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Comment: Open Mike 06/07/25
Written By: Steven NIc - Date published: 10:51 am, July 6th, 2025
In the spirit of openness and transparency espoused by our current government, I wrote a letter to the editor of my local newspaper. i suggested the newspaper introduces a monthly summary of issues at our local hospital. The number of days the A & E were ...Comment: Open Mike 05/07/25
Written By: Steven Nic - Date published: 11:15 am, July 5th, 2025
In the interests of openness and transparency, let’s ask all our local newspapers to publish a monthly set of data from their local public hospital. Number of operations done, number of operations outsourced to private hospitals. Number of Medical staff ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Miriama Young, Associate Professor Music Composition, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, The University of Melbourne Marco Zorzanello It was late January when I got the call. I’m asked to bring my sound art to a collaborative ecology and design project, Song of ...11 hours ago
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In a speech this morning, the deputy prime minister said ‘blaming isn’t productive’, then proceeded to link ‘roadblocks’ such as cultural clauses in resource consents to rates rises leading to high inflation. Liam Rātana takes a different view. This morning, speaking at the 2025 Local Government New Zealand Conference, deputy ...11 hours ago - Event noticeboard: Sugar, rubber gloves and shocked bananas
The Spinoff’s top picks of events from around the motu. I was tempted, in a moment of despair, to title this week’s noticeboard as “Rain, rain and more rain” or perhaps “Rain, flooding and more rain”. Thankfully it’s not flooded here, but I was triggered looking at my weather app ...11 hours ago
- Number of benefit sancitions increase, over 80k people find work, new figures show
Jobseeker Support numbers are also up 10 percent to 216,000 people. ...11 hours ago
- Number of benefit sanctions increase, over 80k people find work, new figures show
Jobseeker Support numbers are also up 10 percent to 216,000 people. ...11 hours ago
- Is it okay to boil water more than once, or should you empty the kettle every time?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Faisal Hai, Professor and Head of School of Civil, Mining, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Wollongong Avocado_studio/Shutterstock The kettle is a household staple practically everywhere – how else would we make our hot drinks? But is it okay to re-boil ...12 hours ago
- What does Australian law have to say about sovereign citizens and ‘pseudolaw’?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Madeleine Perrett, PhD Candidate in Law, University of Adelaide Armed with obscure legal jargon and fringe interpretations of the law, “sovereign citizens” are continuing to test the limits of the Australian justice system’s patience and power. A few weeks ago, two ...12 hours ago
- Is childbirth really safer for women and babies in private hospitals?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hannah Dahlen, Professor of Midwifery, Associate Dean Research and HDR, Midwifery Discipline Leader, Western Sydney University A study published this week in the international obstetrics and gynaecology journal BJOG has raised concerns among women due to give birth in Australia’s public hospitals. ...12 hours ago
- David Seymour lashes officials after LINZ becomes latest agency raising concerns about his Regulator...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says officials "don't take New Zealanders' rights seriously," after concerns about his bill surfaced from another agency. ...12 hours ago
- Echo Chamber: Aussie roolz, NZ droolz
Every party in parliament agrees Australia is richer, cooler, prettier, better dressed, and will probably steal your man. Echo Chamber is The Spinoff’s dispatch from the press gallery, recapping sessions in the House. Columns are written by politics reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Wellington editor Joel MacManus. Did you know that ...13 hours ago
- Alliance Renews Call For Bottom Trawling Ban In Hauraki Gulf
Bottom trawling is a fishing method that involves dragging heavy nets over the seafloor to catch fish, stirring up sediment, releasing carbon and indiscriminately killing marine life. ...13 hours ago
- We were part of the world heritage listing of Murujuga. Here’s why all Australians should be proud
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jo McDonald, Professor, Director of Centre for Rock Art Research + Management, The University of Western Australia Senior Ranger, Mardudunhera man Peter Cooper, oversees the Murujuga landscape Jo McDonald, CC BY-SA On Friday, the Murujuga Cultural Landscape in northwest Western Australia was ...13 hours ago
- Is our mental health determined by where we live – or is it the other way round? New research shed...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Hobbs, Associate Professor and Transforming Lives Fellow, Spatial Data Science and Planetary Health, Sheffield Hallam University Photon-Photos/Getty Images Ever felt like where you live is having an impact on your mental health? Turns out, you’re not imagining things. Our new ...14 hours ago
- The hows, whys and WTFs of bringing the moa back from the dead
What do Peter Jackson, an iwi research centre and a Texas-based biotech firm have in common? They’re working together on plans to ‘de-extinct’ Aotearoa’s famous giant bird. Mirjam Guesgen explains what’s going on. The internet is fluttering with the news that a Texas-based company will bring back moa in Aotearoa ...14 hours ago
- Union For Local Government Workers Supports LGNZ Recommendations To Improve Voter Turnout
Private companies should not be running local body elections, it is not appropriate for something so important to the functioning of local democracy, said PSA National Secretary Fleur Fitzsimons. ...14 hours ago
- Travel Diary: A winter weekend in Melbourne – the next best thing to European summer?
