Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits. First published in 2021. All my grandparents suffered the war, like all the grandparents of anyone my age. Some of them two wars, even. It was hard to imagine as kids, as we watched our walk-shorts-and-socks wearing, grey-haired and church-going elders pottering about in their golden years. It also didn’t help that nobody we knew would ever talk about living thr ..read more

I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nz Dear Hera, May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: I’m a public servant, and I’m worried about my job. There’s a second part that is perhaps less common, though let’s admit it, still pretty common: I’m not even sure that I want this job. Or this career. At all. Backtrack a little. I’m on the other side of 40. Back when I ..read more

While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view. The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell. First published in 2022. The high school’s head girl and boy each made a short speech, outlining what the day meant to them. The RSA rep talked about “young men and women…laid down their lives….defence of liberty”. The principal asked the assembly to stand and observe two minutes’ silence. Some 800 teenagers rose, stood with bowed heads, while staff and d ..read more

Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association. First published in 2018. When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of Drury. A crowd would gather around a cenotaph that rose between the Great South Road, the main trunk line, and our local rugby club’s changing sheds. I would stand with my fellow cubs, behind a thin tweedy line of RSA members. A bugle would blow, the sun and the national flag would rise, and medals ..read more

A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.   My World War I Poem   Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging.   Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum ..read more

Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff. The book I wish I’d written If I wish I’d written a book, it’s because it’s so idiosyncratic and delightful that no person other than the book’s author could have written it. It’s longing to be an entirely different writer! I don’t wish this, but I do wish that I had the empathy of Chekhov, the capacious golden intelligence of George Eliot, the disruptive imp of Anne Carson ..read more

How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo in Tāmaki Makaurau.  That afternoon, my editor called my small team into an emergency meeting, warning us about a one-on-one meeting with the editor-in-chief the next day. What the meeting was about, they couldn’t say. I asked my editor if I should bring a union rep and have that meeting before my scheduled therapy appointmen ..read more

A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced Most people are aware that New Zealand has an infrastructure deficit and that accelerated infrastructure investment and removing “red tape” and regulation in the name of economic growth is front and centre for the government. Chris Bishop is the minister ..read more

Labour in opposition will be shocked to learn which party had six years in power but squandered any chance to make real change. Grant Robertson’s valedictory speech was a predictably entertaining trip down memory lane. The acid-tongued incoming Otago University chancellor administered a sick burn to the coalition government. He talked about the time Lockwood Smith called Carmel Sepuloni Sepul Carmeloni. But in the middle there was a familiar lament: New Zealand’s tax system, he said, is “unfair and unbalanced”. “We are almost alone in the OECD in terms of not properly taxing assets and wealth ..read more

A look at the state of the previous government’s affordable housing scheme, and what could come next. Remind me: What’s KiwiBuild again? First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, the scheme, which pledged to build 100,000 affordable homes within a decade, formally launched in 2018.  100,000?!  Yes. But did it reach this target? Nope. By 2019, the government admitted that just 300 homes would be built by the middle of that year, 700 fewer than had been pro ..read more