Patrick Gower has slammed Metiria Turei for trying to ‘get attention’ and ‘win votes’ just ‘eight weeks out from an election’. Hayden Donnell lifts the lid on just how deep this rabbit hole goes. Most of the people criticising Metiria Turei for committing benefit fraud have been white, middle-aged men angry at the idea of … Read more
Our answer to the ‘Black Hands’ podcast is ‘Rainbow Hands’, in which the Gone By Lunchtime team scoff so many M&Ms that their fingers get covered in artificial colouring. Also they discuss politics. With less than two months to polling day, Annabelle Lee, executive producer of The Hui, returns to the GBLT pod salon, joining Ben Thomas … Read more
It is well-known that poverty and inequality have soared under National. Well-known – and unsupported by the evidence. What matters is at the extremities, writes Max Rashbrooke Yesterday’s Household Incomes Report, the annual record of inequality in New Zealand, is a confronting read for those who think everything is getting worse. Take the figures for … Read more
Following the Green co-leader’s admission about misleading WINZ, Nicola Gaston recalls her own upbringing on a benefit, and confesses to a fraud of her own. Metiria Turei’s recent announcement of Green Party policy on welfare in New Zealand has caught people’s attention, all right. But instead of focusing on the co-leader’s commitment to lift families … Read more
On June 21 the National MP for Clutha-Southland resigned his candidacy for re-election, in the wake of a scandal around alleged secret recording of staff. Todd Barclay remains on full pay and perks until September 23, however. What has he been up to? On the day he returns to parliament we scour the news and … Read more
In the third of our series mining the truths from the political promos, Toby Manhire overthinks ‘Great Greens’. Already the Spinoff has turned its groundbreaking and vandalistic attention to the National Party’s “Let’s Get Together” and the Labour Party’s “Fresh Start”. Today it’s the turn of the Greens, whose first campaign ad was well ahead of … Read more
The ever-deepening storm centred on the Joanne Harrison fraud case just became a hurricane. Yesterday’s State Services Commission investigation report is likely to trigger a new chain of events that could extend well beyond embattled Auditor General Martin Matthews, writes Peter Newport The State Services Commission investigation, published yesterday, makes one thing very clear: Joanne … Read more
Andrew Little just talks naturally to New Zealand in the party’s first ad ahead of the election. Toby Manhire dives deep and scrawls captions on top of their captions. The National Party had its “Let’s Get Together” jingle, which we deconstructed using science yesterday. Today it’s Labour turn, with their “Fresh Approach” debut video ad. First, the video as … Read more
Winston Peters battled Duncan Garner to the death in a live TV interview this week. Spinoff body language expert Hayden Donnell scoured the footage for hidden secrets. It’s been eight long months since the last installment of the New Zealand Herald’s groundbreaking interview series with body language expert Suzanne Masefield. In the series, Masefield revealed … Read more
Already the internet is being bedazzled by political messages in the election leadup. Here Toby Manhire helpfully analyses National’s debut effort using the medium of captions. We’re still awaiting a ruling in the lawsuit against the National Party over their “Eminemesque” commercial – the one with the boats – from 2014, and already the first ad … Read more
In a followup to his report as an embedded NZ First member at the party’s conference, Branko Marcetic looks at how the Winston Peters bus is going through the gears and gives his take on the party’s prospects. The New Zealand First Party tends to be more associated in the public mind with mobility scooters and … Read more
Turns out you can randomly issue demands for payment, and we’re totally into it. Please pay promptly. New Zealand woke this July morning to news that the Taxpayers’ Union will be issuing Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei with a “very large invoice on behalf of all the taxpayers and beneficiaries who follow the law”, following … Read more
The headlines don’t quite capture the core message of Winston Peters’ party, finds Branko Marcetic when he attends their pre-election conference. Midway through the first day of the New Zealand First conference, the 300 or so assembled party members considered a remit put forward by the party’s South Hutt branch. It proposed that the party … Read more
The New Zealand First leader is promising two referendums if his party is in government. One is daft and the other is daft and dangerous, writes Andrew Geddis If we believe Winston Peters’ speech to the New Zealand First party conference – admittedly a pretty risky thing to do, given past precedent – any future Government … Read more
