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Mar 31 2023

PSA: Remember to change your clocks this Sunday

This weekend, clocks go back an hour. (Image: Getty / Treatment: Tina Tiller)

It’s the biannual reminder to tamper with that pesky analogue clock you still have in your kitchen for some reason (or at the least your microwave/car stereo). This Sunday at 3am, we will all gain an hour of sleep as the clocks roll back ahead of winter.

Get ready for lighter mornings, darker evenings and a few weeks where we all feel perpetually jet-lagged.

Have a lovely weekend!

Daylight saving
This weekend, clocks go back an hour. (Image: Getty / Treatment: Tina Tiller)

Investigation into hidden Nash email reopened

Stuart Nash in 2022 (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

The chief ombudsman has elected to reopen his investigation into an email from former minister Stuart Nash to a pair of donors back in 2020.

The email, which only came to light this week, quickly triggered Nash’s dismissal from cabinet. But in bad news for the prime minister Chris Hipkins, it was later revealed staff in his office (when Jacinda Ardern was PM) had been made aware of it in 2021 – but deemed it out of scope of an Official Information Act request.

An initial ombudsman investigation was then launched, but ultimately ended after the journalist chose not to persevere it.

“The original enquiry was discontinued in May last year in discussion with the complainant. The complainant has now asked me to reopen the case. I have recommenced my investigation,” chief ombudsman Peter Boshier said in a statement shared by Newshub.

“The original complaint was about the former minister’s decision to refuse a request for information about his communications with a named group of individuals on the grounds the information was out of scope.”

Hipkins has maintained that neither he nor Ardern were ever aware of the email.

And thus, the celebration of The Bulletin’s fifth birthday comes to an end

this-will-usually-always-be-a-native-placement-but-if-there-isnt-one-that-day-lift-members-here-4.png

Last week we celebrated The Bulletin’s fifth birthday with Spinoff members and staff at The Spinoff’s offices in Auckland.

The Bulletin launched in March 2018 seeking to curate news and great journalism and email that to people for free each weekday morning. That hasn’t changed and it’s still going strong. If you’re not familiar with The Bulletin, here’s a quick run down of what it is.

Former Bulletin editor Alex Braae, current editor Anna Rawhiti-Connell and Spinoff editor Mad Chapman, at The Bulletin’s fifth birthday event (Photo: Jin Fellet)

Former editor Alex Braae joined me, the current editor of The Bulletin, in conversation with Mad Chapman. We talked about how the Spinoff’s morning news email gets written, whether doing the job has changed how we feel about media in New Zealand and shared highlights of the job and real talk about the reality of getting up between 4 and 5am each weekday morning and living on a very news-heavy diet. Our conversation was also a live-recording for Duncan Greive’s podcast, The Fold which will be out on Monday.

A huge thank you to all the Spinoff members that attended. It’s not often writers and journalists get to meet their readers and those that support the work they do over drinks and cake. If you’re keen to be invited along to more Spinoff Members events like these this year, consider becoming a Spinoff member.

Photos by Jin Fellet

Want to sign up to The Bulletin? add your email address above or click here to subscribe and join over 37,000 New Zealanders who start each weekday with the biggest stories in politics, business, media and culture.  

Synthony postpones Auckland show due to weather

A saxophonist performs with Synthony. (Photo: Supplied)

Auckland’s wet summer is delivering one final blow just in time for the weekend. The Synthony festival, due to be held on Saturday at Auckland Domain and featuring performances by Shapeshifter, Dave Dobbyn and Kimbra, has been postponed following predictions of heavy rainfall across the day. More than 20,000 people are expected to attend.

MetService predicted Saturday’s weather would be “mostly cloudy with isolated showers then rain from afternoon, heavy at times with possible thunderstorms, easing at night. Fresh northerlies tending light northwesterly in the evening.” Rain would be heaviest in the late afternoon and evening, when Synthony is being held, and a severe thunderstorm watch could be in place by then.

Organisers said the event, which includes a performance by an 80-piece orchestra interpreting nostalgic 90s and 00s dance classics, would be moved to Sunday. “In the interest of public comfort and safety, Synthony will now take place on Sunday April 2, when drier and more pleasant weather is forecast.” All tickets remain valid for the new date.

