He was plucked in 2014 from the Labour caucus by National’s Murray McCully and made Pacific ambassador. Now, sporting a “Put New Zealand First Again” cap, the ego has landed in Camp Winston, becoming leader-in-waiting. Toby Manhire asks whether Shane Jones’ reinvention is a brilliant idea or a disaster in the making. The interminable prelude to Phil Goff’s … Read more
Loaded to the eyeballs on performance enhancing mint chocolate, the Gone By Lunchtime beat combo pick over the remains of a momentous week in New Zealand politics. As the election build-up lurches through the gears, Toby Manhire is joined by Annabelle Lee, executive producer of The Hui, and Ben Thomas of Exceltium to discuss the scandal that led … Read more
Incensed by the government’s absence from a conference on a proposed sugar tax, this week celebrity chef Jamie Oliver got stuck into the National Party. Watch the video below. The Essex TV chef campaigned for a sugar tax on soft drinks in the UK and the levy is set to be introduced in 2018. A group … Read more
Dismayed by the press gallery’s failure to interrogate the prime minister’s epistemological framework in the Todd Barclay scandal? Undismay yourself: New Zealand’s leading craft beer enthusiast and philosopher king Ben Thomas is here. Bill English is known as one of parliament’s deep thinkers. Never has this been more on display than Saturday, on Newshub’s The … Read more
The Todd Barclay affair has plunged the new prime minister into his first major political maelstrom, leading to claims of contradictory statements. Do they add up? Here’s our trawl of the key remarks. Text messages from Bill English to then Clutha-Southland electorate chairman Stuart Davie, February 21, 2016, via Newsroom: “[Barclay] left a Dictaphone running that picked … Read more
The National Party has voted: something needs to be done to improve students’ welfare. A new consensus has been formed, which may change the lives of struggling students across New Zealand, writes Jack Close Three months ago, I launched a lobby group named the Aotearoa Students’ Alliance to advocate for change to student welfare law. … Read more
In her third candidate diary for the Spinoff, Kiri Allan writes about the emotional rollercoaster after chucking in the day job, growing a layer of skin to deal with the scrutiny, a gathering of women who get shit done, and rugby as a metaphor. The boxes were full of random papers I’d accrued over the past few … Read more
It demands a Herculean effort to shift the spotlight from a scandal engulfing a government MP, but New Zealand Labour’s shonky intern scheme might just have done it, writes Toby Manhire. Campaign for Change is a pithier title, but the universe has today revealed that the full name of Matt McCarten’s initiative to deliver a Corbyn-esque youth … Read more
In our video series Kiwis of Snapchat, comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens making the news. Today, small business owner Chris Harper-Ludes offers the voters of New Zealand a new choice this election. This content is brought to you by LifeDirect by Trade Me, where you’ll find all the top NZ insurers … Read more
The Todd Barclay affair has prompted many memory lapses, but perhaps none as powerful as Prime Minister Bill English’s now-forgotten objections to cover-ups and deceit. Branko Marcetic looks back to 2002, when Helen Clark’s Paintergate and Corngate scandals were making the news – and Bill English was making hay. “Today we see the real story … Read more
Todd Barclay is going, but how much damage has he caused – to his party and especially to the leader who tried to cover for him? Or has Bill English brought this on himself? Remember when former PM John Key went on radio station The Rock and took part in a prison rape joke, and … Read more
Yesterday Newsroom posted a scoop on Todd Barclay’s weird, possibly illegal recordings of one of his former employees. Hayden Donnell keeps track of all the falsehoods unfurling out of the story. I went to sleep in London just after Newsroom broke its story about Todd Barclay, his secret recordings of a staff member, and the apparent … Read more
Newsroom today broke the story of the payments and coverup that followed allegations of clandestine recording by Todd Barclay. But the MP for Clutha-Southland remains something of a mystery on the national stage. Peter Newport, a former RNZ reporter based in Queenstown, has interviewed him on multiple occasions and shares his impressions. Over the past two years I’ve … Read more
The story of Todd Barclay’s behaviour towards his electorate staff has become a lot more interesting, as new details about efforts to cover it up emerge. A crucial question, writes law professor Andrew Geddis, surrounds claims of pressure put on his former electorate agent to withdraw her complaint Newsroom’s truly exceptional piece of investigative journalism into the … Read more
A 10-page advice sheet for candidates on using Twitter and Facebook and the rest has surfaced. And Nicky Wagner has helpfully provided a real-life example of what to avoid. Toby Manhire reads the rules. “While there is no substitute for traditional, on-the-ground campaigning during an election, every candidate running for parliament needs to have a social media presence that is … Read more