Rebecca Murphy recaps her first trip overseas with her husband, and first time out of the country since the Covid-19 lockdowns. No hot girl summer for me, no sipping Chablis in France with the warm sun on my back. Instead, it was a long weekend in Melbourne to get a ...15 hours ago
- Better Awareness Of Local Body Candidates Will Lift Voter Turnout
Voters need to be able to easily access information on who is standing for election, what they stand for, and what they hope to achieve if elected. LGNZ is partnering with Policy.nz as an interim measure to improve local elections in 2025. ...16 hours ago
- Help Me Hera: My friends don’t seem to remember my birthday
Should I confront them about it, or is it time to make new friends? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nz Kia ora Hera, It’s my birthday tomorrow and none of my friends have reached out to make birthday plans with me. I planned a lovely weekend spending Saturday ...16 hours ago
- The secret stories of trees are written in the knots and swirls of your floorboards. An expert expla...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, The University of Melbourne Magda Ehlers/Pexels, CC BY Have you ever examined timber floorboards and pondered why they look the way they do? Perhaps you admired the super-fine ...16 hours ago
- Tasmania is limping towards an election nobody wants. Here’s the state of play
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Hortle, Deputy Director, Tasmanian Policy Exchange, University of Tasmania In the darkest and coldest months of the year, Tasmanians have been slogging through an election campaign no one wanted. It’s been a curious mix of humdrum plodding laced with cyanide ...17 hours ago
- What is astigmatism? Why does it make my vision blurry? And how did I get it?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Flora Hui, Research Fellow, Centre for Eye Research Australia and Honorary Fellow, Department of Surgery (Ophthalmology), The University of Melbourne Ground Picture/Shutterstock Have you ever gone to the optometrist for an eye test and were told your eye was shaped like ...17 hours ago
- From Sister Rosetta Tharpe to Ronnie Yoshiko Fujiyama: how electric guitarists challenge expectation...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janelle K Johnstone, Associate Lecturer Crime, Justice and Legal Studies, PhD Candidate School of Social Inquiry, La Trobe University American gospel singer and guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe playing a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar on stage in 1957. Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty ...17 hours ago
- ‘Dramatic shift’ that could leave KiwiSaver members better off
The proportion of KiwiSaver in funds with high volatility has quadrupled in three years. ...17 hours ago
- Walls go back up as open-plan classroom experiment falls flat
Once hailed as the future of education, the cavernous classrooms are finally being scrapped after years of complaints, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. End of the open-plan era The Ministry of Education will no longer build ...18 hours ago
- Emissions Trading Scheme incentivising whole farm conversions into forestry, farmers say
But a forestry group has hit back saying it's not the only reason sheep numbers are declining. ...18 hours ago
- Criminologist fears electronic tagging of migrants ‘going to get huge’
The government has introduced legislation that would allow electronic monitoring of migrants and asylum seekers who pose a security risk, or might run away. ...18 hours ago
- How reforesting the Port Hills could help prevent another devastating fire
Prone to fires and erosion, Christchurch’s Port Hills were once covered in native bush, as hard as that is to imagine now. Dozens of community planting projects are the beginning of a return to a forested future. The Port Hills are visible from almost every part of Christchurch, buttressing the ...20 hours ago
- Where do I send conservatives the bill for climate change?
In the 40 years since the world was first alerted to climate change, right-wingers have consistently been the ones most opposed to doing anything about it. And if there’s one thing that conservatives like, it’s personal responsibility. It seems almost impossible to believe, but until two years ago New Zealand’s ...20 hours ago
- Govt winds up council reform storm
Analysis: It’s a sentiment likely to set pulses racing among the current crop of Government ministers. In 2010, four-term councillor Bryan Cadogan aimed to unseat sitting Clutha mayor Juno Hayes by running on a platform of tying rates to inflation and focusing on core services. Cadogan won by 354 votes, ...20 hours ago
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