The global ‘Great Inflation' of the 1970s and 80s was the last time New Zealand experienced a cost-of-living crisis. Kate Newton reports on what it took to curb inflation then – and why not all economists believe the same solutions can help us now. This story was first published on Stuff. 'What the f… is inflation?' asks one TikTok user in a recent video. He's a millennial: bearded, bandana'd, and using a pair of chopsticks to eat Doritos from the bag. 'We keep hearing about it, but what actually is it?' It's definitely not as fun as a viral song about corn but, in the last few months, inflation has crept its way into social media ephemera all the same.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/08-09-2022/whats-going-to-stop-the-rocketing-cost-of-living

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Billions of dollars have been pumped into the public service, backed by the Labour government's promise of a transformation of key sectors including health, education and welfare. The problem, argues Danyl McLauchlan in today's Sunday Essay, is that most of that money is going to managers, analysts, comms staff and consultants, rather than much-needed frontline workers. He traces New Zealand's bloated public service bureaucracy to a political sphere that has become 'increasingly therapeutic rather than material; it's the politics of personal self-esteem, emotional wellbeing, self-expression, self validation, relentless positivity.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/29-08-2022/attention-all-local-election-candidates-and-candidate-adjacent-people

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As hinted at earlier today, the government has confirmed another 3,000 regional seasonal workers will be allowed into the country. It brings the RSE worker cap up to 19,000, with the ministers in charge of the scheme saying it will provide relief to the pandemic-impacted horticulture and wine sector. 'The additional 3,000 places is a 19% increase on the previous season and acknowledges the industry's current needs based on  strong growth, and the lower number of working holiday makers onshore right now,' said the immigration minister, Michael Wood.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/27-09-2022/image-of-the-day-is-that-a-mushroom-on-your-ceiling

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Image: Getty Images, additional design by Tina Tiller The biggest response to tonight's poll is likely to have been a sigh of relief from the Beehive. Tempting though it is to divine seismic activity in a poll result, the message from tonight's TVNZ/Kantar survey is essentially same-again. The biggest movement was a drop of two percentage points for Act, down to a still healthy 9%, but the biggest emotion was likely to be from the Beehive, in the form of a sigh of relief at Labour inching up by a nominal point to 34%.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/27-09-2022/a-poll-that-sets-the-stage-for-the-year-to-election-day

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The government's healthy homes standards are meant to raise the quality of over half a million rental properties. But tracking compliance is subpar – and that's undermining democracy, says the chief human rights commissioner. Living in a warm, dry and healthy home is as much a human right as the presumption of innocence or freedom of expression, says chief human rights commissioner of New Zealand Paul Hunt. But if there's no one around to ensure their upkeep, 'our democracy has gone wrong … If people are not having their human rights respected, that doesn't lead to social cohesion – just the opposite … At the moment, we don't have an accountable right to a decent home.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/29-09-2022/new-zealands-poor-housing-a-failure-of-our-democracy

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The prime minister has headed straight to New York after the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II overnight. Jacinda Ardern had been expected to travel to the Big Apple over the weekend on the first direct Air New Zealand flight from Auckland. A number of other personalities, and the PM's press pack, were onboard that flight. However, following the Queen's death, Ardern's schedule was quickly reworked. In New York for the UN General Assembly, Ardern's time on the ground is likely to be less busy than in previous years.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/20-09-2022

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Andrew Little appears on Alice Snedden's Bad News In a new episode of Bad News, Alice Snedden talks to the minister of health about fatness in Aotearoa, except he just can't seem to say the word. Language evolves and terms previously deemed acceptable can suddenly be understood as offensive. At the same time, words that have long been considered offensive due to a learned aversion to their meaning can be reclaimed and used accurately. In a new episode of Bad News titled 'FAT', host Alice Snedden talks about her own fatness and fat people in Aotearoa.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/20-09-2022/the-minister-of-health-wont-say-the-word-fat

