Forget transport and housing policy. Hayden Donnell dons his sorting hat to uncover the only info on the Auckland mayoral candidates that truly matters. We’ve found out a lot of personal stuff about the Auckland mayoral candidates during this heart-stopping election campaign. Her Warship Penny Bright cleans her hoardings with senior nappies. John Palino knows … Read more
Why did we endorse Not Mike Lee? We explain our controversial decision and talk housing, elections and potential mayors with a pair of all-star guests. With Auckland in the throes of voting, Mana editor Leonie Hayden joins the Warcast to recap the most recent mayoral debate at Ngā Whare Waatea Marae, where one candidate emerged as a clear crowd favourite. Hayden … Read more
Why is there a Swarbrick-shaped hole in the Herald’s 23-page election guide? Hayden Donnell has a whinge. The Herald’s recent local body election guide is mostly unremarkable. There are interviews with the main mayoral contenders. An obligatory trudge through the wards. An even more obligatory trudge through the regions. One piece blaming uncool political candidates … Read more
For all the hand-wringing over the economic damage done by the housing crisis, precious little attention is paid to its health effects – particularly on those living in poverty. Dr George Laking explains why house prices should come with a health warning. Warning: contains photos of doctors and gory things. We loved our scuzzy flat … Read more
Who’s getting the blue tick – Goff? Swarbrick? Crone? Bright? Let us show you the way. The Spinoff’s War for Auckland psy-ops division has emerged from their underground bunker with their picks for Auckland mayor. – Click here – to discover on whom The Spinoff has bestowed its coveted mayoral seal of approval.
The Spinoff War for Auckland PsyOps Division is giddily excited to launch our turbo-charged endorsement tool – click here! We say: give these people your vote for mayor and council. The tool – click here! – is a core part of our outlandish and belligerent campaign for a better Auckland. Drawing on field research conducted by … Read more
In fits of democratic exhilaration, Gen Zero and the Auckland war bunker celebrate the start of the Auckland local elections, and explain their imperious plans to tell you how to vote. On the day voting papers begin to dribble into the letterboxes of the Super City, Spinoffistas Toby Manhire and Hayden Donnell are joined by … Read more
Auckland’s housing market is now ministerially sanctioned as ‘out of control’. Hayden Donnell spoke to Chris Minty from Saba about whether apartments are the answer. Auckland’s house prices just reached $1 million on average. As milestones go, it’s like your first catastrophic break-up, or turning 40: no-one feels that good about it. The Government now … Read more
Right on the heels of the Unitary Plan, the Auckland Transport Alignment Project report is published tomorrow, and it, too, is absolutely critical for the city. Transport Blog guru-in-chief Matt Lowrie explains what ATAP is all about and why it matters. Even before Len Brown was elected mayor in 2010 on the back of promises … Read more
Phil Goff remains well out in front in the contest for the big job in Auckland but young pretender Chloe Swarbrick has built support against the odds. A new poll published today by the Spinoff shows Phil Goff on course to succeed Len Brown as mayor of Auckland, maintaining a comfortable lead over his closest … Read more
The most upbeat runner in the Auckland mayoral race has felt obliged to perform a weird half-withdrawal. And not for the first time, writes Toby Manhire Nudges and winks to the electorate have become a familiar part of MMP politics in New Zealand, with messages beamed to loyal supporters about how to vote strategically. This … Read more
The War for Auckland briefly flees the stinking cauldron of hot takes for the cool waters of beautiful music, as Lake South explains his new track Renters. I wrote Renters because that’s Auckland for me in 2016. All my friends talk about is paying too much rent for shitty flats. They say they can’t tell the landlord about the … Read more
Rental prices in NZ’s largest city continue to escalate, with lower income households hit the hardest. Chris McDowall, who built the stunning Spinoff Unitary Plan maps, has visualised the change – accounting for inflation. Last week the Ministry of Social Development released the annual Household Incomes Report. Two sentences in the summary immediately stood out. … Read more
Every immigration debate in history* has been riddled with racism. Duncan Greive looked at current coverage of the issue – and its impact on housing – and came away pleasantly surprised. September’s North & South came out a couple of Mondays ago and devoted a large chunk of its feature well to a single issue: immigration. It’s … Read more
The immigration debate is back and Karen Tay just has one plea: Can we not be hugely xenophobic? The immigration debate in New Zealand is like the mythical sea monster Hydra. Even if chopped off at the neck, it’ll grow back, and bring extra heads to the party. It rose up in 1881, when a “poll tax” was introduced … Read more
