Music: Avantdale is something special
There was a lot on last night in Auckland. Billy Bragg was in the middle of his three-night stand out in Avondale. Chelsea Jade flew in from LA and, by all accounts, played a stunner to a sellout crowd at…
Recent Posts
Jacinda, please can you help disabled people find employment?
Our statistics for the employment of disabled people are terrible. Disabled people are three times less likely to have paid work than non-disabled people, have fewer paid hours and earn less. Forty three percent of young disabled adults under 25…
When drug law gets so complicated we should rip it up and start again
Before, during and since the election that delivered it to power in 2017, the Labour Party has had a go-to slogan on drug policy: that it sees drug use as a health, not a criminal issue. It's an excellent philosophical…
What almost everyone is missing about KiwiBuild
Many people are ripping into KiwiBuild at the moment. A lot of these criticisms have a strong whiff of partisan heckling – this is politics after all – some of them are fair and others are just looking for trouble. ¶ One complaint,…
Getting serious about the cannabis referendum
The organisers of last Friday's Cannabis Referendum Conference had a specific aim: they wanted to demonstrate that they, as the Cannabis Referendum Coalition, represented a credible, serious and organised campaign for New Zealand's forthcoming vote on legalising cannabis. ¶ They didn't…
The Midterms
This week's US midterm elections are inescapably a referendum on Donald Trump's presidency, and would have been so even if he hadn't gone to such lengths to make it that way. ¶ The closing campaign ad that was so racist and…
The big vision and the small problems
It was always on the cards that Jacinda Ardern's first conference keynote as Labour Party leader would contain a significant policy announcement; a reward for the people in the room, an underlining of her government's brand. What's pleasing is that…
Reaching out
What do you do when you’re not at all sure how to be ok anymore? The well known, well-publicised advice is to talk to someone, which is excellent advice and a great start. What if you feel like your life…
Friday Music: Return of the Rhythm Master
You can't have followed beat-based music in New Zealand for the last 15 years without being at least peripherally aware of Julien Dyne, but he's been particularly in my ear lately, with his work on the Avantdale Bowling Club album…
Lost Men
I watched the BBC News Our World report What's Killing America's White Men? pretty much by accident last night, but was immediately drawn in. It meshed with Beth Macy's book about the US opioid crisis, Dopesick, which I've just finished…
An epic day at the park
I went to Eden Park for the first time in several years on Saturday. I used to go all the time, but I'd become disillusioned with Auckland rugby at both Super and provincial level – the turning point, ironically, was the…
The better place
By Friday afternoon, I wanted to think about anything other than the foul, troubling politics of the preceding week. So I went to the Zoo. Not on my own, but as an outing with my younger son. ¶ It was a…
Shots Fired
Last night's 11-minute debate on cannabis law reform on Q+A was hardly the first time the issue has been discussed on national television. But it can fairly be considered the opening round of the long argument that will precede the…
Friday Music: Indeed a good one
"That was my first Silver Scrolls – was it a good one?" asked Aldous Harding, who I'd just met, at the after-party. ¶ "It was a good one," I said, before blathering on about the cultural import of Silver Scrolls ceremonies over…
Drugs and the road forward
Radio New Zealand asked me this morning to write an opinion piece on whether Jacinda Ardern and her government did the right thing by declining to sign up to President Donald Trump's Global Call to Action on the World Drug…
The Ray Avery case; or just because you don't like a law doesn't mean it was badly drafted
Businessman Ray Avery recently invoked the Harmful Digital Communication Act to make a complaint to Netsafe arising from a series of investigative pieces about him appearing on the website Newsroom. ¶ It is important to note that Avery didn’t complain that…
Friday Music: Popping off
I've said before that I think we're living in a rich era for New Zealand music, one in which the ambition and creativity of the artists is bulwarked with skills in the technical and commercial parts of the music business…
A painful reflection
The report outlining Housing New Zealand's response to the harm caused by its misguided policies around supposed methamphetamine contamination of its properties is long and thorough. ¶ It puts a number on the tenants harmed by evictions which were very largely…
Friday Music: Martin Phillipps, Snow Bound and taking stock
The Chills' album Snow Bound is released today. It's the second of a late career return for the band and its leader Martin Phillipps that seemed an unlikely prospect for most of the 20 years before it actually happened. ¶ But…
Housing, homeless and drugs: an interview with Moira Lawler
A while ago, Moira Lawler got a concerned call from Wellington. ¶ Something bad had happened with a Housing First tenant and government officials in Wellington were very unhappy. There would have to be a no-surprises policy around anything that might…
Music: The Others Way, a victory of tribe over mere demographics
As you may know, or have heard, this year's The Others Way festival was quite a party. And I think it's worth exploring why. The bands, of course. The sold-out crowd, certainly. But there's a level on which 45 acts,…
Look! The Others Way 2018
The Flying Out Others Way Festival returned to K Rd on Friday August 31 for a SOLD OUT selection of the best local acts and a few internationals as well. With something for the young and old, the highlights included…
Russian Underground part 2
"Photography is not allowed" barked a policeman. ¶ Da, foto v poryadke! I respond in clunky Russian. ¶ "Nyet!" ¶ Da! ¶ I'd spent three days in Moscow's metro system and this was the tenth time I'd been told off. Arguing with Russian officials…
Music: Grey Lynn Taonga
The recent master-tape donation to the Alexander Turnbull library, momentous as it is, isn't the only Flying Nun heritage action going on at the moment. ¶ At a secure location in Grey Lynn, former legendary Toy Love roadie (and Flying Nun…
R.O.A.R.
We on the Left may have better stories than the Right, but man can we make ourselves thornier dilemmas. Oh man, I don't think bakers should be allowed to refuse to serve gay couples, but I do think restaurateurs should…