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Alice Snedden's Bad News looks at the stigmatisation of fat people in Aotearoa.  If you put aside the fact that BMI is a racist and outdated metric, Aotearoa has the highest obesity rates in the world. In the new episode of Alice Snedden's Bad News, the comedian weighs in on the ongoing stigma faced by fat people living in Aotearoa. Why do so many people still struggle with the word 'fat'? Why is being fat still seen as a personal failing? Could it possibly be result of environment and genetics, rather than just poor life choices? Joined by minister of health Andrew Little, former endocrinologist Robyn Toomath and academic Ashlea Gillon (Ngāti Awa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāiterangi), Snedden begins by examining our attitudes towards fat people.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/pop-culture/21-09-2022/why-do-we-still-struggle-with-the-word-fat

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New Zealand is one of the last countries in the OECD to stream classes based on ‘ability', and mounting research shows how damaging it is – especially to Māori and Pasifika students. Yesterday marked a big step on the path to abolishing it, reports Charlotte Muru-Lanning. Whether you were in the cabbage class for maths, the accelerated class for English or somewhere in between for science, most of us who have been through the education system in Aotearoa will have experienced streaming in some way, shape or form.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/06-10-2022/ineffective-dated-and-racist-teachers-vote-to-ban-streaming-in-aotearoa

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After eight years, the Morning Report co-host is moving on from one of New Zealand's most high-profile media gigs. Stewart Sowman-Lund asks how she's feeling about the shift – and what she makes of detractors' claims she's a government mouthpiece. Susie Ferguson is ready for a lie-in.  After eight-and-a-bit years co-hosting Morning Report, paired with two different broadcasters during that tenure, she's switching off the 4.30am alarm. Now, Ferguson's readying to enter a new era at RNZ in a role that, though largely mysterious at this stage, will see her as both a presenter and reporter in some capacity.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/07-10-2022/early-nights-scary-trolls-and-bias-claims-susie-ferguson-on-leaving-morning-report

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PM Jacinda Ardern has visited Westminster Hall to attend the lying in state of the Queen. She was accompanied by her partner Clarke Gayford and New Zealand's governor-general, Dame Cindy Kiro.  The party entered the hall by a the side door, bypassing the public queue that has now grown so large that officials are warning of 24 hour wait times. Ardern said it was a privilege to join those willing to go to such lengths to pay their respects. 'To see them doing so with such patience and in such a quiet and reverent way was very humbling to see.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/17-09-2022/palmerston-north-gifts-us-the-weirdest-election-ad-of-the-year

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They were all bad, but some were less bad than others. Madeleine Chapman ranks.  Today is the one year anniversary of the nationwide delta lockdown which then became the Auckland lockdown which then became the year 2022. The government said there would be no more lockdowns and they've certainly stuck by their word considering the country has experienced thousands of cases of Covid-19 every day for the past six months with nary a hint of a lockdown. So, in the spirit of honouring what was truly a generation-defining terrible time for many people, here is how the lockdowns rank in my mind.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/18-08-2022/every-covid-lockdown-ranked-from-worst-to-least-worst

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In the age of mass production, being able to customise our objects is a seductive vision. But the urge to personalise is an old one, and it still relies on global economies of overconsumption.   'It's a very unique mug,' says the Cricut ambassador.  She's helping me imprint a Cricut mug with a Cricut Infusible Ink™ design so I can place it in the specially-designed Cricut Mug Press™. 'Everyone loves being able to personalise their mug designs,' she says as she pushes the button to heat the machine.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/irl/24-08-2022/our-possessions-make-us-as-unique-as-everybody-else

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An Auckland university has 'unreservedly' apologised for how it handled claims of sexual harassment made by a former academic against their colleague. In 2020, a Stuff report revealed that Dr Marisa Paterson, now a politician in Australia, had laid a complaint against AUT's pro vice chancellor Max Abbott about alleged stalking and harassment. Despite Paterson providing extensive evidence of Abbott's behaviour, AUT refused to investigate for almost a year. Eventually, a major review was then ordered by the university into its own culture.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/25-08-2022/so-kia-ora-viv-beck-defends-new-stance-on-co-governance

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Gaurav Sharma has officially been expelled from Labour's caucus. It was a move widely predicted and followed Sharma's repeated leaking of private conversations with fellow MPs and unverified allegations of bullying within Labour. Prime minister Jacinda Ardern had repeatedly rejected the claims of bullying. Sharma was suspended from Labour one week ago and provided a potential pathway to reentering the caucus. That was predicated on him staying quiet and following a mediation process, but Sharma quickly returned to the media with further allegations and a secret recording of another Labour MP.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/23-08-2022/around-1000-protesters-descend-on-parliament

