The turmoil being witnessed in America at least illustrates the necessity of constitutional checks. It should spur New Zealand to adopt its own written, codified constitution, writes former prime minister Geoffrey Palmer The constitutional turmoil in the United States highlights the value of a written constitution in stopping governments from over-reaching their powers. There have … Read more
Watch an abridged version of The War for Mt Albert By-election Candidates Debate and read why the candidates think you should vote for them. Last night at Satya Chai Lounge, the most whispered-about bar in Sandringham, The Spinoff held a debate between the three leading candidates in the Mt Albert by-election – Jacinda Ardern of … Read more
Political internet memes played a controversial role in the US election and now they’re taking hold here, just in time for the election campaign. Carys Goodwin reports on the rise of meme warfare in New Zealand. The NZ election campaign is under way, and Andrew Little is bae, according to this: We’ll return to the … Read more
The Labour Party has been accused of internal bickering and crisis-level disunity this week. Hayden Donnell sets the record straight. Look, there’s no denying it’s been a bumpy week for Labour. After RadioLive maestro Willie Jackson was lured into the party with a promise of a high list spot at the 2017 General Election, web sleuths … Read more
A small storm in Queenstown over some sewerage pipes on a new bridge points to how little we know about the vastly expensive infrastructure we pay for, writes Peter Newport. We are all guilty of not knowing the actual cost of things. The tax on petrol. What a plumber should charge to fix a dripping … Read more
The prime minister spent his first Waitangi Day in office not at the treaty grounds, but at Bastion Point, where Simon Wilson watched him give two of the most surprising Waitangi speeches in living memory. Did you know Bill English used Waitangi Day to praise the great protest struggle of Bastion Point? He made two … Read more
The Gone By Lunchtime trio talk out a whiplash start to 2017 in politics. With a hiss and a roar and an ear-splitting primal scream, the political year is under way. Annabelle Lee and Ben Thomas join Toby Manhire to chew over the prime minister’s Waitangi decision, the $10k Te Tii charge to media and … Read more
Today the prime minister should be at Te Tii Marae, leading our nation on the difficult path, and not back to Disney Treatyland, writes historian Hirini Kaa. “A lot of New Zealanders cringe a bit on Waitangi Day,” said the prime minister recently. This was wrapped around a bunch of language including terms such as … Read more
Reports of the US president haranguing and hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull must have sent convulsions of excitement and/or tooth-pulling terror around the NZ PM’s office. Here’s how the English-Trump chat might go. Executive assistant to the President: Mr President, you are now with Prime Minister English. President Donald J Trump: You said … Read more
President Trump reportedly called his fiery conversation with Malcolm Turnbull “the worst call so far” and later tweeted he would “study this dumb deal” to allow into the United States 1250 refugees currently being held in Australian detention centres. To help out student of international diplomacy Donald Trump – and the rest of us – Tracey … Read more
As Bill English sounds the horn for a September polling day, Toby Manhire take a deep breath and speculates on what to expect in the months to come. Plus: the key dates in the leadup to the election And they’re off. Bill English has announced that the election will fall on September 23, a date … Read more
We need not just to boldly condemn the current US approach, but to act, by doubling in our refugee quota, argues Hon Peter Dunne. One of the more famous observations of the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, is that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. It is a point that the … Read more
When President Donald J Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a number of New Zealand’s trade cards flew into the air – including a possible bilateral deal with “America first”. Trade advocate Stephen Jacobi reviews the options. The apparent demise of the TPP is is not … Read more
Three years after she was so dramatically unveiled as leader of Kim Dotcom’s Internet Party, Laila Harré has returned to Labour. In a frank and revealing interview, she tells Toby Manhire what went down in 2014, and why she’s decided to throw her lot back in with the party she first joined 36 years ago. … Read more
In this special edition of Gone By Lunchtime, we patch in Ben Thomas from Washington DC, where he’s been rubbing shoulders among the crowds on Inauguration Day and the manifestly bigger crowds at the Women’s March. It is done: Donald J Trump is the real, actual president of the world’s most powerful country. Ben Thomas, … Read more
