The Labour-led government has delivered a restrained and cautious Budget in its first year, keeping money in the kitty instead of a major spend up, writes Craig McCulloch in this summary via RNZ It is investing more money in health, education and housing while also forecasting a more than $3bn surplus this year. Finance Minister Grant … Read more
The label public-private partnership is a misnomer for approaches that are ill-suited to solve the problems in our public sector, writes Glenn Barclay, national secretary of the NZ Public Service Association A partnership of equals is a truly beautiful thing. Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson. Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Thelma and Louise. It implies complementary … Read more
Chris Bramwell of RNZ sets the stage for Grant Robertson’s big day Finance Minister Grant Robertson is pitching today’s Budget as one that will set the foundations for the government’s plan to make the economy more sustainable. Robertson said the government can’t fix everything in one Budget, but health, education, and housing will finally get … Read more
The finance minister is about to find out just how difficult it is to keep both constituents and political allies happy, writes Massey University’s Grant Duncan. Global media have shown a great deal of interest in New Zealand’s third woman prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and they eagerly anticipate the imminent arrival of her baby. Less … Read more
The leader of the opposition has lately been touring the small towns and outer city suburbs. Why? Alex Braae went to Huapai in northwest Auckland to find out. Up and down the country over the next month, National leader Simon Bridges will be working the room in dozens of RSAs, community halls and churches. The … Read more
Commute week: For Sarah Dowie, the commute from Invercargill to work in Wellington typically eats up at least half a day. The most fascinating thing about National MP Sarah Dowie comes in a tantalising line from a since deleted Young Nats post: she is a “a one-time member of a travelling dance troupe in Russia”. … Read more
Given he’s regarded as a leader from the pragmatic centrist side of the National Party, it was puzzling to hear Simon Bridges this morning apparently endorse trickle-down theory. “I think there is some trickle-down effect actually, and a lot of people say no, no no,” said Bridges on The AM Show this morning, when questioned … Read more
Back once again with the renegade bluster, the Gone By Lunchtime team climb many flights of stairs in the cause of NZ political discourse. Just when we thought Annabelle Lee was never going to respond to another message, the Spinoff’s most acclaimed politics podcast returns. The garlanded producer of television’s The Hui is joined by PR … Read more
There was no sign of the promise she’d ‘let her guard down’, and flashes of Sarcastic Wine Mom aside, Hillary Clinton offered little more than platitudes at Spark Arena, writes Charlotte Graham-McLay. The song ‘Roar’ by Katy Perry blared from the loudspeakers, a universal indicator that we, the audience at An Evening with Hillary Clinton, were about … Read more
The health sector needs significant investment, but where is that money going to come from? In our series analysing Budget 2018, Grant Thornton’s Pam Newlove says the government needs to look to the private sector. How revolutionary do voters want the new government to be? It’s a question that must be considered, as the government … Read more
How to explain the way the story around the prime minister’s partner exploded? Danyl Mclauchlan counts the ways As a National Party smear campaign As far as the Labour Party is concerned: they’ve been here before. Last time Labour were in government a group of National Party activists and their fellow travellers on the right … Read more
Legislation that would stop MPs from retaining their seat if they part ways with their party is currently before a select committee, having been supported by Labour, NZ First and the Greens at its first reading. Here Jeanette Fitzsimons, former leader of the Green Party, urges parliamentarians to chuck it on the fire It breaches … Read more
The Herald has reported that untrue things are being said about Jacinda Ardern’s partner. Here’s what we know so far. Everyone in media and political circles, Steve Braunias notwithstanding, has been gasbagging like mad over the last month about rumours related to Clarke Gayford, the partner of the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern. Most of these … Read more
The country is changing. And in contrasting herself from her predecessor and advocating for this change, the PM is wielding her awesome and terrible powers of virtue-signalling. It’d be odd if she wasn’t, writes Danyl Mclauchlan. As The Spinoff recently documented, virtue-signalling is the opposition’s favourite attack line against the Labour-led government. Why “virtue-signalling”? It’s … Read more
