The ongoing saga around leaked details of the National leader’s transport spending reveals a party with serious internal problems, writes Jane Patterson for RNZ If National Party leader Simon Bridges wasn’t already sweating he will be now, with a second leak, possibly from within his own caucus. First there was a leak to Newshub about his travel … Read more
Green MP Gareth Hughes reports from Australia, where the seemingly neverending political upheaval is getting in the way of big decisions – like what to do about climate change. Political spills are as quintessentially Australian as that image of the dingo eating the washed-up shark on the beach while two snakes mate in the foreground. … Read more
TOP’s leader writes about the party’s rebirth, and what the furious reaction to it says about the state of New Zealand politics. The reaction to the relaunch of TOP was overwhelmingly positive, and I am immensely grateful for that. What surprised me is how quickly people can leap onto any reason to demonise people or … Read more
If Andrew Little had forgotten how hard it will be to liberalise the criminal justice system, two colleagues reminded him on the very night he began his task, writes Guyon Espiner for RNZ The Criminal Justice Summit, which is to lay the foundations for an advisory group to then flesh out the government’s goal of … Read more
Malcolm Turnbull has just survived a Liberal party-room vote, but the country’s politics are as riven by backbiting as ever. Frank Bongiorno explains how all of this became the norm Back in 2012, a major study on the selection and removal of party leaders in Anglo parliamentary democracies was published. The book contained a section with … Read more
In our video series Kiwis of Snapchat, comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens and luminaries making the news. Today: “Limos aren’t even all that.”
National knows it’s short of mates as it looks ahead to 2020, but the real appeal for the biggest party of the Opportunities Party’s revival is that it could hurt the Greens, writes Toby Manhire It is tempting to remember the Opportunities Party’s contribution to the New Zealand general election of 2017 as a car … Read more
Australian prime ministers are like a well functioning train system. If you miss one, there’s always another one just around the corner. In today’s cheat sheet, could the lucky country be about to see a another PM booted? Hang on, what is a spill? A spill (pronounced speeeeel) is when a parliamentary caucus all gets … Read more
Andrew Little’s drive to rethink the system goes up a gear today in a summit designed to help draw up a programme for reform. Ahead of the two-day event, in Porirua, north of Wellington, the justice minister speaks to Asher Emanuel Andrew Little got a letter recently from a woman whose son is in prison. … Read more
A requirement that NZ First MPs cough up almost a third of a million dollars if if they are expelled or resign from caucus but stay in parliament is draconian and chilling, argues National MP Nick Smith The revelation that Winston Peters has binding contracts over his MPs requiring them to personally pay $300,000 in … Read more
Over two years in Nauru, I met many of the 119 children who have been left languishing by Australia and Nauru on the island. At the Pacific Island Forum, Jacinda Ardern has an opportunity to take a stand, and to change these kids’ lives, writes James Harris of World Vision From 2012 to 2014 I … Read more
A new book on facts, misinformation and communication could have the effect, intended or not, of rehabilitating public relations for the non-establishment left, writes journalist-turned-political-staffer-turned-PR-guy Ben Thomas. An essential stop on the carefully orchestrated tourist trips to North Korea is the imposing Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum. It curates Kim Il-sung’s almost singlehanded defeat of … Read more
The Spinoff’s editor Toby Manhire is back to review the last seven days in New Zealand news. Who’s popping open a cold one in celebration of a job well done, and who’s drinking hard spirits straight from the bottle to make it all go away? The Spinoff TV, 10.45pm Fridays on THREE
The stakes are high after Trevor Mallard’s announcement of an inquiry into how the opposition leader’s travel costs became public, writes Jane Patterson for RNZ If a National Party MP is named as the source of the leak of Simon Bridges’ travel bill their political career will come to an abrupt end. If it is found … Read more
The countless working groups are a kind of stalking horse for a big change, and voters will get to decide come 2020, writes former National Party cabinet minister Wayne Mapp One of the things that is notable about this government is how so many of the ministers, from the prime minister down, signal their intent … Read more
