The Spinoff’s winners and losers of the week.
- It was a good week for… cancel culture. The right-wing media ecosystem was outraged by revelations that TVNZ’s Maiki Sherman used an offensive word at a private social event and that Green candidate Michel Mulipola made edgy jokes on social media. David Seymour called Sherman’s comments “absolutely disgraceful” and suggested Mulipola’s words were “political violence”. Welcome to Woke 2: conservative boogaloo.
- It was a bad week for… Christopher Luxon, after the NZ Herald reported that he initially wanted to show “explicit public support” for the US-led war in Iran. Winston Peters stood up to Luxon and defended New Zealand’s strong moral position against bombing schools. If only that stance extended to Gaza.
- It was a bad week for… Talleys, which announced plans to close its Westport fish processing factory, with 92 jobs impacted. Yet another victim of the AI revolution.
- It was a bad week for…. New Zealand businesses, with reports that 594 companies went into liquidation or insolvency in March 2026, the worst March since 2015. The Post is currently scrambling to identify which cycleways are responsible.
- It was a bad week for… the classic K Road bar Verona, which has closed its doors. Verona has been the setting for some great works of New Zealand art, including the Elemeno P song ‘Verona’ (“When I saw you in Verona, you sat down, I moved over”) and the classic stage adaptation (“In fair Verona, where we lay our scene”).
- It was a bad week for… KiwiRail board member Scott O’Donnell. RNZ reported that he had missed six meetings and 34 agenda items over his term. In his defence, timeliness and reliability have never been top priorities for KiwiRail.
- It was a bad week for… Wellington city councillor Ray Chung, who was publicly admonished by mayor Andrew Little after attempting to launch an unsanctioned search and rescue operation during a storm, despite emergency management warnings to stay home. If only there had been some sign that Chung was an untrustworthy loose cannon before Little promoted him to run a council committee.
- It was a bad week for…. Labour, which is apparently still a registered political party but hasn’t been seen in the wild in weeks. Maybe we should send Ray Chung to find them.