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A former Labour MP has blasted backbencher Gaurav Sharma for publishing a bombshell opinion piece yesterday in the Herald. The op-ed, based around the issue of bullying within parliament, casts its net of allegations wide. Targets named by the Hamilton West MP include: the speaker of the house, Trevor Mallard, the Parliamentary Service, the office of the leader of the opposition, the whips and the prime minister's office. Sharma even implicitly draws Jacinda Ardern into his accusations, writing: 'Politicians especially at top [sic] of our current system and from parties across the political spectrum often talk about ‘changing the system' and ‘kindness'… But as the saying goes ‘charity must start at home'.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/12-08-2022

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Backbench Labour MP Gaurav Sharma has taken to Facebook with a number of serious allegations of bullying within his own caucus and parliament – and named the individual he claims was responsible. It follows an opinion piece penned by Sharma that was published in the NZ Herald yesterday afternoon, in which the Hamilton West MP raised concerns of bullying, including by the Parliamentary Services, but did not name anyone specifically responsible. The Facebook post, published earlier this afternoon, singled out Wairarapa MP Kieran McAnulty as 'the main bully' and alleged he was responsible for 'gaslighting me, shouting at me, degrading me in front of caucus members'.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/12-08-2022/leo-molloy-admits-regret-over-guy-williams-interview

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There's a long list of reasons why a passenger rail network wouldn't work in Aotearoa. Here's why they're all rubbish. Restore Passenger Rail protests around New Zealand in recent weeks have received a lot of news coverage and caused a fair bit of frustration. As public transport activism goes, I'm no abseiler or supergluer. I'm involved with Save Our Trains – we do things like write petitions and submissions, and profile long-lost railway stations. I had feared Restore Passenger Rail might bring our call to expand passenger rail into disrepute, but I probably needn't have worried.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/28-10-2022/ten-popular-myths-about-passenger-rail-in-new-zealand

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Photo: Alice Snedden's Bad News All six episodes from the latest season of Alice Snedden's Bad News in one tab.  Episode one: Wealth What does the cost of living even mean and how do we close the wealth gap? Alice speaks to Grant Robertson, Bernard Hickey, Ngarimu Blair and Bubbah about why there hasn't been a revolution… yet. Episode two: Fat Why do we still have such a problem with fat people? Alice speaks to Andrew Little, endocrinologist Robyn Toomath and academic Ashlea Gillon about the stigma of being fat and why the BMI is bullshit.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/pop-culture/30-10-2022/alice-sneddens-bad-news-omnibus-edition

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Big Fan, the Auckland recording studio set up by big wig Aotearoa music producer Joel Little, is officially opening in November with a string of intimate showcases from local artists. Tickets today go on sale for shows by rap duo Church & AP, There's a Tuesday, Mermaidens and Leisure. Based in a renovated industrial space in Morningside, Big Fan is a community-minded project with four studio spaces and a small live music venue. Little and his wife Gemma have spent the past two years making the space over and spent millions on the project.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/31-10-2022/ardern-committed-to-three-waters-as-mayors-launch-counter-proposal

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Today marks five years since the sixth Labour government took power, though it now looks quite different to back in 2017. The results of the 2017 election saw Winston Peters hold the balance of power. Eventually, he opted to form a government with Labour and became deputy prime minister under Jacinda Ardern. Of course, in 2020, Labour returned to power with an overall majority – unprecedented under MMP. At yesterday's post-cabinet press conference, deputy PM Grant Robertson reflected on the past five years.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/26-10-2022/tim-macindoe-not-putting-name-forward-for-hamilton-west-byelection

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What are you going to be watching in November? We round up everything coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, Neon and TVNZ+. The biggies The Crown (season five on Netflix from November 9) When the last season of The Crown ended, we had a Queen. When this fifth season of The Crown starts, we'll have a King. Even though the bulk of this season was clearly conceived, written and shot assuming (or hoping) QEII would still be alive when it aired, that's absolutely not the case now.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/pop-culture/01-11-2022/whats-new-to-netflix-nz-neon-and-other-streaming-services-in-november-3

