With calamitous US politics stoking fear and division in an already fraught nation, the New Zealand election makes for a calm and refreshing change. The front page of the New York Times today reads: “A Regulatory Rush by Federal Agencies to Secure Trump’s Legacy,” referring to the mad rush to pass Trumpian legislation before the … Read more
The Green Party last night represented a new era: the kids aren’t just all right, they’re in charge. Josie Adams and Sherry Zhang were there. A very small child met us at the doors to GridAKL. “Are you here for the Green party?” she asked. Her name was Melanie and she followed protocol to a … Read more
Greens MP Chlöe Swarbrick joins Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire to pick over the remains of election night in a special Sunday edition of Gone By Lunchtime. It’s the morning after a very successful election night for Labour, and a pretty good one for the Greens too – especially in Auckland Central, where … Read more
Last night Spinoff cartoonist Toby Morris sat down in the office with a ipad, two slices of pizza and a brief to provide live-ish election night coverage via the medium of drawing. Here’s how that went. In the lead up to finally finding out some results, the big story was how many New Zealanders had … Read more
There was delight to be found at Labour’s election night function, but not too much. As in the campaign as a whole, caution trumped exuberance. Justin Giovannetti was there. There was a sense of near disbelief most of the night at Labour’s campaign event in central Auckland as the results poured in and they were … Read more
All the news and reaction as NZ wakes to a Labour landslide. You can reach us at info@thespinoff.co.nz 3.15pm: A better visual breakdown of the 2020 election results Electoral results maps can often be deceiving, over-emphasising large but sparsely populated rural areas and under-emphasising densely populated ones. So policy analyst Stephen Beban has created the hexamap … Read more
National had prepared for the worst. But it hadn’t prepared for that. Stewart Sowman-Lund watched the ship crash and burn. The invitation sent out ahead of National’s election night event said to arrive at 7pm. Of course, only media would arrive on time – the guests would be fashionably late. But as time ticked on, … Read more
Last night Jacinda Ardern and the Labour Party won a historic victory, changing the shape of NZ politics. Danyl Mclauchlan writes on what took place, and what comes next. A few days before the end of the campaign Jacinda came to my university. The crowd filled the central hub, spilling out into the courtyard. Wellington … Read more
Jacinda Ardern has led her party to a resounding, unprecedented victory in what she dubbed the ‘Covid election’, leaving Judith Collins and National facing crisis. Justin Giovannetti reports. The New Zealand Labour Party under Jacinda Ardern has secured a commanding victory, winning the largest share of parliament since the introduction of MMP after a historic … Read more
All the news, pictures and commentary as the results roll in. Spot anything newsworthy? You can reach us at info@thespinoff.co.nz 12.30am: The night in sum Our political editor was at Labour’s event tonight, but keeping tabs on all the numbers and reactions. Read his summary of the big night here. Thanks for your company! 12.09am: Swarbrick … Read more
Headquarters in the Viaduct is where many National MPs go to celebrate. On Saturday night Act took it over, and with it the energy and vision of the right, reports Duncan Greive. David Seymour’s six year vigil as Act’s leader and sole MP has been the political version of Nigel the Gannet. Even the party’s … Read more
As of 7.20pm, Labour is on track for twice as many seats as National. Any hopes of a nail-biter election have dissipated just a few minutes after polls closed – at least as far as the biggest party of the next government is concerned. As of 7.20pm, with 4.2% of the vote counted, Labour is … Read more
The focus is Auckland as the party faithful gather to celebrate or drown their sorrows. Most of the country’s political leadership is in the supercity tonight to watch the results roll in and see who is headed back to parliament. The parties, while smaller than in previous years, will be an unforgettable sight of cheering … Read more
Some nail-biting battles are brewing in the Māori seats – here’s a primer so you know what to keep an eye out for as the results start rolling in. Candidates from four different parties have stood in the seat of Te Tai Tokerau since MMP was introduced. While Labour’s Kelvin Davis has polled streaks ahead … Read more
