How does one report on something that’s happening behind closed doors? New Zealand media did their best last week as Jacinda Ardern gave birth, but was it enough? Or too much? We all waited in the rain for the baby to arrive. Not to arrive in the world – Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford was … Read more
When the US is ripping children from the arms of their parents and throwing them into cages, we are firmly at the point in history where future generations might ask, ‘what would I have done?’ writes the Greens’ human rights spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman. We live at a moment in global history when the world’s most powerful state … Read more
Jacinda Ardern has not yet had her baby – though check here for the very latest – but deputy prime minister Winston Peters has nevertheless assumed her set-piece duties. And how Winstonianly has he assumed them? Here are some examples from the almost-prime-minister’s answers to questions across the last 24 hours, drawn from the post-cabinet … Read more
Winston Peters has assumed prime ministerial duties from Jacinda Ardern – well, some of them – as she prepares to go on maternity leave. Toby Manhire watches (thanks Newshub) the weekly set-piece post-Cabinet press conference. In late September 2017, Winston Peters stood before the parliamentary press gallery in the Beehive Theatrette and evacuated a bellyful of … Read more
Live updates from Hayden Donnell, Toby Manhire and Madeleine Chapman Sunday, June 24 8.30pm: Earlier today the prime minister and her partner appeared at Auckland Hospital to acknowledge Clarke Gayford’s cardigan. “There’s nothing wrong with that dad cardie,” said Jacinda Ardern, in a Facebook video. It was “a real find”, said the prime minister of … Read more
Climate change is not a partisan issue, and the need to take big steps to reduce emissions is urgent. So the opposition support for a Climate Change Commission is very welcome, writes climate scientist James Renwick. In climate policy-land, things are all go here in New Zealand. The coalition government has got its Zero Carbon … Read more
Phil Twyford called meth use a “health issue” this morning, and said his Housing NZ would not make people homeless. Good words and true. So why is his government still locking addicts up? A few hours ago, Morning Report’s Guyon Espiner conducted an interview with housing minister Phil Twyford which was both mundane and extraordinary, … Read more
In just one day the number two in the government has deployed three of the weapons that have sustained him in politics over four decades, writes Guyon Espiner for RNZ. They are three of the life-long loves for Winston Peters: legal action, exercising the balance of power and the execution of perfect timing. On the … Read more
Some ministers are already displaying the election-losing arrogance that it took National’s Cabinet three terms to achieve. The PM’s parental leave is a risk – but also an opportunity, writes Danyl Mclauchlan. For nigh on three decades there’s been a soothing, tide-like regularity to New Zealand politics. Every nine years we elect a new government with … Read more
The Spinoff geopolitical-science panel is assessing the progress of the historic talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his American counterpart, President Donald Trump, as it happens, and delivering its verdict on the state of talks, by Toby Morris. Our latest forecast, based on data plugged into our proprietary Armageddologorithm™ … And the full range: … Read more
Wayne Mapp, a government MP the first time Winston Peters was deputy prime minister, says we should expect the NZ First leader to use every opportunity to ensure his party’s survival. The Right Honorable Winston Peters has spent the lead up to his time as acting prime minister by reminding Labour of the limits of … Read more
David Faulkner was once such a meth-contamination believer he became a Methsolutions Certified Sampler. But then he saw the hysteria, and the industry that profited from it, for what they are In August of 2014 two-year-old Emma Lita-Bourne died after suffering a brain haemorrhage. The story made the news the following winter after a coroner … Read more
They might have rebranded, they want us to know they’ve changed. And yet the party now known as New Conservative say they have the same values as when they were just the Conservatives. Is there any chance they’ll be taken seriously? The most important thing to get across about the New Conservative Party is that … Read more
From day one, Clark’s government was confronted by a revolt from the NZ business world that came to be known as the ‘winter of discontent’. There is a similar chill in the air now, writes Branko Marcetic No matter what Jacinda Ardern does, she can’t quite seem to win over the business world. Since last … Read more