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If summer brings its predicted third wave of infections, long Covid cases and other serious health repercussions will rise too. As an employee, it's important to know your rights around avoiding infection and – if you do get sick and are unable to work – appropriate compensation.  Back in February, with the looming threat of widespread Omicron infections, I wrote about an employer's legal duty  to try and keep you safe from the virus. Since then, approximately two million New Zealanders have been infected, with over 2,000 dying.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/22-11-2022/long-covid-is-on-the-rise-and-empoyees-need-to-know-their-rights

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New calculations have claimed National's planned tax cuts would see even more money than predicted end up in the pockets of wealthy New Zealanders – while the lowest earners would recoup about $100 a year. The Council of Trade Unions says the tax package would give 10 times as much money to the wealthiest New Zealanders as it does to middle and low income earners. That works out at about $54,000 over three years for someone on the prime minister's salary, while a minimum wage earner would get about $2.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/02-11-2022/big-news-mcflurries-are-now-even-shitter

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Astrid Glitter, director of John, New Zealand's first and only gay pornographic feature film, tells Sam Brooks why she remains so proud of it 16 years on. The synopsis of John sounds like it could be any entry in the local film section of the New Zealand Film Festival. 'John is a regular Kiwi guy who's tired of one night stands. Men just want to shoot and leave, when John really wants to just have someone to love.' John isn't just another independent film, though. Released in 2006, John is the first, and to date only gay pornographic feature film made in New Zealand.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/pop-culture/13-11-2022/the-woman-behind-new-zealands-only-gay-pornographic-feature-film

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Major electricity providers are directing billions of dollars in excess profits to their shareholders in a move that has some concerned about the impact on both consumers and the climate. A report out this morning from First Union, the Council of Trade Unions and 350 Aotearoa has revealed that the four big 'gentailers' (electricity generator-retailers) have paid out $3.7 billion more in dividends to their shareholders than they have earned in profits. That's an average excess dividend of $459 million a year.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/14-11-2022/has-mister-organ-watched-mister-organ

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Major electricity providers are directing billions of dollars in excess profits to their shareholders in a move that has some concerned about the impact on both consumers and the climate. A report out this morning from First Union, the Council of Trade Unions and 350 Aotearoa has revealed that the four big 'gentailers' (electricity generator-retailers) have paid out $3.7 billion more in dividends to their shareholders than they have earned in profits. That's an average excess dividend of $459 million a year.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/live-updates/14-11-2022/robertson-hints-at-parade-for-black-ferns-but-no-promises

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Michelle Rahurahu reflects on Claudia Durastanti's award-winning work of auto-fiction/memoir, and how the daughter's life in the book intertwines with her own. I spoke to fellow CODA (Child of Deaf Adult) and author of auto-fiction Strangers I Know Claudia Durastanti recently, and we agreed the Deaf world is anything but quiet. It's full of noise, it's musical, it's emotive, it's slamming pots and pans in the early mornings, it's punk rock. We Hearing people can be so ignorant to the other senses involved with noise; doesn't it feel good to slam a stick on a drum? Doesn't it feel good to scream? Claudia and I differ in our identities; I took on the classic archetype of the CODA, a precocious bilingual child that acts as the in-house interpreter, attending doctors meetings, bank meetings, school meetings, counselling sessions, anything that was too last-minute for an actual paid interpreter.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/06-11-2022/coda-to-coda-strangers-i-know-and-my-life-as-an-unofficial-interpreter

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Disruptions to the global pharmaceutical supply chain aren't just affecting menopausal people's access to estrogen patches in Aotearoa – trans women are also having trouble accessing the ‘life-changing' hormone replacement.  Ella Jenkins has had a steady supply of 100mcg 'Estradot' patches for the last two and a half years. Sticking one estrogen patch twice a week on her body, the 23-year-old journalism student has felt she could be the person she was meant to be. A month ago, however, Jenkins couldn't get her preferred medication because her pharmacy had run out amid a nationwide shortage, and instead was prescribed a new, oral course of hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/04-08-2022/the-estrogen-patch-shortage-is-affecting-trans-women-too

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