More than two months ago, an urgent review of New Zealand’s Covid-19 testing system was delivered to the government as the country’s largest coronavirus cluster burned through Auckland. It still hasn’t been made public. New Zealand’s confidence in its Covid-19 border defences was at a low ebb in August as a cluster of cases in … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Fallout continues from quarantine system failures, new GDP figures released show first quarter drop, and ACC pouring millions into acupuncture treatments. It was another difficult day for the government yesterday, with new developments and assurances that problems would be fixed. Our political editor filed a report … Read more
Inspired by Winston Peters’ dog and muse, Beau, a range of other dogs have urged their politician owners to get them in the Spinoff gallery. Drool away. For the second time in a week, The Spinoff is bringing together New Zealand’s politician and dog communities in celebration. On Tuesday we published the epochal, soft-hitting, smash … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Some win, some lose from National reshuffle, End of Life choice bill facing crucial vote tonight, and Luxon-ad supporter lobbies against predatory lending controls. In any reshuffle, for someone to move up, someone else has got to go down. So it has been with the National … Read more
In this bonus episode of The Offspin podcast, Labour’s Kieran McAnulty and National’s Chris Bishop join the show to talk about the Parliamentary World Cup, and attempt to prove their cricket fanatic credentials. To coincide with the business end of the Cricket World Cup, MPs from all over the world will be flying to England … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: No good solutions for financial crisis at Eden Park, sharp response to NZ-China tourism stories, and Devonport fruit store owner faces heavy fruit fly costs. The biggest stadium in New Zealand is under severe, ruinous financial pressure. The full extent of Eden Park’s strife has been revealed, … Read more
Broken promises, paying more for less… National MP Chris Bishop draws parallels between the doomed Fyre Festival and the Labour government. I’ve just got back from my honeymoon (it was great, thanks for asking). Browsing idly one night on my iPad, I noticed that Netflix had a new documentary called Fyre. I’d vaguely heard the … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Waka jumping bill could become law tonight, internal report into Meka Whaitiri’s conduct leaked, and sports doping testing system under scrutiny. The Electoral Integrity amendment bill is making its way through Parliament, and could well become law tonight. Commonly known as the waka-jumping bill, it would mean … Read more
From fending off the GFC and Canterbury earthquake recovery to social investment and addressing child poverty, the last government has a lot to be proud of, writes National MP Chris Bishop. As the dust settles on the election and the new super-sized Labour/NZ First/Greens ministry gets to work, it’s worth looking back on nine years … Read more
There was a lot of love between the politicians kicking off the campaign with a debate at Auckland University last night, and then it got ugly. Toby Manhire relives the good and the bad of it all. If the curtain-raising set-piece in election year presages the 2017 campaign proper, we can expect an engaging, amicable … Read more