The man who toppled Tony Abbott is a huge fan of the New Zealand Prime Minister. Late on Monday night, in the press conference following the spill that defenestrated Tony Abbott, Australia’s new Liberal Party leader and prime minister designate, Malcolm Turnbull, said this: “My firm belief is that to be a successful leader in … Read more
This story was published in September 2015 “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”. This is a refrain we should keep in mind wherever we can, because a little knowledge is not enough to know just how dangerous we can be. It’s for this reason that I find the subject of online voting so troubling. … Read more
Leftwing outsider Jeremy Corbyn has stormed to an emphatic victory in the British Labour leadership race. An all-star cast of politicians and commentators assess the impact for the Spinoff. Britain’s Labour Party has swung dramatically away from Blairism and elected veteran backbench leftwing MP Jeremy Corbyn its new leader, with an astonishing 59.5% of support in … Read more
Last week TradeMe co-founder Rowan Simpson wrote a blog post explaining why he’d like to see the Red Peak flag on the official shortlist. To his surprise, his piece, and designer Aaron Dustin’s explanation of the flag’s story, captured the imagination of thousands. Here he writes a follow-up letter to Prime Minister John Key. Dear … Read more
Economics and politics can be hard, so to make it easier for us to get the hang of things, our elected representatives oftentimes turn to metaphor. Here is a selection of examples from this year, drawn from Hansard, the official record of parliamentary debate. Bill English, National, 22 July 2015: “The fact is that if … Read more
Arbitrarily split into five political players whose power is growing and five going the other way, these rankings will become a monthly event. For the purposes of this glittering premiere, however, the month of August will be considered to run from August 1 through to September 10. All complaints should be directed to your local … Read more
Back Benches frequently and entirely correctly refers to itself as “the world’s only pub politics show”. It’s both true and somewhat redundant: what other country on our splendid planet would be fool crazy enough to allow it to exist? The show features sitting MPs, who set up in a pub adjacent to Parliament for an … Read more
In a time before she donned a sparkly dress and mom-danced (as my flatmate put it) on free-to-air television, before she called one journalist a “puffed up little shit” and another Cameron Slater’s “glove puppet”, our dearly beloved Pam Corkery was once an MP. For three years, she occupied a seat in our hallowed halls … Read more
Stevie TV is a monthly column by Steve Braunias. In this instalment, he recalls the many faces of John Campbell through the ages. The final of Campbell Live on Friday night marks the end of an era which encompasses the entire history of New Zealand since the coming of Captain Cook. The show, and its genial … Read more
When big name broadcasters have left their networks in the past it has been chasing vast sums of money, or with the kind of smugness which can only come from knowing you’ve just received the most golden of handshakes. The godly authority of their bully pulpits seemed to mean never worrying about job security. So … Read more
Greg Bruce interviews his Mum about her penchant for Seven Sharp‘s Mike Hosking over John Campbell. Mum came over last week to babysit my daughter and on arrival told me some story about something Mike Hosking had been talking about and, because this is a fairly common occurrence, I thought, ‘Why is my fundamentally decent … Read more
Alex Casey pitches ten potential celebrity candidates to perform on Dancing With the Stars 2015. // This afternoon, some incredible news was delivered down to us mortals from the reality TV gods: Dancing With the Stars will be returning to TV3 later this year. I’m floored. I’m ecstatic. I’m doing the Charleston all the way to … Read more