Toby Manhire 
All the key dates and critical communications between Sarah* and the Labour Party – including unambiguous references to ‘sexual assault’ from the complainant. Jacinda Ardern has declared herself “deeply concerned and incredibly frustrated” over the allegations levelled at a Labour staffer as well as the party investigation into the man, who remains employed by the … Read more
It’s one of the great genres of New Zealand news: the unusual thing that just blocked our main arterial road. Here’s a sampler. The Timaru sea lion A repeat offender. “He’s just living up what we have to offer here in Timaru … He’s been having fun as young guys tend to do,” said Timaru … Read more
The government has just published its plan to halt the degradation of waterways and restore the health of freshwater over a generation. But one group says it ‘throws farming under the tractor’. What’s this then? David Parker, the environment minister, has just announced government plans for waterways. “Our rivers, lakes and wetlands are under serious … Read more
Almost two years on, the coalition government’s flagship KiwiBuild programme has been given a ‘reset’, with the big 100,000 target – and all the targets along the way – thrown in the bin. What just happened? Megan Woods has pressed a reset button, detonating a controlled explosion beneath the government’s big KiwiBuild housing programme. The … Read more
Leading New Zealand broadcaster has many questions for himself. As one of New Zealand’s leading broadcasters, Mike Hosking asks a lot of people a lot of questions. Including himself. Drawn from his published opinion pieces from the last few months, here is a selection of Hosking asking questions and answering them. Are the Asian internet … Read more
After the success of the Policy tool in the 2017 general election, this time we’re going local – making it easy to compare the rival candidates in your area. In May 2017, a small group of young people from Wellington approached The Spinoff with an idea. “Proposal: interactive election content,” read the subject header. Their … Read more
Residents in Los Angeles and Orange County warned to check for symptoms after an infected NZ teen visited theme parks including Disneyland and Universal Studios earlier this month. Californian health authorities have issued warnings to residents and visitors after a New Zealand teenager was found to have spent five days in the US state while … Read more
Analysis of New Zealand media headlines reveals a lot of people slamming a lot of other people. Slamming is at epidemic levels in New Zealand news. Drawn from just the last month, we present a selection of slamming. On July 27 A union boss slammed David Clark On July 29 Police slammed a dangerous photographer … Read more
Phil Goff’s rival has already pledged an 0800-Jacinda homeless hotline and an 18-lane harbour bridge. What’s next? The two most important people in the 2019 campaign for the Auckland mayoralty faced each other down on Wednesday night across the desk in the NZME debate: Bernard Orsman and Simon Wilson. Correction: it was of course mayor … Read more
Lists are good and so are Sundays. We combine both those things in a new Spinoff feature. This week: Headlines from the past six months about the the Reserve Bank governor, Adrian Orr RBNZ prepares to stick its Orr in ASB, March 29 Banks Orr-struck yet again The Australian, April 10 Big banks brace for … Read more
The ancient Australian shock-jock yesterday targeted Jacinda Ardern, urging Australia’s PM to ‘shove a sock down her throat’. It’s all in keeping with a substantial history of being an arse. The plucky nation of Australia excels in a range of endeavours, but nowhere more than the angry, anguished howls of bloated, Jurassic men. It’s a … Read more
An independent review into the data shortfall in the first digital-driven census has seen the government statistician fall on her Y-axis, accepting the serious failures identified What just happened? Liz MacPherson, the chief executive of Stats NZ and official government statistician, announced that she would resign those roles at the end of the year, following … Read more
New Zealand’s biggest ISP said it would prefer to see intervention by the censor’s office, but in light of 8chan’s role in terrorism from Christchurch to Texas, access would be blocked should the site resurface. New Zealand’s biggest internet service provider says it will block 8chan after the extremist website was implicated in the white … Read more
Vodafone just announced that they’ll be flicking on the new generation of mobile signal in four centres before the end of the year. Hold the phone. What just happened? In an all singing, all dancing, all hologramming extravaganza at its Auckland HQ, Vodafone announced that it will be switching on a 5G network in December … Read more
