Polling expertise from David Farrar and insightful chats on the mayoral race, the council budget and tensions between the government and Super City. All that and more on the latest War for Auckland podcast. Joining marine commandos Toby Manhire and Hayden Donnell in the fourth War for Auckland podcast are the Auckland Central MP and … Read more
We have been waiting for a dramatic political event to live blog, and the unraveling events of yesterday’s ghastly meeting of local politics and a ceremonial sword fit the bill. 8.45am: As politics editor of the reality-television-and-housing-issues-focused New Zealand website The Spinoff, I have been waiting for an opportunity to launch a live blog. Preferably … Read more
A survey commissioned for the Spinoff’s War for Auckland pop-up site puts the Labour MP well in front of his nearest rival, Vic Crone, just weeks out from voting. But many remain undecided. Phil Goff has established a commanding lead in the Auckland mayoral race with less than four weeks until voting begins. The former … Read more
Which of the mayoral candidates have the most effective hoardings, and what hidden meanings do they reveal? The Spinoff’s chief billboard semiotics correspondent, Toby Manhire, reports. It’s just like Christmas but without anything remotely joyful. All across the country, the mugs of the brave individuals hoping to represent their communities in local body politics have … Read more
Deputy mayor and Unitary Plan hero Penny Hulse has told the Spinoff she is ‘vaguely uninspired’ by the candidates for the Auckland mayoralty, saying she’s waiting to hear some ‘genuine vision’. It is an irrefutable fact that the most exciting things to happen in the Auckland mayoralty race so far have been: first, the bizarro … Read more
In the third Earth-shattering installment of The Spinoff’s recently renamed Warcast, we talk to Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse about the Unitary Plan, the disappointing Auckland mayoral candidates, and why she got upset with Mayor Len Brown. She should have been sleeping off a hangover after finally, incredibly, passing the Unitary Plan. Instead, newly minted teetotaller Penny Hulse got up … Read more
In a shocking twist, mild-mannered economist Shamubeel Eaqub has taken a break from calling bullshit to call “good shit” on Auckland Council for passing the Unitary Plan. We thought it would be so hard. Just a few months ago, dozens of people trundled into Auckland Town Hall to yell insults at anyone who’d ever had a positive … Read more
Hallelujah! The Auckland Council has signed off the Unitary Plan, the crucial rulebook for the city’s future. But there remains plenty to fight for, write Hayden Donnell and Toby Manhire The biggest battle of the War for Auckland has been won with barely a teaspoon of blood spilled. In a stunning, gravity defying moment the … Read more
Hayden Donnell heads out to the leafy suburbs, to see how the new Unitary Plan is being received by those who were so furious about it earlier this year. He found them oddly becalmed. Well, most of them. Last time I saw the residents of Kohimarama, Mission Bay and Glendowie, they were yelling angrily at the … Read more
The Unitary Plan debate is long and complex. Even the councillors sometimes look like they’re wishing for death. But it’s incredibly important. Thankfully, Niko Elsen of Generation Zero has put together a list of the reasons why the plan should pass, in GIF form. The final skirmish in the five-year Unitary Plan battle is underway … Read more
A shock hero has risen up at the Unitary Plan hearings. Hayden Donnell spent the day watching the drama unfold. Today’s Unitary Plan hearing was held in a parallel universe. Up was down. Right was left. A group of elderly people were wearing warpaint – though it turned out they were environmental campaigners, not furious Boomers defending their land. There are … Read more
In the second scorching installment of the Spinoff’s War For Auckland podcast, we discuss the political responses to the revised Unitary Plan and take bets on whether the Auckland Council will vote it through The adorable old labrador we call the Unitary Plan moves closer to maturity on Wednesday this week as it arrives before … Read more
After being elected unopposed at the last election, councillors Dick Quax and Sharon Stewart finally have some opposition in Howick. Councillor Dick Quax and his ally Sharon Stewart were elected unopposed in the Howick ward last election. That’s a shame, because Quax is what would happen if you put skin and a moustache on an … Read more
Introducing The War For Auckland podcast, where we discuss the Unitary Plan, the local body elections, and other incredibly interesting topics. This week we are literally accompanied by the sounds of Auckland being constructed as the Spinoff’s senior pet correspondent Hayden Donnell and political editor Toby Manhire talk to former Housing New Zealand head of development Leonie Freeman and … Read more
New Zealand’s classiest economist, Shamubeel Eaqub, unleashes his first impressions on the Independent Hearings Panel review of the big rule-book for Auckland’s future. The War for Auckland is a Spinoff pop-up section devoted to the 2016 Unitary Plan and local elections. To support our journalism, click here.
