He quit politics to care for a wife who had suffered a brain haemorrhage. Today he holds leading roles at the apex of the two great challenges facing South Auckland: housing and health. Vui Mark Gosche tells Justin Latif why a change is coming. He is one of the most powerful people in South Auckland. … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: School year beginning with added challenges, Mahuta moves against petitions opposing Māori wards, and fishing company could lose vessel over illegal trawling. Schools are beginning to go back after a summer break, and into a year that will present some deep challenges. That’ll be true whether … Read more
Vodafone and Kiwibank have suspended advertising on the radio station and its website as talkback host John Banks is taken off air after yet another racist outburst. Alex Braae reports. In an alarming segment of talkback radio, former Auckland mayor John Banks endorsed the views of a caller who described Māori as a “stone age … Read more
Why are there so many offensive comments on the New Zealand Police Facebook page and are they breaking the law? Janaye Henry investigates. New Zealand Police Facebook pages – there are a number of them, for different regional police districts around the country – are an interesting place to spend an hour or two. They … Read more
A Pūhoi pub is refusing to remove a piece of memorabilia bearing the n-word from its walls. Dr Lachy Paterson looks at the history of the word here, and New Zealand’s complicity in Britain’s shameful slave trading past. Content warning: This article contains racist language and images. On a pub wall in Pūhoi, covered in … Read more
Summer reissue: History warns that we should be wary of the misuse of power in the name of public health, writes Scott Hamilton. First published on April 2, 2020. Content warning: This feature contains distressing descriptions of racism against Māori. In the winter of 1913 a group of Māori appeared in the office of Arthur … Read more
An NCEA history exam this year included a poem by Lionel Terry, a white supremacist and cold-blooded murderer. Chris Tse, who wrote a book inspired by Terry’s victim, explains why the exam question has caused such hurt within the Chinese New Zealand community. I have a complicated history with Lionel Terry, and it pains me … Read more
Two Māori University of Auckland students tell Sherry Zhang about their struggle to get coffee with racist imagery removed from campus – and why they think it’s emblematic of a bigger problem. A few weeks ago, The Spinoff received a peculiar email: Subject: Auckland University Racist Coffee!! Body: Please investigate! Photos Attached: Caricatures of a … Read more
Aotearoa’s challenges are clear, but it is incumbent, too, on the Australian government to launch an inquiry of its own – the society that shaped the terrorist and the failure of its own intelligence services, writes Anjum Rahman. My first impression on reading the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Terrorist Attacks … Read more
Tāmaki Makaurau is a city under construction, but are Māori and Pasifika architects and designers being given the opportunities they deserve? It seems everywhere you go in Auckland right now, there’s a new development of some sort. Whether it’s a new bridge, playground, some public housing or a refreshed streetscape, almost all these projects include … Read more
Leonie Hayden gets in her feelings about a shitty day for Māori women. There are days in my job where I feel nothing but hopeful. Like when I think about the work being done by Nuku100, telling the stories of 100 indigenous women. Or I get to wānanga with Donna Kerridge and Ayla Hoeta, or … Read more
Māori journalists are used to receiving racist messages. Sometimes you get one that just hits different, writes Te Aniwa Hurihanganui for RNZ. Content warning: contains violent racist language. I shouldn’t have been checking my work emails. It was a Saturday night and I was in my favourite place, my grandparents’ house, where the rooms carry … Read more
Community leaders and politicians are crying foul over how Auckland Council runs the decision-making body that rules on liquor store licences, with some going as far to describe the process as an example of institutional racism. “I just hoped we’d get a fair hearing.” That’s what Arihia Stirling was thinking as she went into the … Read more
Novelist Catherine Robertson explains why she and poet Jane Arthur will not be stocking [redacted] or [redacted] at their new store, Good Books, in Wellington. “You’re so brave” is the most irritating thing to say to someone who’s set up a new business. It implies you’ve taken a risk that no sane person would contemplate, … Read more
During Helen Clark’s second term, Don Brash’s Ōrewa speech saw National surge in the polls and the Labour government’s social policies tighten. Fifteen years years later, could history repeat? When a socially progressive party wins an overwhelming electoral mandate, it’s natural to wonder how long its luck will last. Will Labour really implement strong social … Read more