The ACT Party wants to abolish the Māori seats, and lower the number of MPs wholesale. Do they have any chance of getting it through? At the 2017 election, out of about 13,000 party votes the ACT Party picked up nationwide, 239 came from Māori seats. It’s fair to say from those numbers that the … Read more
The Spinoff’s editor Toby Manhire reviews the last seven days in New Zealand news, sorting out those riding high from those who wish they could crawl back under the bedcovers. The Spinoff TV, 10.45pm Fridays on THREE
The MP who rumbled property managers talking about the so-called ‘KFC test’ for tenants writes about why they need to be stopped. It is clear that most landlords and property managers are doing it right – they are providing an essential service for New Zealanders and are doing a good job, in a respectful and … Read more
Business is saying move over, you’re on the wrong side of the road. The government is refusing to budge. Who is going to capitulate first in the ultimate confidence game, asks Guyon Espiner in his fortnightly column for RNZ. This has been rumbling along for a few months but has only just got serious. Until now … Read more
Judith Collins called on Jacinda Ardern to condemn France over a story she sourced from yournewswire.com. Hayden Donnell scans the site for more shocking stories about people the prime minister should condemn. Judith Collins was trawling the internet this morning when she came across a shocking story. Her news source, Yournewswire.com, accused France of becoming … Read more
Likability was the catalyst that made new government possible, and it’s hard to sympathise with National’s recently discovered attachment to the importance of substance, writes Danyl Mclauchlan A year ago this week, Andrew Little resigned as leader of the Labour Party. “He’d have been a good prime minister,” one Labour operative said to me at … Read more
If Pauline Kingi has really resigned for poking someone 23 times on professional Facebook, then that’s a real bloody shame, writes social media aficionado Anna Connell Every now and again there are moments in time which make you wonder just what kind of hell-scape episode of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror we’re now living in. The … Read more
It was always in his interests to keep things stable, and Peters proved to be at his pin-striped best, reckons RNZ political editor Jane Patterson As I arrived at work today I saw a senior New Zealand First staffer with a grin from ear to ear, elated the six weeks with Winston Peters in charge had … Read more
New Zealand’s leading data visionaries Hayden Donnell and Toby Morris read the nation’s thermometer as it undergoes the six-week Jacinderregnum 1/8/2018 Winston Peters was enjoying his last day as acting prime minister. And then, the tweet. It was Andrew Geordie. Malcolm Turnbull had been pictured eating a pie with a knife and fork. Australia was … Read more
Trusting machines to predict citizens’ need for targeted resources can be damaging and increase bias. New Zealand has no choice but to get onboard. When you think about it, a lot of the services the state provides are ones that you might not wish to be party to: criminal prosecution, incarceration, tax investigation, deportation, and … Read more
In presenting himself with a new, softer image, the National leader’s conference speech sought to move beyond relitigating the fights of the past, writes Ben Thomas Simon Bridges is keen to avoid the mistakes of the past. The video warming up his speech to the National Party conference today showed a montage of his life, … Read more
From the outside, parliamentary Question Time looks like a juvenile farce. But it matters far more than many give it credit, writes long-serving aide to the late Jim Anderton, Tony Simpson. The many filmgoers who have seen Saving Private Ryan may recall a vignette near the beginning in which General George Marshall reads out a … Read more
The National Party this week sprung a surprise by putting forward a rival bill on medicinal marijuana. Here leader of the opposition Simon Bridges explains their thinking New Zealanders deserve greater access to high quality medicinal cannabis products to ease their pain and suffering, but we must have the right regulatory and legislative controls in … Read more
Gone By Lunchtime is not dead, it’s just been sleeping. Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee and Ben Thomas reunite in an emotional podcast. From The Spinoff’s flash new studio, the Gone By Lunchtime posse reacquaint themselves with one another and the surprisingly challenging task of saying things about politics. Toby Manhire from the Spinoff, Annabelle Lee … Read more