The Bulletin: Diverging outcomes from Covid-relief benefit

Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Reports show diverging outcomes from Covid-relief benefit, Aucklanders head off at end of lockdown, and police quietly setting up facial recognition system. We’re starting to see a wide divergence in outcomes from the Covid-19 Income Relief Payment benefit, introduced at the start of the pandemic. At … Read more

Emily Writes: On coming ‘home’ to school and our community

In the fifth part of a new series that shares the stories of families learning from home during lockdown, Emily Writes puts faith in her community as her son returns to school.  He knew school would be opening the following week and we’re not quite sure how. Maybe the excitement and anxiety of the neighbourhood’s … Read more

Plenty of soap: Shortland Street is back, but life on set is far from normal

With the start of alert level three, Shortland Street announced it would be the first drama in the country to start shooting again in a Covid-19 world. Chris Schulz talks to the soap’s cast and crew to find out how they did it.  When actor Michael Galvin arrives at Shortland Street’s Auckland studio to begin … Read more

The Bulletin: Religious groups struggle with level two limits

Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Religious groups struggle with level two limits, many more kids going back to school today, and further cellphone tower attacks over the weekend. Another weekend has passed with strict attendance restrictions on religious gatherings, despite the country moving into level two. The vast majority of worship … Read more

Reopening day at Rainbow’s End under alert level two

Michael Andrew heads to the south Auckland amusement park as it returns to business. When I was maybe 10 or 11 years old, I used to dream about having Rainbow’s End to myself. What if the park was empty, and I could enjoy all the rides without having to compete with the crowds or the … Read more

The Bulletin: A day of concern about police overreach

Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: A day of concern about police overreach, budget to be announced today, and rules on tangi changed after pressure. Plenty of concerns have been raised about the powers that police will hold under enabling legislation for alert level two. The bill to make level two possible … Read more

A few metres from normality: On anxiety and alert level two

They’re calling level two a return to normality, but for many of us that’s not really true. Sam Brooks, for one, is anxious as hell about the prospect of a world that’s more open, and more dangerous. Less than two minutes after Jacinda Ardern announced we would be moving to level two, I messaged two … Read more

The Bulletin: Clarifying the rules of level two

Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: level two is coming but some of the rules have changed, Work and Income could be facing class action suit, and China issues strong warning to NZ over Taiwan. So we got the announcement yesterday – we will be moving to alert level two this … Read more

Level Two: The Parnell innovation centre fostering NZ’s deep tech projects

Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. This week he talks to Imche Fourie, General Manager of LevelTwo, and Dr … Read more