As you may have read in the news, Peter Dunne approved a medical cannabis product yesterday. Indeed, he received the application to use Aceso Calm Spray to treat a patient with severe Tourette's in the morning and had it approved…
Over Easter I got to attend my sister Sarah’s wedding. It was a lovely long weekend catching up with my extended family, with Sarah’s best friends, and with her new relatives. The ceremony was gorgeous, and the party lasted two…
In this morning’s National Business Review (paywalled), Matthew Hooton estimates Labour’s Universal Basic Income Policy could cost up to $86 billion. ¶ This is the latest in a series of escalatingly absurdist claims about the UBI, starting with David Farrar’s $38…
In the unusually detailed record company bio accompanying I'll Forget 17, his debut* album as Lontalius, Eddie Johnston notes that the first the world heard of him and his music was in YouTube videos of him covering Crowded House songs.…
In the 1960s, Marion Bruce was one of the first parents in New Zealand to get a diagnosis of autism for her son. So rare was the diagnosis considered at the time that it could only be confirmed by a…
It does not take any special insight to suppose that Helen Kelly's media campaign on medical cannabis – framed as it has been in the context of her own battle with lung cancer – might have moved public opinion on the issue.…
Jordan Williams and his cronies have waded into the debate over the UBI. They have a new “study” on the topic, and it’s a doozy. ¶ My personal favourite was the part where author Jim Rose argues a fiscally-neutral UBI will…
Other than it being night, I have no other reference to day, week or month. ¶ It is either mid evening or mid week, autumn or spring, judging by the light or lack thereof, the scant activity on the avenue and…
I’m not going to wade into the debate over whose fault the flag failure was. My views are what you’d expect them to be. ¶ Instead, I’ve been interested in the reaction from National-aligned commentators, from National-aligned commentator John Key on…
One of my favourite episodes of the West Wing is the sixth season episode “A Good Day”. There are four somewhat interweaving plots, and all are good. The episode is best known for the legislative manoeuvre of a bunch of…
Some Candy Talking: Powerstation 4 March, 2016. When the concert was announced last year, I quickly bought tickets thinking, 'wow cool, those shoe gaze pioneers are coming back after 28 years. Ace. I went last time and...' then having a…
Last year, at a Wintec Press Club lunch, I listened to Paula Penfold tell the story of how she and Eugene Bingham put together their reports for TV3's 3D untangling the monstrous conviction that put Teina Pora in prison for…
Even before I went to London, I was envious of my elders; people who'd made the same journey as me a few years earlier and wound up being there for the explosion of punk rock and the energy and new…
This week's Media Take programme takes its lead from the New Zealand Herald's Rugby and dementia dilemma, which is the most substantial media examination yet of the hidden toll taken by concussions in rugby union and rugby league, sports that…
This post is about where “the things we think we know” come from, and what happens when they’re misused. ¶ The “$38 billion” man ¶ Readers may have seen Labour is investigating the merits of changing New Zealand’s tax and welfare policy…
Journalist Bradley Ambrose and Prime Minister John Key have settled Ambrose's defamation proceedings against Key. Ambrose had recorded a conversation between Key and then-ACT leader candidate John Banks, and Key essentially accused Ambrose of committing a crime by making the…
Last night's Sunday programme on access to the expensive new anti-viral drugs that cure Hepatitis C – a debilitating and ultimately life-threatening disease that 50,000 New Zealander have, whether know it yet or not – was a good example of how these…
Nailed it. ¶ I imagine there were a lot of nerves leading into the inaugural Auckland City Limits Festival, but let's get this out of the way early. Bloody excellent job everyone. The day was as chilled as any festival I've…
I suspect that Auckland City Limits' promoters didn't know when they booked Kendrick Lamar that he'd be playing their show with a new album in hand, plus seven Grammy wins for the last one and what people are calling one…
Many will have seen the Herald’s excellent investigation into tax avoidance by large multinationals operating in New Zealand. ¶ It shows global firms are collectively paying only $1.8m in tax, while reporting around $10b in New Zealand sales. That means they’re…
On a survey methodological level, it just looks worse the more I find out. Nerd rage to follow, but briefly up front: Increasingly, I think my original disagreement with the Human Rights Commission is more semantic than substantive. ¶ I still…
Last night's MediaTake show looking at the way Helen Kelly's public stand on medical cannabis has changed the whole media conversation on that topic is online for viewing now. ¶ The highlight is a powerful personal account by Dr Huhana Hickey…
Helen Kelly was only days away from stepping down from her post at president of the Council of Trade Unions when she was interviewed on The Nation in October. But she went into the appearance with the intention of launching…
The Human Rights Commission is wrong. It’s not racist for a survey to put up a statement that captures everything liberals and radicals hate about latent anti-Maori attitudes, and ask whether you agree or disagree with it. ¶ It’s a perfectly…
The latest Coen Brothers offering, Hail Caesar!, is a screwball homage to fifties cinema, a careering narrative where in the end almost nothing has changed significantly. Integral to the story are a group of communist screenwriters who first befuddle and…