Funny, charismatic, erudite – what could possibly go wrong? First published in July 2019 The votes are in and the people have decided – correction: the Conservative Party membership has decided – that the new prime minister of the United Kingdom shall be Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. The former journalist, former mayor of London … Read more
Tonight the Black Caps will be led on to Lord’s for the World Cup Final by Kane Williamson, the most underestimated captain in world cricket, writes Toby Manhire. Were he not so confoundingly, unshakably, even irritatingly amiable, we’d call him something like Ice Cold Kane. Instead, the official epithet-hander-outers of New Zealand cricket, the Alternative … Read more
Anna Fifield, Beijing bureau chief for the Washington Post, talks to Toby Manhire about her new book The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un, about working in China, and about reporting from Christchurch after March 15 There are few stories on the world news pages as enthralling, and as … Read more
The online giant has written to the NZ minister of justice, Andrew Little, saying it will immediately suspend the automated service that breached a court order In December 2018, when the Spinoff broke the news that Google had breached a New Zealand court suppression order in the case of Grace Millane, the internet giant’s first … Read more
In a ferocious opinion piece for the Spinoff, the minister of justice says he would be ‘failing in my duty’ if he were to allow the internet giant to ‘ride roughshod’ over New Zealand law. The New Zealand minister of justice has promised that there will be consequences for Google after the US-based company informed … Read more
They’re hinting that new rules might make them quit their New Zealand operations, and you should feel bad about it, writes Toby Manhire In this brutal modern life there’s a lot to worry about, all the time, so it’s completely understandable if you rarely find a moment to stop and think of the downtrodden and … Read more
Phil Twyford has avoided an official demotion in the Cabinet reshuffle, but the breakup of the housing portfolio reveals the desperate state of the KiwiBuild programme he oversaw, writes Toby Manhire In 2014, as John Key set the stage for his third term as prime minister, he announced a reshuffle of his National Party cabinet. … Read more
Flamingo and the Uber-owned Jump launch in the capital today, with the city becoming New Zealand’s fifth to see shareable e-scooters Eight months after the invasion of the Limes scandalised the previously 100% safe streets of Auckland, Wellington is to get its first taste of electric scooters, with two rival providers having received permits from … Read more
Melbourne joins two American cities as launch markets for Uber air taxis, part of plans to add a ‘third dimension’ to its ride-hailing services Uber users could be travelling by air around Melbourne as soon as 2023 under plans announced today. The Australian city was named as the third pilot market for Uber Air, and … Read more
In the land of hope and glory, the US president’s state visit is under way against a backdrop of wild insults between Donald Trump and the London mayor, Sadiq Khan. Here’s the backstory. Not since Lindsay Lohan slandered the Northamptonshire town of Kettering and failed to switch on their Christmas lights has a transatlantic feud … Read more
Two women who entered parliament at the age of 23, albeit 42 years apart, discuss their parliamentary experiences Read an extract from The Political Years by Marilyn Waring here When Chlöe Swarbrick is introduced at events, she finds herself hailed as the youngest person to be elected to parliament since Marilyn Waring. “I’m very sorry. … Read more
Police have rebuffed the Treasury secretary’s complaint about purported hacking of Budget information. So what really happened, and has Simon Bridges been vindicated? Metaphors abound when it comes to claims of hacking. Yesterday, following suspicions that the National Party had accessed parts of the Treasury website thought to be secure, the head of the most … Read more
As Treasury says it’s registered thousands of attempts to hack its secure site and Simon Bridges accuses Grant Robertson of maliciously lying, the wellbeing budget is about to become the hell-fleeing budget for someone The press releases started rolling in at 10 on the dot yesterday morning: “National reveals Budget details.” At 1.30pm: “National reveals … Read more
Votes taken across the two big teachers’ unions, which represent almost 50,000 members, will bring a mass classroom closure across the country on May 29. When is the teachers’ strike and who is affected? Pretty much every school in the state sector will be closed on Wednesday May 29, after primary and secondary school teachers … Read more
Greenpeace hate it. So do farmers’ groups. But James Shaw is determined that the Zero Carbon Bill forges a fair path to a net-zero future. Toby Manhire sits down in a parliamentary corridor with the climate change minister to discuss the bill, and why he’s been bending over backwards to win National’s support. For James … Read more