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Opinion

Huge news: there might be a cheaper alternative to roads (Photo: Auckland Council)
Opinion

Fiscal conservatives should be clamouring for cycleways

Bikes now get more people into Auckland’s city centre than ferries at a fraction of the cost.
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By Hayden Donnell | 21st January, 2026
Senior writer
Christopher Luxon at the 2026 State of the Nation address. Photo: Joel MacManus
Opinion

Luxon opens election year without a spark

The prime minister’s state of the nation speech failed to stir his own party faithful.
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By Joel MacManus | 20th January, 2026
Senior writer
Photo: Getty Images
Opinion

The pay equity changes push rural services closer to the brink

The government has presented the Equal Pay Amendment Act as a tidy administrative reset. Rural workers say the opposite is true.
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By Lynne Pillay | 19th January, 2026
Guest writer
Chris Bishop, right, and David Seymour, left.
Opinion

All the bogus reasons for National’s latest housing U-turn

There needs to be an inquiry into the standard of the bullshit we’re expected to believe.
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By Hayden Donnell | 19th January, 2026
Senior writer
A noted New Zealand sports writer is calling for Noeline Taurua to swap jobs with Scott Robertson
Opinion

Why don’t Scott Robertson and Noeline Taurua just swap jobs?

A radical last-minute proposal to solve New Zealand’s two biggest coaching conundrums at once.
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By Calum Henderson | 15th January, 2026
Production editor
Pacific workers dominate in aged care, support work, cleaning, disability services and school support roles, all sectors that had pay equity claims cancelled (Photo: Getty Images)
Opinion

How the pay equity ‘reset’ erased years of progress for Pacific communities 

Pacific women, who earn just 75 cents for every dollar earned by a Pākehā man, will bear the brunt of the cancelled pay equity claims.
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By Saunoamaali'i Karanina Sumeo | 14th January, 2026
Guest writer
Your data is not as secure as you might imagine. (Image: Getty Images. Additional design: The Spinoff.)
Opinion

Your digital identity is not under New Zealand jurisdiction

Our most important data is stored on US-owned cloud infrastructure and subject to US laws.
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By Tamawera Owens | 13th January, 2026
Guest writer
Clockwise from bottom left, Quasi on the roof of City Gallery; the zephyrometer; pania of the Reef, the Bucket Fountain; and the spot at City Gallery where the new sculpture will go (Photos: Supplied; Getty Images)
Opinion

The Marmitey goodness of public sculpture 

It can be a place-maker and a catalyst for conversation, as well as a divider of public opinion – and that's a good thing.
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By Megan Dunn | 12th January, 2026
Guest writer
Image: Supplied.
Opinion

A definitive list of when it is and isn’t acceptable to perform a haka

Aotearoa loves a good haka – as long as it’s on a rugby field and not the floor of parliament.
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By Liam Rātana | 8th January, 2026
Ātea editor
Rhys Williams, Tory Whanau and Ray Chung
Opinion

Weird men are driving people out of politics 

Their smear campaigns are ham-fisted and grotesque. They’re also working. 
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By Hayden Donnell | 7th January, 2026
Senior writer
Don’t just ban social media for under 16s – ban it for everyone 
Opinion

Don’t just ban social media for under 16s – ban it for everyone 

A desperate call for a government solution to my personal problem
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By Alex Casey | 6th January, 2026
Senior writer
Image: The Spinoff
Opinion

Why can’t we ever finish anything? A council planner at their wits’ end

The government’s recent directive is a 'massive sucker punch', writes one council planner.
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By Anonymous | 5th January, 2026
Guest writer
80 hours, 12 days and 542 submitters later, what have we learned?
Opinion

Fifty things I learned from nearly 80 hours of submissions on the Treaty principles bill

Lesson 48: There are so many New Zealanders who just want what’s best for each other.
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By Lyric Waiwiri-Smith | 24th December, 2025
Politics reporter
Malls at Christmas – what a delight
Opinion

I can’t cope with shoppers reversing into mall carparks at this time of year

It might be safer and his friends might disagree with him, but Tom Augustine is stuck behind reverse parkers and is struggling.
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By Tom Augustine | 23rd December, 2025
Guest writer
Workers in a textile factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2015 (Photo: Frédéric Soltan /Corbis via Getty Images; additional design The Spinoff)
Opinion

The problem with productivity

By focusing on how hard or how smart we work, all this talk about productivity is completely missing the point.
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By Sebastiaan Bierema | 17th December, 2025
Guest writer
Climate change minister Simon Watts, pictured ignoring New Zealand’s Paris commitments.
Opinion

New Zealand will fail its Paris Agreement climate change targets

The government won't admit it yet, but The Spinoff is calling it: New Zealand has no viable path to reach its 2030 emissions targets.
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By Joel MacManus | 15th December, 2025
Senior writer
Demolition work taking place in Ponsonby following the passing of the new RMA in 2027.
Opinion

RIP special character protections, I always hated you

Uh, did anyone else notice the new RMA gets rid of the rules we’ve been using to ban dense housing in places like Ponsonby, Thorndon and Herne Bay?
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By Hayden Donnell | 15th December, 2025
Senior writer
Paul Glover and Jayne Kiely present Location Location Location NZ (Photo: TVNZ)
Opinion

Why does hardly anyone ever buy a house on Location Location Location NZ? 

For a show about buying houses, there's not a lot of house buying going on. 
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By Tara Ward | 13th December, 2025
Staff writer
Minister for RMA reform Chris Bishop.
Opinion

Chris Bishop is the minister for abundance

After two years of major housing, infrastructure and planning reforms, Chris Bishop may have done more for the abundance agenda than any other politician on the planet.
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By Joel MacManus | 10th December, 2025
Senior writer
From beach ball to Mayhem Ball: a week of concerts that didn’t make it to New Zealand
Opinion

From beach ball to Mayhem Ball: a week of concerts that didn’t make it to New Zealand

Highlights from a wild week of concerts and festivals in Melbourne – most of which bypassed Aotearoa completely.
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By Chris Schulz | 9th December, 2025
Guest writer

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