Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 14, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other NZ news. The essential campaign dates are here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz The day in … Read more
Three surveys show the prime minister still has the public’s support, ahead of today’s announcement about whether the country will shift alert levels. As health experts cast doubt on the chances of a move to alert level one this week, New Zealanders remain confident in our political leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic. Cabinet is meeting this … Read more
On Saturday afternoon, Billy Te Kahika Jr was the star attraction at an Aotea Square rally replete with Covid-19 conspiracy theorists. How did a blues musician end up New Zealand’s premier peddler of conspiracy nonsense? David Farrier went searching on the most powerful disinformation network of them all: Facebook. Read more from David Farrier on … Read more
In her last column, Laura O’Connell Rapira suggested how the government could be a better Treaty partner. This week, she reimagines completely new power structures. Between 2012 and 2015, Margaret Mutu and Moana Jackson convened 252 hui with Māori to imagine the future of Aotearoa in 2040, 200 years after the signing of Te Tiriti … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 13, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other New Zealand news. Find official Covid-19 information here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. Contact us at info@thespinoff.co.nz 8.05pm: Person … Read more
New Zealand’s narrow tax base benefits the wealthy and punishes the poor, says taxation academic Jonathan Barrett – and neither major party seems to want to do anything about it. Ability to pay is the basic principle of tax fairness: people in a similar financial position should pay similar amounts of tax; people who can … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 12, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other New Zealand news. Find official Covid-19 information here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. Contact us at info@thespinoff.co.nz The day … Read more
There’s been good news this week for would-be New Zealanders in the age of Covid-19, as the government has given the green light for more workers and immigrants to enter the country. There was a substantial shift at New Zealand’s border this week as the government announced plans to slowly lower the drawbridge and allow … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 11, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other New Zealand news. Find official Covid-19 information here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 6.30pm: The day … Read more
Two electorates, seven candidates (including two recent National leaders) and 100 spaced-out audience members. Josie Adams reports from Tauranga. There were two debates for the price of one last night in Tauranga: the battle for the Tauranga electorate and the battle for Bay of Plenty were fought on the same Baycourt Theatre stage before a … Read more
Politicians have pivoted to online video like lions in heat. José Barbosa has trawled through the top five parties’ social media feeds to learn their secrets of going viral. The online video space is changing all the time. If you work in this sector, as I do, you better bloody well keep up and prime … Read more
Each week in the lead-up to the election, The Side Eye cartoonist Toby Morris is going to teach us how to draw a different New Zealand politician. First up, it’s the prime minister. Click here for the rest of the How to draw series. Click here for the rest of the How to draw series. … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 10, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other New Zealand news. Find official Covid-19 information here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7.00pm: The day … Read more
Google has launched a new election trends hub, deciphering how New Zealanders are searching for parties, leaders and major topics ahead of October 17. It’s been a long, hard six weeks since the “rogue” Newshub poll that gave Labour hope of governing alone after the October election. Since then, we’ve had a second wave of … Read more
Since the late 1990s, suicide rates among young men in New Zealand have increased by almost 50%. ‘Zero Suicide Aotearoa’, the latest report from a cross-party mental health group, is looking to address these dismal suicide rates. After New Zealand placed 35th out of 41 OECD countries for our child wellbeing in the Unicef 2020 … Read more
Looking to wear your political affiliations on your sleeve? Eli Matthewson takes you through your options. As the news of the controversial “Green School” funding broke, I could think of only one thing: how almost everyone I follow on Instagram had already bought the Green Party jumper. At the start of the worst week for … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 9, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other New Zealand news. Find official Covid-19 information here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz The day in … Read more
In two weeks the Mt Roskill group of cases has gone from a small sub-cluster to New Zealand’s fastest growing source of infections. It is linked it to a church meeting held in lockdown and members who ‘don’t accept the science’ of Covid-19. Ashley Bloomfield has moved his Covid-19 concern level to orange, as cases … Read more
Counties Manukau DHB, home to Middlemore Hospital, may have missed out on $300 million in funding over the last decade, according to documents released to The Spinoff. This article has been updated to include a response from Statistics New Zealand. “It’s like a resort, compared to Middlemore.” This isn’t a review on Trivago. Rather it’s a … Read more
The 2020 election has risen, bleary eyed, from its slumber, and so have Annabelle, Ben and Toby in a brand new Gone By Lunchtime. The campaign trail is alive once again, with Labour promising a Matariki holiday and National a health-driven response to meth addiction. The Greens are trying to put the train back on … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 8, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other New Zealand news. Find official Covid-19 information here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 8.00pm: The day … Read more
TVNZ has changed its rules for participation in the multi-party debate with new criteria that are arbitrary and unfair, writes Geoff Simmons, leader of The Opportunities Party. An earlier version of this article incorrectly suggested that Newshub had also changed its criteria and that the Advance Party would participate in its multi-party debate. We apologise … Read more
Too much news? Welcome to the only round-up you need. Parliament has dissolved and the campaign has officially begun, which means politicians have officially logged on. Marama Davidson – Yes It took six months (read: all of history) but an elected official has finally done something good and funny (on purpose) on social media. It’s … Read more
From shambolic interviews to dismal polling, it’s hard to see how the NZ First leader can save his party ahead of the next month’s election, writes Ben Thomas. In boxing, there’s a saying that “power is the last thing to go”. After speed, coordination and stamina are long gone, the oldest fighter still knows how … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 7, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other New Zealand news. Find official Covid-19 information here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7pm: The day … Read more
Whoever is successful on October 17, there is urgent work that needs doing to meet obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Laura O’Connell Rapira offers five to begin with. In 1840, Māori rangatira and representatives of the British Crown signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The Māori text, which is the version of the Treaty recognised … Read more
The struggle of an early life that included hunger and homelessness is a critical part of what led Shelley Pilkington to put her hand up for the National Party. This election, she’s ranked 75th on the National list. Read more from The Spinoff’s Last on the List series here. “Disappointed with last on the list?” … Read more
With six weeks to go to election day, the Labour leader sits down with Spinoff political editor Justin Giovannetti to cast ahead to the world and New Zealand of the post-Covid future. For a leader whose brand was built on ideas of transformation and an optimistic projection of the future, Jacinda Ardern has spent a … Read more
Dozens of major cities are building cycleways and pedestrianising streets as they adapt to the post-pandemic world. Hayden Donnell asks why Auckland hasn’t experienced a similar level of transformation. All over the world, cities are transforming as they adapt to an age of lockdowns and social distancing. London’s Soho district has been almost completely pedestrianised, … Read more