Activist, iconoclast and serial mayoral candidate Penny Bright is an indefatigable, unmistakable fixture in Auckland politics. River Lin joins her for a day on the campaign trail The “heartbeat of the revolution”, says Penny Bright, begins in a ramshackle home in Kingsland. My body sinks into a worn-out couch in a corner of Bright’s house, accompanied … Read more
Did the Canadian experiment work? It is far too early to tell, and anybody claiming otherwise may be trying to sell you something, writes Eric Crampton There’s a reasonable consensus that not building enough houses, apartments, or terraced housing is at the root of Auckland’s lack-of-homes problem. And there’s further reasonable consensus that that’s primarily … Read more
Four of the would-be mayors gathered with RNZ’s Guyon Espiner for a breakfast barney at AUT this morning. The Spinoff’s Toby Manhire was there, too. Assembled in the television studio at AUT for an 8am start were mayoral hopefuls Mark Thomas, John Palino, Vic Crone and Phil Goff, with Guyon Espiner chairing and Todd Niall … Read more
Trains! Expressways! Parking! The Greens’ transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter and Transport Blog super-genius Matt Lowrie join us in the pod. Plus: we get David Farrier on the phone to apologise for last week’s debacle Unless they stay in their new-build medium density housing and never venture out, the rapidly growing Auckland population is going … Read more
Vic Crone’s campaign launch was a wild bacchanal of potentially dodgy drink gifting and sober transport spending promises. Hayden Donnell went along to embrace the chaos. Her campaign launch had barely begun and Vic Crone was already dancing on the edge of the law. The mayoral candidate was giving away free drinks to everyone who … Read more
‘Twas always thus, says the prime minister of young people’s struggle to get into the housing market. Economist Shamubeel Eaqub has some thoughts about that. In an interview on Newstalk ZB this week, broadcaster and clothes horse Mike Hosking asked the prime minister about “people locked out of the market” for housing in Auckland, “like … Read more
In an interview on The Nation, Nick Smith said he wants to make houses more affordable without actually making them cheaper. Hayden Donnell weighs in, with the help of Ben Thomas, on the two contradictory versions of the Housing Minister. Here’s a list of things worth $1 million: 1. Three black market kidneys 2. Two private islands in … Read more
The housing minister insists the government is limited to getting ‘the incentives’ right. But there’s plenty more they could do. And there’s only one Auckland mayoral candidate with a policy solution, writes Geoff Simmons. The average price of a house in Auckland is predicted to pass $1m when official figures are released later this week. … Read more
Polling expertise from David Farrar and insightful chats on the mayoral race, the council budget and tensions between the government and Super City. All that and more on the latest War for Auckland podcast. Joining marine commandos Toby Manhire and Hayden Donnell in the fourth War for Auckland podcast are the Auckland Central MP and … Read more
A Spinoff/SSI poll shows National’s support slipping in Auckland. Tim Murphy looks at why the blue tide might be going out in our biggest city (Hint: it has something to do with a housing Apocalypse). One intriguing result from this week’s Spinoff-SSI poll of voters is that the Government’s lead in the party vote has fallen considerably … Read more
Apartments: long has the debate raged over whether building them would destroy Auckland. Today a special Spinoff pictorial exposé can reveal they’re already here – and loads of them are fantastic. Photography by Rebecca Zephyr Thomas. Story based on research by Catherine Smith. Nothing scares a certain kind of veteran Aucklander more than an apartment. … Read more
The Spinoff/SSI survey reveals the extraordinary impact of housing crisis on residents of New Zealand’s biggest city – and the extent to which Aucklanders blame foreign speculation. There is a housing crisis in Auckland, and it has already bitten hard across the city, according to the latest results from polling conducted by SSI for the Spinoff … Read more
Turns out that the people of Auckland think the blueprint for the future of the city is pretty bloody good. The Unitary Plan, which The Spinoff and others have been banging on about recently, was signed off by Auckland Council with a surprising lack of rowdy opposition last week. It turns out our newly reformed pro-density … Read more
A survey commissioned for the Spinoff’s War for Auckland pop-up site puts the Labour MP well in front of his nearest rival, Vic Crone, just weeks out from voting. But many remain undecided. Phil Goff has established a commanding lead in the Auckland mayoral race with less than four weeks until voting begins. The former … Read more