Synthony
Synthony combines a full orchestra with guest singers and cover songs to provide crowds with ‘banger after banger’. (Photo: Supplied)

The date change continues Shapeshifter’s rough summer, with three festivals cancelled due to wild and wet conditions over the past few months. The band, known for its heavy touring schedule over summer, played its first 2023 show at Homegrown earlier this month. Synthony is scheduled to be its last.

Your weekend entertainment plan: The Big Door Prize, Unstable and The Power

This is an excerpt from The Spinoff’s pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up to have it delivered to your inbox every Friday here.

If you want a middle-aged white man to play a disappointed-with-the-state-of-their-life middle-aged-white-man, you have two options: Jason Segel or Chris O’Dowd. Clearly, Segel was already busy with Shrinking, so The Big Door Prize goes with O’Dowd and is apparently all the better for it. The Hollywood Reporter calls this a “charmer” about a small town changed by a future-predicting machine that turns up by chance. It’s on Apple TV+ from today.

Meanwhile, The New York Times calls Unstable, Netflix’s new Rob Lowe series, “comedy gold”. It follows the exploits of a biotech genius (played by Lowe) spiralling after the death of his wife and trying to connect with his son (Lowe’s real-life son, John Owen Lowe). It sounds promising. On the same service, Riverdale’s seventh season debuts, and Celese Barber’s first TV show Wellmania is getting great reviews.

Elsewhere, Amazon Prime has Toni Collette’s female empowerment series The Power (“Electrifying,” says The Telegraph), Neon has British crime series A Town Called Malice (“Zippy, brash and so 80s it’s exhausting,” says The Guardian), and Apple TV+ has Tetris, a movie about the creation of the block-busting game that’s getting surprisingly good reviews. Finally, catering comedy Party Down has never been available on New Zealand screens – until now. Catch all three seasons on TVNZ+.

If you’re heading out to theatres, you’re probably going to see the country’s No. 1 film John Wick 4 (read Rec Room’s supremely positive review here). If not that, then Dungeons & Dragons (yes, it’s based on the dice game we all played at high school) is getting incredible reviews (“Endearingly dorky,” says The Age.) Sam Neill fans may want to check out The Portable Door, an adaptation of Tom Holt’s fantasy book series.

Law change allows Māori to more easily switch electoral rolls

Māori Electoral Option, electoral commission, New Zealand

Tommy de Silva explains an interesting new legal shift:

Māori can now switch between the Māori and general electoral rolls more easily thanks to a law change. These new rules allow anyone of Māori descent to switch between the rolls whenever they please until three months before an election. That means eligible voters have between March 31 and midnight July 13 (three months before the election) to pick which roll to be on. The same rules will apply in the 2025 local elections. 

Soon the Electoral Commission will send letters about this to all voters of Māori descent – some 512,000 people. Voters who wish to change rolls can fill out and send back the letter (physically or digitally) or head to vote.nz. If you don’t receive a form but should have, call 0800 36 76 56. Voters who have Māori whakapapa but don’t want to change rolls can just ignore this and do nothing – they’ll stay on the roll they’re already signed up to. 

A banner for the Māori electoral option law change.
Source: Electoral Commission.

Te Kāwanatanga acknowledged that the previous law restricted Māori from exercising their democratic rights by creating barriers to engaging and participating in politics. The previous law only allowed people with Māori whakapapa to switch rolls during a short, four month window once every five to six years. If the previous rules were maintained, Māori wouldn’t have been able to change rolls until 2024 – after this year’s general election and six years since the last opportunity to swap rolls in 2018. 

Annie Te One – a Victoria University of Wellington Māori Studies lecturer – said “changes to the Māori electoral option are a positive step forward to enabling Māori to have greater autonomy when it comes to voting. While just a start, these changes will hopefully encourage better civics education regarding the importance of the Māori electorates and lead to more conversations regarding what a Te Tiriti-led central government system could entail”.

Māori political scientist Lara Greaves – formerly my boss at The University of Auckland and now at Victoria University – has been researching why eligible voters choose either roll. Although the findings are yet to be officially released, myself and my former colleague Ema Tuakoi wrote about our roll choice experiences last year.

Trump to be arrested over porn star hush money

One-term president  Donald Trump. (Photo: Al Drago/Getty Images)

It’s a headline I never quite expected to write but in recent days have been wondering if I would have to.

Former US president Donald Trump will be arrested after a New York grand jury voted to indict him over alleged hush money paid to former adult film star Stormy Daniels. It’s a claim that’s dogged Trump since the early days of his 2016 bid for the White House, but has come to a head as he attempts to secure the presidency for a second time.

