ICYMI: The NZ First donations scandal is very serious, and won’t let Jacinda Ardern hide
November 18 - November 25
The brokers, the Ardern attack ‘joke’, and the spectre of a bad-meme election. At the start of the month, investment management firm Forsyth Barr sent out their usual daily email full of market commentary, but this time, it came with an added Jacinda Ardern meme – a play on an old Barack Obama/socialism meme that’s done the rounds on the internet for some time now. “The firm’s confidence that its tribe would laugh at the in-joke shows voter stereotypes are alive and well,” wrote business editor Maria Slade who broke the story. “But whether you’re an investment firm or a trade union, if you’re distributing a meme having a go at the stereotypical idea of the ‘other side’, at the very least make sure it’s not unoriginal and unfunny.”
A day in the life of a Māori journalist. Phone calls, emails, Facebook messages, real-life encounters – wherever Tauranga-based journalist Shilo Kino turns, there’s a racist attitude of some sort just waiting for her. From an email asking if she’s “got any journalistic angles besides ‘racism’” to comments pleading “no more freebies” for Māori, Shilo’s piece offers an insight into what it’s really like covering Māori issues in today’s hyper-connected, politically charged world – something which, sadly, many journalists in New Zealand will be able to relate to.
The NZ First donations scandal is very serious, and won’t let Jacinda Ardern hide. “New Zealand First’s coalition partners have dreaded this moment for two years. The prime minister’s instinct will be to distance herself from the scandal and hope that it goes away,” commented Danyl Mclauchlan last week in light of the NZ First Foundation leaks. “But the matter of whether or not she presides over a government linked to allegations of ‘corrupt or illegal practices’ is not a matter for another party or office. The integrity of the government is the prime minister’s responsibility.”
Prince Andrew’s cock-up is colossal. All his family really do is image and spin. Prince Andrew’s interview on BBC Newsnight the other week wasn’t just bad, it was “a plane crashing into an oil tanker, causing a tsunami, triggering a nuclear explosion-level bad”. And it’s not just the public who thinks that: former Edelman executive David Brain thought the interview was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster. “Any half-decent PR person given a minute on Google would spot the problems with the claims he did make: that he does not sweat, ‘only wears suits in London’ and is not into ‘public hugging’,” he wrote. “But weirder than all of this was the fact that he never looked panicked throughout the interview. He was calm and measured almost as if he had performed like that in rehearsals. It was like he thought he had done a good job.”
Just quickly, a brief word from Leonie Hayden, Ātea editor at The Spinoff:
In my work for The Spinoff I routinely ask myself two questions: who does this give power to, and who does this take power from? I’m incredibly proud to work somewhere that asks those questions of itself as a matter of course, ensuring we’re not adding to the harm that negative stereotypes can cause to entire communities, and that we’re regularly giving a voice to powerful, smart, kickass people that have been denied a platform for ages. We don’t always get it right, but we are absolutely dedicated to trying to be the best Treaty partner we can be. If that’s important to you, please support our members fund so we can continue to upholde this kaupapa and the mana of people everywhere.
All the reasons Stephen Colbert is going to jail for a very long time. Sure, we all had a lovely time watching The Late Show’s series exploring New Zealand last week, but unfortunately, its host is a brazen rule-breaker who must go to jail. From unauthorised electoral advertising to consorting with a criminal, litigator-in-chief Alex Casey goes behind the jovial banter to uncover an international criminal mastermind who must be stopped.
Trainee doctors travelling on the taxpayer’s dime? It’s not as bad as you think. Several final year medical students at the University of Otago were recently found to have falsified their overseas placements by spending portions of that time travelling instead. But GP registrar Toby Hills found himself empathising deeply with his younger colleagues, pointing to his own disastrous overseas placement, the amount of intensive training/fees medical students are required to put in, as well as providing context on what their actions actually mean for the taxpayer. Not everyone will share his empathetic viewpoint – falsifying documents is just plain wrong, after all – but it’s a compelling argument nonetheless.
The fascinating life of a permanent house sitter. For nearly six years, Laura Giddey has been a permanent house sitter in Auckland. She pays just $60 a year in “rent” and is privy to a rotating roster of fluffy pets to take care of. Of course, that means she’s had to get rid of a lot of her belongings and her living situation is constantly in flux, but she reckons the experience has changed her life for the better. Here, she explains why she does it and how.
Why the Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star YouTube series is a big deal. They’re two of the biggest YouTubers in the world and also two of the most problematic, but somehow, by combining forces, they managed to conjure up a multimillion-dollar makeup launch that broke the internet (literally, Shopify crashed from all the traffic). A lot of that had to do with their much anticipated YouTube documentary series which chronicled their creative journey from start to finish. Prior to the finale which premiered this weekend, Alex Casey and I decided to air out some thoughts.
The Spinoff Weekly is written by staff writer Jihee Junn.