Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Contact tracing in focus as NZ prepares to leave lockdown, how businesses should manage level three, and Winston Peters fails in bid to sue National MPs. The decision is in, and we will be leaving level four – just not until next Monday night. PM Jacinda … Read more
Our lives have been shaken over the past month, and not just in the obvious ways. Here are some of the smaller, stranger things that lockdown has brought up. When everyone withdrew into their bubbles almost four weeks ago, it was clear certain things would be different: our levels of social interaction, our incomes, and … Read more
Dietary Requirements is The Spinoff’s monthly podcast in which we eat, drink and talk about it too, with special thanks to Freedom Farms. This month, we’re beaming in from our respective bubbles, joined by Al Keating of Coffee Supreme. Although we can’t be together in person, the Dietary Requirements team was not about to let a … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Political positioning intensifies over post-Covid future, decision coming on whether to leave lockdown, and schools and ECEs in spotlight. ‘Don’t politicise the crisis’, came the calls. Well, that’s out the window now. As the lockdown inches closer to a possible end (more on that later) we’re … Read more
Cabinet meets at 10.30am tomorrow to determine if and when New Zealand will move out of alert level four. This afternoon Jacinda Ardern outlined the criteria for that decision. This is what she said. Read more about announcements at today’s media briefing here As I have no doubt everybody in New Zealand is acutely aware, … Read more
The Covid-19 crisis has propelled the field of public health to the foreground. A few simple public health concepts could help keep us on track as we near one month in level four, writes Louise Thornley. Public health is suddenly part of everyday conversation. Many of us have become addicted to the daily Covid-19 update, … Read more
This week, as a treat for tired parents, we’re sharing a small sample of the Emily Writes Weekly newsletter free. Emily Writes Weekly comes out every Thursday at 7pm. This week’s edition included – along with tips about Quibi and Emily’s fan mail of the week segment – ideas for home learning for parents. It … Read more
Imagine Love Island without… the touching? Netflix’s new reality show Too Hot to Handle hits a little bit close to our distanced homes, writes Sam Brooks. When it starts, Too Hot to Handle seems like another escapist log on the reality show pyre, upon which many an attractive, abominably-blessed human has been set alight. Waves … Read more
Fresh data shows most New Zealanders are staying at home, while activity in some regions has plummeted by 100%. Jacinda Ardern warned that week three would be the hardest period of level four lockdown, and more people would be tempted to leave their homes as the country reached the final stretch. According to Google’s latest … Read more
Kim Paton, director of Auckland gallery Objectspace, contrasts the creativity of artists online in lockdown with the “stunning awful blow” dealt at the same time to the cultural sector. In the panic of the lockdown announcement, I bought a sewing machine. I’ve always sewed. In my late teens and early 20s I earned money making … Read more
‘My patience, never a very strong part of my character, is being stretched a bit so thinking of something else is preferable to throwing all the cups on the floor.’ Read more from the lockdown letters here. A wild patience has taken me this far… Adrienne Rich I thought of that line this morning while I … Read more
Ātea editor Leonie Hayden is one of the lucky ones, she says, so why does it feel like there’s a weight inside her chest? Yesterday was my first happy day in lockdown. I made fresh pasta. I folded washing and watched Moana. Am I the only one who hasn’t caught up on their washing? Two … Read more
Somehow we’re up to week four of these lockdown lists. What is time. The theme this week is, essentially, “carbs in book form”. Ease. Enjoyment. The anti-ennui. Put together, as previously, by the wonderful teams at Unities Auckland and Wellington. But just quickly first, a couple of local recommendations from our resolutely lowbrow books ed … Read more
Lockdown requires a sacrifice of some form or another from everyone, but the sacrifices never fall proportionately. Read more from the lockdown letters here. Four years ago, and yes, this is a shameless plug, and yes, I’m about to turn it into a loud self-vindication, I wrote: “To participate in politics is, for many young people, … Read more
