains have seen very little … Read more
When the Māori All Blacks play Fiji this month, MP Peeni Henare will be in the commentary booth calling the match in te reo. Don Rowe reports on an initiative to normalise te reo through the medium of sport. Around 500 years ago, in 2011, Māori TV broadcasted all 48 games of that year’s Rugby … Read more
Revered Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto has unveiled the jersey the All Blacks will wear when they compete in the Rugby World Cup this September. The result is… meh, writes Josie Steenhart. Not only is there no white collar on the new All Blacks jersey, released yesterday (if we don’t count the accidental sneak peek … Read more
Last week Trevor McKewen wrote of his epiphany about Real Men Wear Black, the bestseller he wrote in 1992. It didn’t sound like the book I read a long time ago as an impressionable young rugby fan, writes Jamie Wall. I mean, I get what Trevor was saying, that we need to address toxic masculinity … Read more
Twenty-seven years ago, Trevor McKewen’s book about New Zealand rugby heroes celebrated a stoic, machismo national character. Recently his daughter asked him: would you want your grandsons to read that? I had always wanted to write a book. For a lot of my early working life, I was a sports journo. So I wrote a … Read more
New Sky CEO Martin Stewart has had a huge first month in the job, burning down the house of his famed predecessor John Fellet, writes Trevor McKewen. Less than a month into his new job as the CEO of one of New Zealand’s most disliked brands (and that really is a feat when you’re in … Read more
We asked former All Black great Bob Burgess to review a new book on his team-mate Keith Murdoch. But then we changed our mind, and asked his wife Linda Burgess to write whatever she wanted about rugby. This was originally published 8 August 2018. A rugby game lasts a whole day. Your father wears a … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to the last edition of The Bulletin for 2018. Well, crikey. It’s the end of the year. I’ve got some thoughts on that down the other end of the page, but you’re here for the news and there’s still heaps to get through here. I thought what might help people out the … Read more
When Gordonton’s Aaron Hopa died in a tragic diving accident off Whangamatā on December 8, 1998, he left a legacy shaped by rugby, whānau, and aroha. Ben Stanley tells the story of the greatest All Black you never knew. This story was made possible by The Spinoff’s Longform Fund for major journalism projects, and in … Read more
Infrequent flyer Joseph Nunweek gruellingly attempts to rank them all. “Toneless.” “Trivialising safety” “A juvenile mish-mash.” The real surprise last week when The Hon. Shane Jones MP criticised the latest Air New Zealand safety video wasn’t that the Minister for Verbiage would stick his neck out and create a political football – it was that … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Farmer shareholders give Fonterra a serve, Czech drug dealer breaks his silence, and Auckland Councillor attendance rates are in focus. Fonterra management has been given a serve by their shareholders, in the form of a brutal financial report. Covered on the NZ Herald, the Shareholders Council report says … Read more