Not everyone will tell you this, but the Green Party is doing a lot of things right – which is more than you can say about most of the others. So why aren’t they polling better? Kermit will always be right: it is never easy being Green. Even when the world needs you more than … Read more
Pollwatch: Reid Research survey suggests a fourth National term remains easily the likeliest scenario, though NZ First is climbing, and their likely recruit is planning an announcement – after the rugby. Grim viewing for Labour on Three tonight. The 100-days-to-go Neswshub/Reid Research poll puts the party down 4.2% on 26.4%, within sniffing distance of their dismal 2014 … Read more
In a little over three months, New Zealand goes to the polls. Recent months have seen shock and volatility in elections around the world. Will we see something similar? Here we assess the contenders’ status as the clock counts down to September 23. A big day for lovers of democracy and arbitrary round numbers: there are one hundred sunsets … Read more
As the immigration debate takes centre-stage in election year, politicians, the media and everyone else need to take serious stock of the language being used, writes Andrew Chen in this edited extract from his book Fair Borders? Migration Policy in the Twenty-First Century. The number of people arriving in New Zealand has become a constant … Read more
In an engrossing radio interview, the foreign minister goes full diplomat-speak over relations with Israel, and again refuses to stand by a six-month-old UN resolution sponsored by New Zealand, writes Toby Manhire. “I’m an excellent student, a great learner,” said the new foreign minister, Gerry Brownlee, a month ago. He was relishing the opportunity – … Read more
The Gone By Lunchtime team returns, with more hot takes than a jalapeno thief. In the latest medium-intensity-hitting Spinoff politics podcast, Toby Manhire is joined by Annabelle Lee of The Hui and Ben Thomas of Exceltium to sigh, pontificate and radio-jingle on a range of subjects including a dramatic UK election and what it means for New Zealand, … Read more
The former Labour communications chief talks to Toby Manhire about being proven wrong by Jeremy Corbyn, Theresa May’s ‘catastrophic’ deal with the DUP, and the chances of a Tony Blair comeback. Tomorrow: Campbell on the Lions tour As spin doctor in chief for Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell became a massive presence in British politics – not … Read more
A selection of responses from those who had said it was simply unthinkable that Jeremy Corbyn could lead a Labour election revival. The UK Labour Party might have finished second in the snap election at the end of last week, but Jeremy Corbyn carried the air of victory throughout his weekend media appearances. By contrast, … Read more
Matt Vickers, widower of physician-assisted dying advocate Lecretia Seales, responds to the news that David Seymour’s assisted dying bill has passed the first hurdle to becoming law. I can imagine Bob McCoskrie’s eyebrows twitching in fury at the news that David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill was drawn out of the parliamentary ballot on … Read more
What the hell just happened? The Guardian’s Richard Adams attempts to make sense of the shock UK election outcome. The UK election result is the biggest upset of conventional wisdom since, well, last November. After Trump, the Brexit referendum, Leicester City winning the premier league and the 2015 UK general election result you’d think we’d … Read more
The associate housing minister has apologised again for his threats to non-government service providers. But Boyd Swinburn says a muzzle is a contractual reality for NGOs receiving government money. The hapless MP Alfred Ngaro has repeatedly apologised for “crossing the line” after his threats to withdraw funding for government sponsored organisations if they ever criticsed the … Read more
Pollwatch: A new Colmar Brunton / One News poll suggests NZ First is tracking to overtake the Greens, but a sweet post-budget result for Bill English leaves open the possibility they’ll be surplus to requirements Bill English can treat himself to a warm bath of tinned spaghetti tonight: the post-budget poll by Colmar Brunton for One News … Read more
The fast-growing Southern Lakes district – Queenstown, Wanaka and surrounds – currently faces enormous challenges. But the bigger problem? The body in charge is three hours’ drive away and seems reluctant to spend the money needed to fix them. Peter Newport explains how an upcoming by-election could become a referendum on the future of Otago. … Read more
Crowds in Wellington today were seen raising their middle fingers at the motorcade carrying the American secretary of state. We’d like to take the opportunity to say sorry. Donald Trump’s diplomat-in-chief was in the New Zealand capital today, and it welcomed him with grey skies and blustery rain. We’re sorry about that, Secretary Tillerson. This is … Read more