Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Bailout to stave off crisis in international education sector, return flight bookings freeze extended again, and man selling bleach as Covid cure raided. If it wasn’t already on the cards, the international education sector got a clear message that students would be unlikely to return … Read more
Well over 150 vaccine candidates for Covid-19 are in development, and they take a myriad of forms. Siouxsie Wiles helps make sense of the different approaches, with illustration by Toby Morris. For more Siouxsie-Toby collaborations, see here. With the exciting news that two Covid-19 vaccine candidates (Oxford/AstraZeneca and CanSino Biological Inc/Beijing Institute of Biotechnology) have … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: National dismisses horror poll as a “rogue”, new populist party draws huge crowd in Auckland, and family attempts managed isolation escape to see father’s body. There are two possible explanations for an astonishing political poll that came out last night. Conducted by Reid Research for Newshub, it … Read more
The Borrowdale case, which goes before a full bench in the High Court today, demonstrates a society taking its basic governing commitments seriously, writes Andrew Geddis. As time goes by, it becomes ever more apparent that New Zealand’s response to Covid-19 has worked as well as we could hope. We didn’t just flatten the curve, … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for July 27. The latest on New Zealand news, politics and the Covid-19 crisis, updated throughout the day. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7pm: The day in sum The international education sector received a $51.6m funding boost from the government to help protect jobs and stabilise the industry. Judith … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for July 26. The latest on New Zealand news, politics and the Covid-19 crisis, updated throughout the day. 7.30pm: The day in sum National recorded a terrible result in a new Reid poll for Newshub, with Labour passing 60%. Judith Collins rejected it as a rogue poll. A new, … Read more
The crowd’s attention wasn’t primarily on the ball when political editor Justin Giovannetti went to see his first rugby game. As the parliamentary team faced off against the local Centurions all eyes were on the director general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, starting at openside flanker. People like Ashley Bloomfield just aren’t supposed to exist. To … Read more
The Covid-19 pandemic has seen doctors and nurses cast as heroes battling a villainous virus. It may be well-intentioned, but it’s a narrative that serves no value, writes ICU doctor Alex Kazemi. In a foyer in Southampton General Hospital in the UK hangs a one-metre-square artwork, donated by the street artist Banksy during the time … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for July 25. The latest on New Zealand news, politics and the Covid-19 crisis, updated throughout the day. 6.30pm: The day in sum After a major police search, a 17-year-old boy who absconded from a managed isolation facility in Hamilton was apprehended by police in Auckland this morning. He … Read more
Crucially, Australia’s ambition has been suppression, rather than elimination. Back when Aotearoa was in lockdown, many people loudly complained that we should be following Australia’s lead in dealing with the pandemic. While our strategy was to try to eliminate Covid-19, Australia was taking another path. They would try suppressing the virus instead. That meant that … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for July 24. The latest on New Zealand news, politics and the Covid-19 crisis, updated throughout the day. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 10.50pm: ‘Incredibly irresponsible’ – Woods on latest absconders Megan Woods, the minister in charge of the border facilities, condemned the escapees in a statement tonight. “This … Read more
Due to the ongoing pandemic, this year’s New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) is going predominantly digital for the very first time, replacing nights out at the Civic with nights in-front of the living room TV. Aaron Yap explores both the upsides and downsides to this unprecedented shakeup, and wonders if film festivals in the … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for July 23. The latest on New Zealand news, politics and the Covid-19 crisis, updated throughout the day. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7.10pm: The day in sum Police confirmed a new investigation has been launched into disgraced former MP Andrew Falloon. David Seymour labelled Winston Peters ‘nasty’ and … Read more
In the sixth part of a series sharing the stories of families learning from home during lockdown, Arihia Latham reflects on the life lessons her daughters will take into a new future. This month we acknowledged te wā o Matariki me Pūanga, the Māori new year. It’s been a year huh. I have heard people … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for July 22. The latest on New Zealand news, politics and the Covid-19 crisis, updated throughout the day. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 6.00pm: The day in sum Judith Collins disclosed she’d revealed a tip-off alleging “inappropriate behaviour” about a Labour minister. That minister was later revealed to be Iain … Read more