While our newest migrant MPs are inspiring people across the world, their first week in parliament has not passed without controversy here in New Zealand. Not since the early 1900s, when recent immigrants flooded the colonial parliament’s benches, has the Beehive seen such an influx of foreign-born MPs – albeit on a much smaller scale. … Read more
The National leader’s comments were rooted in political ideology rather than real-life experience, writes South Auckland nutritionist Mason Ngawhika, who believes the health of the community is a collective responsibility. I know virtually no one who is satisfied with their current weight or body composition. Meaning everyone I know is unable to take the personal … Read more
Hirini Kaa, an Anglican minister and historian who’s worked in the health and social services sectors, explains why he’ll be voting no on the End of Life Choice referendum. I’m voting no on the End of Life Choice (EOLC) referendum. I have many concerns about this legislation, including around the technical aspects and operation of … Read more
The current conversation should prompt all universities to closely examine both how and what they teach, writes Massey University provost Giselle Byrnes. Much has been said lately about structural racism in the New Zealand university system. While these allegations have been specifically raised at the University of Waikato, all eight of the country’s universities have … Read more
Accusations of cultural appropriation in the restaurant world have made headlines in recent months, but why aren’t we talking about the white-owned ‘Asian fusion’ eateries that continue to trade off casual racism? One day, I walked past Auckland restaurant Monsoon Poon. I’ve ambled past the area plenty of times, but never with any real interest; … Read more
A tragedy in four parts. INT. DIMLY LIT BASEMENT – MORNING Danny awakens and kicks off his Star Wars duvet. He picks up his phone to check if anyone responded to his incendiary revelation about Jacinda Ardern’s Covid-19 mind control experiment on Reddit last night. He stares at his phone in mute horror. There at … Read more
The Rawiri Community House, nestled between the Auckland suburbs of Manukau and Manurewa, helps hundreds of families with food and other essential services each week. It’s kept going thanks to an unlikely friendship forged in the struggle to help those doing it toughest. My interview at the Rawiri Community House in Rata Vine, with Liz … Read more
Waikato University has started an internal inquiry after a number of senior Māori staff alleged structural racism from the institution. One former and one current staff member say the issue’s been bubbling away for years. In 2018, staff and students of the University of Waikato’s Māori and Indigenous Studies faculty fought to stop the faculty … Read more
In the aftermath of the 2019 Christchurch terror attacks, Guled Mire found himself a reluctant spokesperson for the New Zealand Muslim community. His experiences in the year that followed are the subject of new Loading Docs documentary short One Year On. Even as we approach a year and a half since that day, I struggle … Read more
It is a scandal in plain sight: our education system is racist and the outcomes people get vary substantially depending on ethnicity, writes Laura O’Connell Rapira. Avondale rapper Tom Scott recently took to Instagram to point out that the real conspiracy in this country is that education is for the rich. “Rich kids get private … Read more
As racist and unfounded rumours swirl, how is the family at the centre of New Zealand’s newest Covid cluster and the wider South Auckland community responding? Justin Latif reports. A week after the announcement that members of a south Auckland household had tested positive for Covid-19, the family is getting the support it needs, according … Read more
Covid-19 has created an increase in racism towards retail workers. Z Energy’s Matau Stewart spoke to The Spinoff about his personal experiences with racism, and why some of New Zealand’s biggest retail companies are proactively addressing abuse of their staff. When New Zealand moved into lockdown it quickly became apparent how essential frontline retail staff … Read more
An increased focus on ‘talking about it’ will only help if we’re honest with ourselves and each other about what is driving self-inflicted deaths in this country, writes Carla na Nagara. There has always been debate about whether talking about suicide is responsible or constructive. And since the Covid-19 alert level response started in March, … Read more
There are no incumbents in the south Auckland seat of Takanini, for this is a completely new electorate. Justin Latif goes to meet some of the voters, and the fascinating bunch desperate for their support. The name of New Zealand’s newest electorate can be traced back to a prominent Te Ākitai Waiohua chief of the … Read more