Slowly Australians are coming to realise that truth and non-violence are virtues that have eluded them for over two centuries, writes the Archdeacon of Australia’s Central Coast ahead of a New Zealand visit. As I prepare to travel to Aotearoa to speak at various events I am deeply aware that this preparation takes place in … Read more
The current trans-Tasman tensions have nothing on the decades of covert and overt collaboration between the Liberals, National and the Crosby Textor strategists. After less than three months into the new government, Trans-Tasman relations seemed to have plunged to their lowest point in years. First, during the campaign, Labour MP Chris Hipkins, at the behest … Read more
MTV Beats and Eats is an Australian festival which indulges in all the guilty pleasures we never admit and Kate Robertson is here for it. Mates, I need to disclose something to you before I go all play-by-play on the pop music one-dayer that was MTV Beats and Eats: I’m a festival fiend. Like, literally a … Read more
Last month, eight-year-old Nicholas wrote about his mums Katherine and Roanne, and the national referendum asking Australians to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the rights of rainbow families. We asked him to write again about the result of the vote, and what’s next for his family. Here’s some of what Nicholas wrote last month, while the vote … Read more
While Australia eventually did the right thing, it took months of public attacks on the LGBTQI+ community to get there. Kiwi export Courtney Mayhew reflects on having her sexuality turned into a public political football. Every year, 7th November is special day. It is the day of my birthday and the birthday of our Lorde. … Read more
A deep dive into the data on Australia’s public vote on same-sex marriage reveal some surprising details, write Australian public policy researchers Danielle Wood and Carmela Chivers. Australians have overwhelmingly voted “yes” for same-sex marriage. This means politicians will have to give up relying on the myth that a cultural backlash against the progressive agenda … Read more
Indigenous peoples throughout English-speaking countries have had their children taken away by the state for generations. Most countries have faced up to this legacy but New Zealand has been in denial about its own Stolen Generation – a group now known as Ngā Mōrehu (The Survivors). The new Labour government has agreed to set up … Read more
Calum Henderson watches Common Sense, a reality show that asks real people for their real reckons on current events. Who hasn’t watched the vox pops on the news and thought: these random people on the street should have their own show? In Australia, that dream has become a new reality series called Common Sense. A spinoff … Read more
Early voting for New Zealanders living overseas opens today. Rebekah Holt talks to some expat voters to discover whether the Jacinda effect has taken hold in Australia. In early July this year the then co-leader of the New Zealand Green Party James Shaw visited Melbourne to recruit NZ voters living here, and visit his dad. … Read more
The deputy PM can thank the legacy of the British Empire for sparking a political crisis, writes Australian history expert Kate Hunter Confused about citizenship? You wouldn’t be the only one. Adding to the strange episode of millionaire businessman Peter Thiel being granted citizenship despite having only visiting New Zealand for 12 days, we now … 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
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
The surge in student fees for those living across the ditch is just the latest one-way curbing of trans-Tasman privileges, but it’s more about political incompetence and indifference than cultural loathing, writes Barnaby Bennett, a New Zealander resident in Sydney. I grew up in New Zealand but have spent around six years living, working, teaching … Read more
President Trump reportedly called his fiery conversation with Malcolm Turnbull “the worst call so far” and later tweeted he would “study this dumb deal” to allow into the United States 1250 refugees currently being held in Australian detention centres. To help out student of international diplomacy Donald Trump – and the rest of us – Tracey … Read more
Canberra’s offshore detention camps can be seen as an example of ‘necro-politics’, argues Janet McAllister. This week, The Spinoff published Amnesty International’s piece calling for New Zealand to protest Australia’s offshore detention centres, and then The Guardian published mountains more evidence of abuse and atrocities on Nauru. It costs Australia billions of dollars every year to violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights so spectacularly. But simply … Read more
Amid Australia’s election deadlock, independent candidates have become a lightning rod for discontented voters, and there are lessons for NZ political parties, writes Jennifer Curtin. It might not be as internationally extraordinary as Brexit or Trump winning the Republican nomination, but the result of the Australian election has revealed a profound disaffection with both major … Read more
Australia wakes to discover it can’t make its mind up. Elle Hunt recaps the action from Sydney It’s the campaign that never ends, it just goes on and on, my friends… After an eight-week campaign and a neck-and-neck contest in which not very much happened, the Australian election was expected to be a close-run thing, … Read more
The long, long, long campaign has come to an end. Miss anything? Fear not: in a dispatch from Sydney, Elle Hunt breaks down everything you need to know. While New Zealanders have been shivving each other for avocados and living in abandoned cruise ships, Australia has been weathering its longest campaign since 1969. Prime minister … Read more
On the second anniversary of her migration to the Lucky Country, Di White is moved to tears by Chasing Asylum, an acclaimed new film about Australian refugee policy. It’s been two years since I moved to Australia. I arrived on a plane on 4 June 2014. I remember the day well. I was moving between … Read more
The Australian government has spent $6 million on a bizarre feature-length movie to warn away potential asylum seekers from the Middle East. Josh Drummond sat down with a Farsi-speaking interpreter to watch it. It’s dark in The Spinoff offices, late on a Sunday, and I can’t find the light switch. What little light there is … Read more
Samuel Scott takes his mind off the Black Caps’ humiliating defeat by thinking about their uncertain future. Day 1: Black Caps deliver touching reminder of the old days with throwback batting collapse Day 2: A day in hell Day 3: Blood magic now the Black Caps’ only hope As New Zealand’s hopes disappear, so do … Read more
As the hills around the Basin Reserve burn, along with the Black Caps’ chances, Samuel Flynn Scott turns to a legend’s blood-stained shirt in a search for salvation. Day 1: Black Caps deliver touching reminder of the old days with throwback batting collapse Day 2: A day in hell Mt Victoria is on fire. … Read more
Sam Scott watches Adam Voges score 176* as Australia clinically dismember the Black Caps on a punishingly hot day at the Basin Reserve. Day 1: Black Caps deliver touching reminder of the old days with throwback batting collapse As I peer out from under my giant “ladies hat” the field looks an out of focus … Read more
Samuel Flynn Scott watches the Black Caps, and his newfound high hopes, implode in a nostalgia-soaked first innings at the Basin Reserve. The lead up to this test series against Australia has been intense. For one thing, it’s Australia. Secondly, we have expectations now. This is new for the Black Caps fan, to go into … Read more
Is it a tale of a trusted institution gone rogue? There’s fan revolt. Official denial. Who do you believe? It was meant to be a happy night at Eden Park. The Black Caps were harvesting Australia’s souls. Their heatstruck fans were braying for Australian blood. And in most parts of the ground, beer was flowing freely … Read more
Hundreds of refugees remain stranded in Nauru, some in one of Australia’s controversial detention camps, others now in the community. 28 refugees on Nauru have appealed to New Zealand, seeking resettlement under a 2013 deal with Australia. One of the Nauru refugees details conditions in the camp and on the island, and why they wish … Read more
The NZ flag debate is fomenting confusion throughout the international press. Voting forms for New Zealand’s flag referendum have been dispatched by the legions of androgynous orange workers at the Electoral Commission, and the debate has returned to entertain and curse us. One point on which almost everyone, or at least those who favour a … Read more
In Geneva this week, Australian delegates appeared in a grey convention room as the UN Human Rights Council conducted its official Universal Periodic Review of the country’s human rights record. You can watch the whole thing, as it unfolded in the Palais des Nations, below, though it’s only fair to warn that it’s mostly tedious, … Read more