Ben Thomas clasps his silver ticket and braves the Washington throngs to watch the inauguration, those watching it, and the squirrels. Complete with data analysis via Grindr. “This is the least attractive group of Americans I have ever seen,” my DC-based friend David said with a furrowed brow. We were standing on the Washington Mall, … Read more
Watching Donald Trump deliver his inaugural address as US president isn’t the same without second-screening Donald Trump tweeting about it. So here he is. crowds floking into Washington DC with victory on their histories. America is History! pic.twitter.com/wcVsfd9fah — Sad President (@ActualPresTrump) January 20, 2017 Crazy music playing. The greatest music. Beautiful — Sad … Read more
Just how great was the incoming president’s Make American Great Again concert? Let’s cross to Ben Thomas in Washington DC, and pray for him. The early reviews are in on Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial and have not been kind. As someone who was there, let me tell … Read more
The signing in of Donald J Trump as 45th president of the United States of America is but hours away. To distract/medicate, play the Spinoff drinking game along with his inaugural address. President-elect Trump thought really hard about his big Day One speech. If you, too, are suffering from anxious, get-me-a-laxative-face in the leadup to … Read more
The American foreign intelligence bureau yesterday posted online for the first time millions of pages of declassified documents. Toby Manhire scrolls through some of the intel published on New Zealand The Central Intelligence Agency is America’s foreign spook outfit, famous for interfering in other countries’ elections, complaining about other countries interfering in US elections and … Read more
Under Prime Minister Key and settlements minister Chris Finlayson deeds of settlement have been finalised with nearly 50 Māori groups. That’s an impressive number, but the drive to reach deals may have been overhasty, argues Ngāi Tahu Research Centre lecturer Martin Fisher. As New Zealand adjusted to the idea of one of its most popular … Read more
As the scandal around the request for a gecko-tattoo leaving-gift threatens to engulf Wellington, Wade-Brown speaks. The intrepid Taxpayers’ Union this morning revealed that former Wellington mayor Celia Wade Brown had last year requested a gecko tattoo as a leaving present. The council’s response: how about a park bench? (A park bench in a reserve, … Read more
Fresh from their nuptial marriage, newly-weds Richie McCaw and Gemma Flynn have delighted downtown Auckland with a walkabout that left many onlookers lost for words. Flynn, 26, who exchanged vows with the Rugby World Cup winning hero over the weekend before friends and family at an exclusive Wanaka event dubbed “New Zealand’s royal wedding”, looked … Read more
What are Labour and the Greens going to throw at National this year? Anger? “You make me very angry with your stupid policies Mr Blinglish” isn’t going to work, especially if it’s bitter or righteous or out-of-control anger. Instead, how about shame, suggests Simon Wilson in the final part of his week-long look at Labour … Read more
What on earth can the left learn from Donald Trump? Quite a lot, as it happens, or so Simon Wilson argues in part five of his week-long analysis of Labour in 2017. The big lesson from Trump is not that progressive policies must now be abandoned. Their effective advocacy is more important than ever – … Read more
If the National Party gets its policy of “social investment” right it could stay in power for another generation. So what will Labour and the Greens do about it? Here’s part four of Simon Wilson’s analysis of Labour in 2017. At the National Party’s Northern Regional Conference in May last year, Bill English started his … Read more
Is identity politics destroying the Labour Party or is that just the catchcry of a bunch of old white guys trying to get their own way again? Is Labour really a broad church party? Here’s the third part of Simon Wilson’s analysis of Labour in 2017. Identity politics Shortly before Christmas a senior member of … Read more
If Andrew Little hopes to lead the centre-left to victory in the election later this year, he’s got a lot of work to do. In the second of a six-part series, Simon Wilson sets out the task. Everyone who’s thinking of voting for any of the parties on the centre-left this year faces a central … Read more
Does Andrew Little stand a chance of leading a centre-left government into Christmas 2017? Ahead of Labour’s caucus retreat this weekend, Simon Wilson considers their task in taking on a new prime minister who is a much more formidable figure than many seem to think Bill English went to the Joseph Parker fight on December … Read more