The government has just unveiled more detail about what life will be like for New Zealanders under level three restrictions. What will it mean for schools, business and day-to-day life? The first point – we still don’t know when we’ll move to level three. That has not been announced today, and an update won’t be … Read more
We’ve had a taste of what streets designed for people, not cars, could look like. Let’s take those lessons with us when we emerge from lockdown, writes Emma McInnes. Our cities feel profoundly different these days. The whine and roar of traffic has been replaced with the chatter of birds, the squeals of delighted kids, … Read more
Like many other of our rights and liberties, privacy has been upended by Covid-19. Privacy commissioner John Edwards looks at the hard choices we’re about to face. Privacy was described in a seminal 1890 essay as “the right to be let alone”. Now, in April 2020, we find ourselves instead obliged to stay alone. The … Read more
We all know we’re spending even more time than usual in front of the TV screen, but what free-to-air shows have New Zealanders turned to during these troubled times? With most New Zealanders stuck at home all day during the lockdown, it makes sense that we’ve turned to ye olde gogglebox in record numbers. The … Read more
With more New Zealanders feeling isolated, anxious and stressed from the Covid-19 effect, the need to take a moment and establish a sense of calm has never been more important. That’s where a new free app can help. In late 2018, when mental health advocate and All Black legend Sir John Kirwan launched his company … Read more
A librarian walks us through all the virtual offerings, and explains why we have to queue for ebooks. Hardly a surprise, but I love public libraries. They exemplify the best of social democracy by providing free resources, services and advice for all members of a community – we have no choice but to stan. Libraries … Read more
The low-down on the lockdown educational TV channels, which launch tomorrow. We’re still in lockdown, but term two begins this week. What’s the story with the new TV channels? This week sees the launch of two new television channels dedicated to broadcasting educational programmes for school students during the Covid-19 lockdown. The first is Home … Read more
‘The surf sounded like Eden Park on the end of a try. The gulls were diving. Laughing. Giving us the finger.’ Read more from the lockdown letters here. Dear Jesus It’s good to see you. I suppose it’s been a hell of a weekend for you. Must bring back some pretty shitty memories. I … Read more
Even in normal times, loneliness takes a terrible toll on society’s most vulnerable. Now with New Zealand under lockdown, we need to be even more mindful of the risks. These are disorienting times. The benchmark for what’s “normal” is shifting so rapidly it’s dizzying to remember what we were all doing just a few weeks … Read more
‘Illegal bulletins by Rona and Chips Bailey and cartoons by Max Bollinger continued in spite of police raids and were delivered by people to other people, all of whom knew if they were caught with a copy they’d go to jail.’ Read more from the lockdown letters here. After the fifth listen I went for a … Read more
With many of us forced to adapt to get through Covid-19 and the lockdown, the constant juggling act of freelancers should be a source of inspiration. Waiting for pay, waiting for work. Taking what you can get in between. For many people, such an austere scenario sounds like a scene from a grey and dusty … Read more
A new national survey shows overwhelming backing for the government’s Covid-19 response – and a clear majority willing to submit to location tracking, should it be introduced. Stickybeak’s David Brain breaks down the data. An exclusive new survey from Stickybeak for The Spinoff shows an overwhelming majority of New Zealanders approve of the government’s response … Read more
Week three of our lockdown Top 10s – books about elsewhere, brought to you by the good humans of Unity Books. A reminder that these lists are completely unshackled from space and time and what’s happening in the world of books right now. Take no notice of the numbers, either – we just like the … Read more
A tape recording in a brown paper bag recently landed in Emily Writes’ letterbox. After thoroughly disinfecting it she was shocked to discover what it contained. Today was a normal day, day 8,271 of the lockdown, and I saw there was a parcel in the letterbox. Knowing a trip to the letterbox would be the … Read more
The Beths’ livestreamed concert yesterday showed that even in lockdown, live music isn’t dead. Here’s why it worked, and where you can see other Kiwis live streaming for the next week. Yesterday at 9am, Liz Stokes put a giant pineapple mask over her head and played the Animal Crossing theme on a trumpet stuffed with … Read more