Hyper-sensalitionism clouds the true gravity of the moves towards reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula, write Korean New Zealanders Angela Suh and Rebekah Jaung. What is the biggest historical event that you can fathom taking place in your lifetime? For most Koreans, unification or the alternative of catastrophic conflict on the Korean peninsula are high on … Read more
UMR survey shows National largely resistant to the Labour surge, though Jacinda Ardern’s party has made inroads among centre voters, writes Stephen Mills Between June 2017 and February 2018 Jacinda Ardern has made Labour the dominant force on the left and much more competitive among centrist voters. National, however, has remained largely resistant to the … Read more
The arguments against following Australia’s lead and holding a commission of inquiry into our banking and insurance industry don’t stack up. We’ve simply got to have one here, writes the head of one KiwiSaver provider Not long ago, Australian politicians, regulators, insurers and bankers were asked whether a Royal Commission into the banking and insurance industry … Read more
Last night North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean president Moon Jae-in met for the first time, pledging a new era of friendship between the two countries. In today’s Cheat Sheet: is peace finally about to come for the people of Korea? What’s all this about then? The leaders of North and … Read more
The list of state agencies using these private investigators to spy on lawful protesters continues to grow, and it is an assault on democracy, writes Frances Mountier. I was distressed to learn last month that a government owned company, Southern Response, had been using private investigators Thompson & Clark to spy on victims of the … Read more
Despite National’s attempts to paint it as a coalition of uneasy bedfellows, the Labour, Greens and NZ First alliance has held up rather well so far, writes Jason Walls for interest.co.nz. “I give ‘em a year and a half.” “That’s generous, I give this government six months!” The night Winston Peters sided with Labour to … Read more
Welcome to the Cheat Sheet, a clickable, shareable, bite-sized FAQ on the news of the moment. Today: why the government is looking into public private partnerships to build infrastructure – and what the other parties think. What’s this all about then? The government are pushing for public private partnerships to fund big transport infrastructure projects, … Read more
The prime minister’s whistlestop tour of Europe saw her meet the German chancellor in Berlin yesterday. And the local press were gushing, writes Julie Hill It’s been a bloody big month for our PM. First, she was basically mobbed at an arts festival in Wanaka. Then she flew to Paris to catch up with the other … Read more
On Tuesday, economist Eric Crampton argued that legislation to prohibit foreign property buyers will do nothing to alleviate the housing crisis. Today, he lays out all the other reasons why the ban makes no sense. Yesterday, I wrote about how New Zealand wound up with a ban on foreign homebuyers. I said the policy was … Read more
Journalist, broadcaster and former member of the press gallery Guyon Espiner analyses New Zealand’s foreign policy, and how it must look to outsiders, in the first of a new fortnightly column for RNZ. To outsiders New Zealand foreign policy must look like a riddle wrapped in a mystery, perhaps clear only to the enigmatic deputy prime … Read more
There is not a shred of evidence the prohibition on foreign property buyers will alleviate the housing crisis. It is populist, fear-based policy making, argues economist Eric Crampton. One of the things that think tank chief economists get to do is have a yarn with travelling delegations from international organisations checking in on how things … Read more
NZ needs to join those countries that have called for an international prohibition on autonomous weapons and to work with them to make it happen, writes Thomas Nash. The drive towards artificial intelligence and robots on the battlefield is the kind of seismic shift in military technology not seen since the inventions of gunpowder and … Read more
The campaign launched by the US with France and UK is a breach of international law. These bombs will kill and maim more people, bringing irrevocable suffering to an already traumatised people, writes Green MP Golriz Ghahraman The harrowing reality of Syria’s war, with chemical weapons, a trapped civilian population and blocked UN security council, … Read more
If there’s one thing that the National opposition appears keen to signal, it’s that they think a lot of things are virtue signalling In an interview with the Spinoff a little over a year ago, then prime minister and National Party leader Bill English was asked whether he considered himself a feminist. Though he believed in … Read more
The fact that the ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration permits was announced so quickly – and with seemingly so little research – should worry us all, writes Jenée Tibshraeny. This column was first published on interest.co.nz. ‘Think globally, act locally.’ That’s a nice phrase that that can be applied to the environmental movement. … Read more