According to the New York Times, the regular felony formalities will likely be followed despite Trump being a former president. “He will be fingerprinted. He will be photographed. He may even be handcuffed,” the outlet writes.

“And the former president of the United States of America will be read the standard Miranda warning: He will be told that he has the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney.”

CNN has reported that the decision will send shockwaves through America. “The legal action against Trump jolts the 2024 presidential campaign into a new phase – where the former president has vowed to keep running in the face of criminal charges,” according to the site’s breaking news coverage.

It’s the first time in American history that a president – sitting or former – will face criminal charges. It’s not yet known when exactly Trump will be arrested. It’s been reported that the indictment will be announced in the coming days, after which Trump will be first asked to hand himself over – or face whatever comes next.

One-term president Donald Trump. (Photo: Al Drago/Getty Images)

National promises to double renewable energy supply

Christopher Luxon speaks in the house (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

The National Party has pledged to “cut red tape” in the electricity sector through a new policy that it claims will double New Zealand’s supply of renewable energy.

Dubbed “Electrify NZ”, the policy was unveiled this morning by party leader Christopher Luxon.

“National wants a future where buses and trains are powered by clean electricity, where we go on holiday in cars powered by clean electricity, and where industrial processing plants are powered by clean electricity, not coal,” he said.

“But to do that, we need to double the amount of renewable electricity we produce from New Zealand’s abundant natural resources – particularly solar, wind and geothermal.”

Encouraging the shift to electric vehicles made no sense if the power came from burning coal, said Luxon.

As such, the party would “turbo-charge” new renewable power projects and require decisions on resource consents to be issued in one year and consents to last for 35 years. Luxon also said the policy would eliminate consents for upgrades to existing infrastructure and most new infrastructure.

“Labour declared ‘climate change is this generation’s nuclear free moment’ but all they have done in six years is triple coal imports and increase emissions,” said Luxon.

Listen: Will climate change wipe out your insurance?

Since the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle, insurers have begun rapidly repricing the land beneath homes for flood risk, creating a Wild West for home owners impatient to find out if their land is going to continue to be insurable.

In the new episode of When the Facts Change, Bernard Hickey talks to insurance and banking academic Dr. Michael Naylor from Massey University about what home owners can do to protect their housing insurance in a warming climate.

The Bulletin: Questions raised over Nash’s ‘out of scope’ email

The 2020 email to donors that prompted Nash’s firing had not been turned over following an OIA request for correspondence between Nash and his donors, Newsroom reports. The email had been deemed “out of scope” by the prime minister’s office (PMO) because it was not written in Nash’s ministerial responsibility. Writes Toby Manhire for The Spinoff, that explanation is “mysterious – or, to put it another way, outrageous – given that the email in question directly, expressly, explicitly, definitively was written by the minister based on his dealings as a minister.”

The PMO has apologised for its “error of judgment” but National is accusing the government of a cover-up. “Not only did they know about Stuart Nash’s letter,” said deputy leader Nicola Willis, “they broke the law to keep that letter from the New Zealand public.”

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Could ousted Today FM staff take legal action?

Today FM is off-air after a dramatic morning broadcast (Image: Archi Banal)

Today FM isn’t on air today after it’s sudden closure at about 9.30am yesterday morning.

A document leaked to media has confirmed Mediaworks’ plans to shut the station down, leaving key on-air staff like Tova O’Brien without a job. Interestingly, the document also confirmed the swift timeframe put in place for staff consultation – just a few hours and likely the trigger for the brutal live broadcast that saw O’Brien and Duncan Garner decry “betrayal”.

The question is what happens now. One employment law expert has told the Herald that the tight consultation period could lead to legal action. “Affected employees would potentially have grounds for a personal grievance if the process is found to be unfair and would then be entitled to an award of compensation for humiliation and distress,” Susan Hornsby-Geluk said.

“The abrupt announcement and lack of warning would be factors that would exacerbate this and lead to higher awards of damages.”

It would depend, said Hornsby-Geluk, whether staff were really only warned of the impending closure yesterday. According to the internal document, that appears to be the case. “Employees could also potentially claim loss of wages if alternatives to closing the station down may have been possible,” she added.

Consultation should be “genuine” and employees were expected to have a reasonable opportunity to provide feedback.

Mediaworks’ blamed the shutdown of Today FM on the station’s operating costs. Those costs may continue if staff decide to take legal action.