Toby Manhire 
A National Party chair has called for the return of corporal punishment, which seems sure to return the issue, including the smacking debate, to the agenda under NZ’s new social conservative PM. You’d be forgiven for thinking that New Zealand had by and large concluded the debate about whether beating up children is a good … Read more
A sequel to Dirty Politics? A blistering John Key exposé? An homage to soup? Ahead of tomorrow’s big launch, we play bookmaker. A famous New Zealander has revealed the release date for a long-awaited new work, igniting a frenzy of speculation, the likes of which we haven’t seen since at least the other week. Nicky … Read more
Can the PM recover from last Monday’s ‘wait and see’ shambles, in the face of questions on tax cuts and abortion? Toby Manhire tunes in. You think your Monday morning is a struggle, but spare a thought for the prime minister, whose week begins with four broadcast interviews, pretty much back to back. Imagine trying … Read more
There was a lot of love between the politicians kicking off the campaign with a debate at Auckland University last night, and then it got ugly. Toby Manhire relives the good and the bad of it all. If the curtain-raising set-piece in election year presages the 2017 campaign proper, we can expect an engaging, amicable … Read more
After the Mt Albert byelection and with Labour stuck in polling doldrums, the case for Jacinda Ardern’s elevation to the deputy leadership had become irresistible. But what happens when she overtakes Little in the preferred leader polling, wonders Toby Manhire The politics gods’ simmering fury with the New Zealand Labour Party was evidenced again on … Read more
The WikiLeaks founder spoke to audiences in Melbourne and Auckland on Sunday night via video-link from his Ecuador embassy redoubt in London – this time without power drills and Kim Dotcom. The last time Julian Assange was beamed in to a public event in New Zealand, the country was screaming slack-jawed down the final furlong … Read more
Kim Dotcom is back in court. He won the battle to livestream it. Until we can bear it no longer we’re liveblogging that. UPDATED with February 2017 ruling. Monday February 20, 2017: We have a ruling! A mere five months on, the ruling is in, and Justice Gilbert says Dotcom and co are eligible for … Read more
Morning Report listeners will be familiar with the crisp British tones of Simon Marks, messenger of daily astonishment from the White House. We asked him about the strange new world, his modest media empire, and the dangers of normalising President Donald J Trump. Don’t know about you but my mornings these days usually begin with … Read more
Reports of the US president haranguing and hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull must have sent convulsions of excitement and/or tooth-pulling terror around the NZ PM’s office. Here’s how the English-Trump chat might go. Executive assistant to the President: Mr President, you are now with Prime Minister English. President Donald J Trump: You said … Read more
As Bill English sounds the horn for a September polling day, Toby Manhire take a deep breath and speculates on what to expect in the months to come. Plus: the key dates in the leadup to the election And they’re off. Bill English has announced that the election will fall on September 23, a date … Read more
Three years after she was so dramatically unveiled as leader of Kim Dotcom’s Internet Party, Laila Harré has returned to Labour. In a frank and revealing interview, she tells Toby Manhire what went down in 2014, and why she’s decided to throw her lot back in with the party she first joined 36 years ago. … Read more
Controversial Trump endorser and Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel is reportedly now a New Zealander. But how did that happen, and who the hell is he? Toby Manhire counts the ways. He’s already got quite the CV: founder of PayPal, early investor in The Facebook, funder and advocate for both Hulk Hogan and Donald Trump. … Read more
Watching Donald Trump deliver his inaugural address as US president isn’t the same without second-screening Donald Trump tweeting about it. So here he is. crowds floking into Washington DC with victory on their histories. America is History! pic.twitter.com/wcVsfd9fah — Sad President (@ActualPresTrump) January 20, 2017 Crazy music playing. The greatest music. Beautiful — Sad … Read more
The signing in of Donald J Trump as 45th president of the United States of America is but hours away. To distract/medicate, play the Spinoff drinking game along with his inaugural address. President-elect Trump thought really hard about his big Day One speech. If you, too, are suffering from anxious, get-me-a-laxative-face in the leadup to … Read more
The American foreign intelligence bureau yesterday posted online for the first time millions of pages of declassified documents. Toby Manhire scrolls through some of the intel published on New Zealand The Central Intelligence Agency is America’s foreign spook outfit, famous for interfering in other countries’ elections, complaining about other countries interfering in US elections and … Read more