Education policy should be evidence-based, informed by experts with real experience in the sector. Instead the never-ending drive to modernise every aspect of children’s lives at school is replacing genuine education with social engineering, argues former Auckland Grammar headmaster John Morris Having spent Queen’s Birthday Saturday at the ResearchED Conference in Auckland along with 300 … Read more
From meth-test evictions to mental health treatment, the impact of the last government is being felt across NZ. It is only a matter of time, suggests Danyl Mclauchlan until the National opposition launches a fund-raising campaign In the wake of shocking revelations about Housing New Zealand’s meth testing evictions, a crumbling health service, surging numbers … Read more
In building a qualifications system fit for the 21st century, we can’t afford to expend excessive energy on ideological battles, and we’re looking to the minister to introduce a properly collaborative process, writes National Party education spokesperson Nikki Kaye In 2013 changes were made to the New Zealand Qualifications Framework to require a review of our … Read more
Labour’s inexplicable timidity risks turning the much-vaunted KiwiBuild policy into a damp squib, argues Guyon Espiner for RNZ. The most ambitious interventionist economic plan pursued by a New Zealand government was named after a race. Think Big won the Melbourne Cup twice in the mid-1970s, making quite an impression on Allan Highet, a long forgotten … Read more
We will also test Housing NZ properties for traces of students, pets and bad vibes, reveals our proud CEO (Boiler Suits Division) Alex Braae The report into the pointlessness of testing houses for meth contamination has come at a very bad time for The Spinoff. All those stories about how if one hit was taken … Read more
National might be the largest polling party, but they’re sorely lacking any serious parliamentary sidekick. ACT clearly isn’t the solution, so how about contriving a new splinter-party? Good luck getting that past the electorate, writes Alex Braae Voters are a strange group of people to lump together. By and large they have little in common … Read more
The National leader will not be happy with just 9% picking him as preferred by PM in a new poll, especially with Judith Collins storming into the scene. But the bigger story is the mire in which Winston Peters finds his party. A funny old morning for Simon Bridges. The party you lead has just … Read more
The role of the speaker and the schoolyard scrap of Question Time are in the news as Paula Bennett and Gerry Brownlee square up against Trevor Mallard. What’s it all about? Chris Bramwell of RNZ explains From the outside, Parliamentary Question Time probably looks like a scrappy playground at times. Sometimes dubbed the “snakepit”, parliament’s debating … Read more
The scrap between the National Party opposition and the Labour MP speaker is an example of the Nash Equilibrium, and it leaves Danyl Mclauclan reflecting on a deeper sorrow and madness National deputy leader Paula Bennett is unhappy with the Speaker’s rulings during Question Time. This is not an important issue and you don’t actually need … Read more
Every little advantage counts in Parliament. Madeleine Chapman and Ra Pomare critically analyse the power sits of Question Time. No one has the time or energy to watch Parliament TV. It’s boring as hell. Except when it’s not. Question Time can be entertaining in the same way it’s sometimes entertaining to listen to kids argue: … Read more
It’s encouraging that members of this government finally seem to get it: prisons just don’t work. But what are they willing to do as an alternative, asks Tania Sawicki Mead of JustSpeak It arrived not with bang but a whisper. Plans for a billion dollar mega-prison at Waikeria, a development which would create the largest … Read more
The new government needs to roll back a policy that stops Africans claiming refugee status – and undermines the human rights at the foundation of our refugee policy, argues Murdoch Stephens. Politics make strange bedfellows and the campaign to double New Zealand’s refugee quota has been bunking down with some truly odd folk as of … Read more
The way we sign up to trade deals must change, and parliament needs to lead the process to prevent flawed agreements like the TPP getting through, write lawyer Oliver Hailes and academic Max Harris. There has been sustained and vocal public opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a treaty that would bind a number of … Read more
The big picture of Budget 2018 is that the Labour-led government has missed its chance to help those in the worst poverty, writes Alan Johnson Pre-election budget releases often focus on small budgets and specific programmes which have some public appeal. This focus on small detail often means that we are distracted from the big … Read more
The new finance minister was eager to burnish his fiscal responsibility credentials on his first outing. He has done that. But in doing so he has conjured up something like a neoliberal triumph, writes Guyon Espiner for RNZ It turns out you can’t judge a book by its colour, either. Labour’s first budget in nearly a … Read more