The Greens had their annual conference this weekend: the perfect opportunity to provide the bold leadership and arresting policy they’ve been missing. Simon Wilson was there to find out if they took it. It’s about leadership. Political parties can have the best policies in the world but if we don’t believe their leaders are trustworthy, likeable … Read more
Families who can’t afford children shouldn’t have them, according to ACT Party deputy leader Beth Houlbrooke. Here’s a list of 25 New Zealanders whose parents probably weren’t in a position to fully fund their child’s life at birth. Imagine New Zealand without… Stan Walker, recording artist, actor and TV personality Dr Michelle Dickinson, nanoscientist and … Read more
Fear not, Labour and the Greens: everything is possible. And here in one simple post, Simon Wilson sets it out: why life’s got so hard for them, who their enemies really are and what they can do to win. The first thing to say about elections is that sudden changes of mood are possible. Single events … Read more
If they want to move the dial and mobilise young people, Labour and the Greens could jettison the budget rules they signed up to, writes former National Party cabinet minister Wayne Mapp, in the first of his new series of columns for The Spinoff. The election is now just over two months way. It comes … Read more
After the best thing about Gone By Lunchtime gets tied up with actual work, three white men finally sit down to talk politics and when and how some of them should be allowed to talk politics. Toby Manhire is joined by Ben Thomas of Exceltium and Guy Williams of televised comedy to discuss the Greens’ attack on … Read more
Backbencher Barry Coates’ indiscreet words are just what National wanted, writes Toby Manhire. Gaffes come in a range of sizes and colours. One garden variety is the Kinsley Gaffe, named after the veteran American journalist who first identified the species, Slate founder Michael Kinsley. He describes it as the kind of gaffe “when a politician … Read more
You’ll never believe it, but the election race is heating up and people are fighting over whether the NZ First leader has made racist statements. Hayden Donnell comes out in Winston’s defence. The hottest debate in New Zealand politics right now is one we could never – not in a million years – have seen … Read more
For years left-wing politicians and activists have fantasised about the ‘missing million’ voters, and what they might do to an election if they returned. Danyl Mclauchlan argues that the million aren’t who we commonly imagine them to be. A few days before the 2014 election I ran into the leader of a political party who shall remain … Read more
Pollwatch: A new poll for TVNZ is being called dismal for Labour and Little. And it is. But it’s not all rosy for National, either, writes Toby Manhire. There’s no getting around it: this evening’s Colmar Brunton poll for TVNZ is for the Labour Party, if you’ll forgive the technical language, pretty shithouse. With two and a half months to polling … Read more
In a departure from usual service, the second candidate diary entry by the National Party’s East Coast Bays hopeful Erica Stanford is not written by Erica Stanford at at all. Dear Erica’s diary, Kane here, her husband. She doesn’t know I’m here but I read her emails and txts anyway so a diary doesn’t seem too different. … Read more
The 36 Questions Project is a new series in which Meg Williams takes a politician on a date and asks them the 36 Questions, a series of conversation-starters designed to make two people fall in love. In this episode, Williams dates Māori Party co-leader Marama Fox. Previously on the 36 Questions Project: Act Party leader … Read more
Our politicians agree we need to reform our drug laws. But is anyone going to do anything about it? Simon Day reports. When the six political panellists at the New Zealand Drug Foundation’s symposium were asked if they believed prohibition of cannabis was not working, they all raised their hand. Asked if they agreed New … Read more
With the election shaping up to hinge on the question of tax cuts versus spending, economics expert Brian Fallow crunches the numbers. This story was first published on interest.co.nz Tax cuts versus spending. The divergent fiscal priorities the two main parties will take to the electorate in September have been on display in the budget and the opposition reaction. … Read more
It’s just been a very bad start to the week from the government when it comes to statements on transport and housing, weeps Hayden Donnell. National has a long and proud tradition of being wrong about everything when it comes to Auckland. Its ministers have consistently had to be dragged screaming out of the 18th … Read more
By plunging into negotiations with Latin American countries in the Pacific Alliance, New Zealand maintains its shameful record of failing to hold partners to account on labour abuses, argues Laila Harré. New Zealand has launched into formal trade negotiations with four Latin American countries, becoming first in line to join the Pacific Alliance as an … Read more