The Kaikoura earthquake wreaked destruction, tragedy and misery, but it also generated much scientific fascination. Including: what was going on in the Hikurangi Subduction Zone and those mysterious slow-slip events? Originally published November 23, 2016 A slow slip event off the east coast of the North Island, with an estimated equivalent impact of a M6.9 … Read more
The most upbeat runner in the Auckland mayoral race enacted a weird half-withdrawal late in the contest. And it wasn’t for the first time, wrote a weeping Toby Manhire Originally published September 13, 2016 Nudges and winks to the electorate have become a familiar part of MMP politics in New Zealand, with messages beamed to … Read more
A brief note of festive gratitude as we plunge into hibernation (mostly) for a fortnight. The final Friday beer gong of the year has reverberated through Spinoff headquarters, and we are just about out of here. From tomorrow, our “Summer reissue” series begins, in which we showcase some of the best Spinoff writing of the … Read more
For good or ill, the first three years of a child’s existence have an outsized impact on the rest of their life, according to findings taken from the world renowned Dunedin Study. The study’s director talks to Toby Manhire about what it all means. Give me a child at seven, and I will show you … Read more
Superstar of breakfast radio, All Black captain and owner of a world-class duck face, John Key is one hell of a hard act to follow. But is the PM-designate really that boring? Toby Manhire crushes forever the Dull Bill English myth. Guyon Espiner: Are you excited? Rt Hon Bill English (most unexcited voice in history … Read more
Should David Shearer’s South Sudan appointment be confirmed, a byelection is likely in Mt Albert, signalling the departure of the last ex-Labour leader and leaving the question hanging: did the party err in knifing him? “Former leaders” are a mixed blessing for a political party – they can be weathered, wise old owls, or they … Read more
This time next week John Key will be jetting to Hawaii, while a replacement measures the drapes on the Beehive ninth floor. But who are the likely contenders to succeed him? A thumbnail introduction, by Toby Manhire Amy Adams: Selwyn, 45 Pros: Unblemished by scandal, First on the alphabetical roll. New generation, signalling renewal. Cons: … Read more
In a momentous political bombshell, John Key has announced he’s standing down as PM. Some early, shell-shocked thoughts from Toby Manhire… It is one of the hoary rules of politics that leaders never – almost never – go of their own accord. But John Key, not for the first time, has proved his resistance to … Read more
The reverberations of media misreading of the US election are being felt in New Zealand, where media need to look in the mirror, says Patrick Gower, the Newshub political editor. Freshly returned from witnessing the mind-warping American election of 2016, which saw a man by the name of Donald Trump win the presidency, Patrick Gower … Read more
Fresh from reporting on the American Trumpocalypse, Newshub’s larger than life political editor Patrick Gower tells Toby Manhire about the lessons his US experience offers to NZ media, and how he’s preparing to tackle an election here in 2017, all over the course of a mere seven hours, in the latest instalment of On the … Read more
A slow slip event off the east coast of the North Island, with an estimated equivalent impact of a M6.9 quake, was detected this week. GNS Science geophysicist Laura Wallace explains this important new area of seismic research, and what’s up with the Hikurangi subduction zone Among the most fascinating discoveries in the days following … Read more
A newly released map reveals the extraordinary complexity of Monday morning’s monster magnitude-7.8 earthquake. GNS Science earthquake geologist Nicola Litchfield explains what we’re looking at. Below, Ursula Cochran explains the big picture. Following the Kaikoura earthquake early on Monday morning, GNS Science geologists Nicola Litchfield and Pilar Villamor flew south by chopper from Wellington to … Read more
9.00pm (NZ time): Donald Trump has just appeared on stage in New York, saying he has received a call from Hillary Clinton conceding the contest. The Spinoff’s unrivalled team of experts have gobbled up all the available data and pooped them out like coffee beans from an Asian palm civet, to produce a live hazard … Read more
The Labour Party conference concluded with a fire-in-belly speech from Andrew Little. Toby Manhire went along to watch. While one nation in the continent of North America sucks up all the political oxygen on Earth, feeding a giant ball of pulsating fire, there is something reassuring about New Zealand Labour Party delegates gathering together on … Read more