While banks predict house prices will still fall, by how much depends on a number of factors – including location, reports Brent Melville for BusinessDesk. Banks are being less than apocalyptic on their expectations for a post-Covid housing market correction, which could be as low as 5%, although they warn of potentially significant regional variations. … Read more
As more businesses focus on e-commerce, the risk of cybercrime increases too. Visa’s Sam Gianniotis offers guidance on how businesses can protect their customers – and themselves – when operating online. With New Zealanders retreating into their homes as lockdown took hold, businesses realised that to stay open they’d need to adapt to an online-first … Read more
The harsh new national security law has cast a shadow over Hong Kong, but the threat of Covid-19 is still big enough to keep many New Zealanders in Hong Kong from leaving. The Spinoff spoke to four people living in Hong Kong during a time of historic upheaval. On June 30 a draconian new national … Read more
Air New Zealand wouldn’t refund customers the value of their cancelled flights, instead offering them credit to book new ones. Now, after a long wait, a tool has been developed that lets them do it online. What’s all this then? Many months in the making, Air New Zealand has developed a tool that allows customers … Read more
Results of two vaccine trials are in and the news is encouraging. Siouxsie Wiles explains what it all means, and what happens next. As the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 approaches 15 million, with more than 600,000 deaths around the world, there is at least some positive news on the vaccine front. The results … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for July 21. The latest on New Zealand news, politics and the Covid-19 crisis, updated throughout the day. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7.30pm: The day in sum Andrew Falloon resigned, after pressure from leader Judith Collins to do so immediately. Two more women came forward with allegations that Falloon … Read more
Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas on the Andrew Falloon scandal and its implications for a beleaguered National Party, a big weekend for Winston Peters and NZ First, and the chorus calling to charge arriving New Zealanders for their hotel isolation. Less than two months out from the election, the National Party remains bedevilled … Read more
Retail investors should invest in companies that have paid out dividends, been ahead of new trends or been able to push pause during the Covid-19 crisis, reports Dan Brunskill for BusinessDesk. Picking the next round of gains is a difficult challenge in a market that has been reordered by the pandemic, but humanity’s ability to … Read more
The oldest independent literary festival in Aotearoa is putting its massive back-catalogue online. Going West’s producer James Littlewood explains why – and what’s next. February, 2020. We’d just pulled together a crack team and were poised to launch into full-blown planning when the virus hit and we went into lockdown. Suddenly, the future ceased to … Read more
Both major parties now want people returning to the country to pay for mandatory managed isolation. Our fellow New Zealanders don’t deserve such cruelty, argues Alex Braae. Sarah has been trying to get home to New Zealand for months now. The eastern European country she is in locked their borders before MFAT started sending out … Read more
The Bluetooth-enabled tracking device is being sold as a more effective alternative to the Covid Tracer app, but the brutal truth is that neither are the miracle solution we want, writes Richard Easther. Covid-19 is a tightly rolled ball of nucleic acid and protein, astride the fuzzy line separating the living world from fancy chemistry. … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: National announces its plan to charge returnees $3,000 and the government indicates a policy is coming soon, Judith Collins’ first weekend as National leader, and Northland reels from flood damage. The days of free hotel stays for all returning New Zealanders appear to be drawing … Read more
Good afternoon, and welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for July 20. The latest on New Zealand news, politics and the Covid-19 crisis, updated throughout the day. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 8.10pm: The day in sum National MP Andrew Falloon announced he would not be standing in this year’s election after reportedly sending a … Read more
The latest on New Zealand news, politics and the Covid-19 crisis, updated throughout the day. 7.30pm: The day in sum There were three new cases of Covid-19, two men in their 30s and one woman in her 70s. All were detected in managed isolation. All returning adult New Zealanders would be charged $3000 to cover … Read more