Within the wider MMP contest for the party votes, results in individual seats could be telling. Here’s a selection to keep an eye on. We’ll know the big picture result very soon, but for a lot of individual MPs, their political future rests on what happens in their seats. Here are some of the big … Read more
Your essential guide to following election night with your eyes and ears, on TV, radio and online, plus where to watch and listen to Sunday’s bumper crop of post-election analysis. Don’t forget to keep your second screen tuned to The Spinoff, where we’ll have rolling coverage kicking off as soon as polls close on Saturday. … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for October 17, bringing you nothing but dogs at polling booths until 7pm, after which we’ll bring you all the news from the election. Send your dogs at polling booths snaps (no humans please) to info@thespinoff.co.nz 5.50pm: Monty Don in Howick A very good name for a dog. 5.40pm: … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for October 16, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other NZ news. The essential campaign dates are here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 8.00pm: The day in sum … Read more
The 2020 election campaign is coming to a close. The Spinoff followed National’s Judith Collins and Labour’s Jacinda Ardern as they travelled Auckland during the final hours of campaigning. Labour’s slogan this election is “Let’s keep moving”, but the party’s campaign got bogged down in Onehunga today as Jacinda Ardern was swamped during a walkabout. … Read more
The Spinoff’s new(ish) political editor Justin Giovannetti joins Duncan Greive to share his impressions from a hectic first six months on the job – and in New Zealand. When Justin Giovannetti interviewed for the job of political editor at The Spinoff, from Canada, the world was quite a different place. In the time it took … Read more
Jacinda Ardern is on course to become prime minister again, but what sort of government would she lead into the 53rd New Zealand parliament? The first thing to say is that it’s not over yet. The parties are still out there campaigning, the undecided voters could all suddenly decide in one direction, the pollsters could … Read more
Well, that was a grind, wasn’t it? José Barbosa scrapes himself off the floor. Over the campaign I’ve made some videos boiling down those televised debates between Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins. (All of them can be viewed here, by the way.) It’s been an extended campaign and I can safely say I’ve been ground … Read more
What do voters in different electorates care about most? Data from Policy.nz reveals some interesting trends, report Chris McIntyre and Stella Blake-Kelly. In our last article, we broke down the Policy.nz data to look at our readers’ favourite policies, to read the tea leaves on the differences between the interests of likely voters for different … Read more
Chinese influence in New Zealand politics has been the subject of regular debate over the last term. What does it mean to represent the Chinese community in 2020? Sherry Zhang meets Labour’s rising star Naisi Chen. Among the new faces on course to ride Jacinda Ardern’s wave of popularity into parliament tomorrow is Naisi Chen. … Read more
Data from Policy.nz can tell us which were the ‘favourite’ policies for each of the main parties, and some surprising information about second party preferences. Chris McIntyre and Stella Blake-Kelly of Policy.nz explain Policy.nz summarises every single policy released by the major parties, making it easy for voters to compare. More than 410,000 people have now … Read more
Each week in the lead-up to the election, The Side Eye cartoonist Toby Morris is going to teach us how to draw a different New Zealand politician. This week, it’s the New Zealand First leader. Click here for the rest of the How to draw series. The Side Eye is a monthly non-fiction comic by Toby … Read more
Everything you need to know about the timings for Saturday and beyond. When will the election result be known? Polls close at 7pm on Saturday October 17. And we’ll get a pretty good idea of how the parties have done very soon after that. How soon? For the first time, the majority of New Zealand … Read more
Two days out from the election, what did we learn from tonight’s final leaders debate? Here’s what our debate watchers thought. Justin Giovannetti: The tank is empty Judith Collins is done. The feeling that will stick with me from that debate came afterwards when the leaders faced the media in the atrium of TVNZ. Collins, … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for October 15, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other NZ news. The essential campaign dates are here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 8.05pm: The day in sum … Read more