The Auckland Council has long been blamed for the myriad of issues facing the country’s largest city, in particular the housing crisis. It’s about time central government took some responsibility, argues AUT Pro Vice Chancellor Ian Shirley It is difficult to take the Government’s housing policy seriously when a central plank of that policy is … Read more
War?! We know, we know. But what else would you call the vastly differing visions for Auckland presented by Auckland 2040 and Generation Zero? We feel like the next few months will define this city’s future, and will thus cover the Unitary Plan and the subsequent election with a rare fury. Read on to hear our justification – … Read more
Five months after the infuriating marathon Auckland Council meeting on ‘upzoning’ comes a massive moment for the future of the city and its critical Unitary Plan. Between the two events, housing, and Auckland housing especially, has completely dominated the political agenda Five months and two days, so the adage goes, is a long time in … Read more
Greg Pritchard is just another person watching nothing be done about the housing crisis. We’re told it’s too complicated and impossible to fix – but, as he points out below, it’s actually terrifyingly simple. Millions of words have been written about the housing situation in Auckland. TV networks have screened countless hours of renovation shows whose clear subtext … Read more
Last time Generation Zero called for a rail link across the Waitemata, Transport Minister Simon Bridges told them off for not trusting in still non-existent autonomous buses. Soon after, the group commissioned a poll to test whether their old-fashioned rail theory had legs. Ryan Mearns reports on the results. Besides combating an increasingly terrifying housing crisis, deciding the future of … Read more
Economist Shamubeel Eaqub, Auckland mayoral candidate Vic Crone, Alan Johnson of the Salvation Army Policy Unit, and Leonie Freeman from Goodman Property Trust discuss the crisis of homelessness and affordable house prices with Guyon Espiner. The latest Ika Table Talk, titled “Can’t We Fix This Housing Thing?” sold out within hours of being announced. On Tuesday … Read more
The spotlight in the latest Auckland debate belonged to a National Party insider already being tipped for the deputy mayoralty. Tim Murphy introduces Desley Simpson, and marks the candidates’ efforts out of 10 One name dominated the latest Auckland mayoral debate in a church foyer in Meadowbank – and it wasn’t any of the five … Read more
This morning ex-Xero MD Victoria Crone announced a strong response to the housing crisis, one which squarely targeted the land-bankers and ‘property investors’ holding Auckland to ransom. This is a big deal, writes Duncan Greive. Auckland is, as everyone but the National cabinet acknowledges, in the grips of a diabolical housing crisis, with effects running from … Read more
Once Bill Ralston was the baddest man in New Zealand journalism. Now he’s running for council. Over a long lunch at Prego Tim Murphy asks him why. I tried to warn Bill Ralston not to stand for the Auckland Council. ‘Don’t do it Bill’ I tweeted when talk grew late last year of his interest … Read more
Nick Smith was totally right to crack down on a politician who pandered to his rich, elderly voting base at the expense of sensible housing policy. Now, about National pandering to its rich, elderly voting base at the expense of sensible housing policy. Nick Smith, a sentient turnip acting undercover as New Zealand’s Housing Minister, launched … Read more
Mark Thomas was just 30 when, on the cusp of becoming a National MP, he was publicly knifed by his own Prime Minister and made history. He was our first sacrificial lamb under the MMP electoral system, ruthlessly cut by Jim Bolger two days before general election day in 1996, when National decided Act’s Richard … Read more
The front runner for Auckland’s top job has been a Labour politician for three decades, but now he’s embracing independence. And the ticker is good for another 20 years of toil, he tells Tim Murphy Phil Goff is shedding his tribal Labour Party skin. He is starting to like his new look and feel as … Read more
Tim Murphy was a sceptic when Victoria Crone’s candidacy for the Auckland mayoralty was announced. But watching her form at a public meeting on Thursday has him questioning that judgement. It’s rumoured among Auckland’s political cognoscenti that Victoria Crone, should she fail to pull off a miracle and win the Super City mayoralty, has been promised … Read more
We fixed Larry Williams’ abominable ‘ban the beggars’ column. For the most part, all it took was replacing the words ‘beggars’ and ‘begging’ with ‘boomers’. It started with Bob Jones. Then the virus spread. A Wellington mayoral contender called for begging to be banned, in an edited Facebook post that originally called addiction a “lifestyle choice”. A … Read more