Summer reissue: In this episode of Bad News, Alice Snedden is forced to confront her own mortality before hosting a very special dinner party to get to grips with the euthanasia debate. First published August 27, 2020. Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its … Read more
Summer reissue: In the second episode of Alice Snedden’s Bad News, Alice goes to an event at parliament to try to talk with a group of ‘gender critical’ feminists – but things don’t go quite as planned. First published August 13, 2020. Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s … Read more
Summer reissue: The president of Young Act loves the freedom his party’s youth wing has to speak out and advocate for radical policy ideas. But are there certain lines that need to be drawn within the youth wing itself? First published August 20, 2020. Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. … Read more
Which parties spent the most on Facebook and Google, and was it really all worth it in the end? The election is over and the results are in: Labour swept the polls, National lost big, and the Greens and Act are set to return to parliament with an even bigger cohort of MPs than they … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to a special election edition of The Bulletin, by Alex Braae for The Spinoff. You’ll probably have heard by now, but the country is waking up this morning to a crushing Labour victory in the 2020 election. Labour has the numbers to govern alone, with a provisional count of 49% of the … 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
The Act Party’s number four candidate is being criticised for promoting climate change denial at a Nelson high school. Stewart Sowman-Lund reports. A Nelson-based candidate for the Act Party, who’s all but certain to be in parliament after the election, rallied against the local council for its position on “so-called ‘climate change’”, convened “Climate Hysteria … Read more
We asked the people vying for our votes how they’re keeping their minds sharp and bodies fuelled for the final stretch of the campaign marathon. What New Zealand’s political party leaders eat isn’t usually something many of us give much thought to, but come election time, when they’re out and about winning votes, politicians’ kai … Read more
David Seymour’s meteoric rise over the past six months is well documented. But what caused it? Stewart Sowman-Lund sat down with the Act Party leader. Back in February, the Act Party was polling below 2%. Last year, below 1%. Now, it’s sitting at around 8%, with David Seymour on track to bring eight or nine … Read more
Leaders of the Greens, Act, Māori Party and NZ First joined in a rambunctious exchange in Auckland last night. Toby Manhire was there. Had I disappeared off-grid to live in a cave 10 weeks ago – and don’t think I wasn’t tempted – then returned last night to the Newshub “powerbrokers” debate, I’d have confidently … Read more
All it took was a laser focus on gettable centre-right voters, writes Ben Thomas. Act has previously called itself the “party of the individual” and, since 2011 with only a single MP, that has been quite literally true. Luckily for its long-time – and long suffering – supporters, this year that individual is the rising … 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 leader of the Act Party. Click here for the rest of the How to draw series. The Side Eye is a monthly non-fiction comic by … Read more
Yesterday’s Colmar Brunton poll for TVNZ had Act inching toward its best-ever election result, on 7%. With that, the one-man Act band would become a Seymour-led club of nine. So who the hell are they? By now, David Seymour must be among our most recognisable political figures. Entering parliament fresh-faced in 2014 as the MP … Read more
Politicians have pivoted to online video like lions in heat. José Barbosa has trawled through the top five parties’ social media feeds to learn their secrets of going viral. The online video space is changing all the time. If you work in this sector, as I do, you better bloody well keep up and prime … Read more
In this episode of Bad News, Alice Snedden is forced to confront her own mortality before hosting a very special dinner party to get to grips with the euthanasia debate. In this year’s election, Aotearoa will vote on whether or not to legalise voluntary euthanasia for those with a terminal illness who have less than … Read more
Level one might not be back for some time amid warnings the current Auckland outbreak will linger. But the election campaign must go on – one way or another, writes political editor Justin Giovannetti. There’s an election campaign going on out there if you know where to look for it. With the move to extend … Read more
The president of Young Act loves the freedom his party’s youth wing has to speak out and advocate for radical policy ideas. But are there certain lines that need to be drawn within the youth wing itself? Watch the previous episodes of Youth Wings here. Felix Poole was a Green Party supporter in high school. … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Timeline for decision on alert levels released, updates on new cases and testing, and a failure of testing at the border has potentially severe consequences. Right now, we don’t know what the situation around alert levels will be at the end of the day. There was … Read more
In the second episode of Alice Snedden’s Bad News, Alice goes to an event at parliament to try to talk with a group of ‘gender critical’ feminists – but things don’t go quite as planned. You’ve probably heard the term used in relation to high-profile people like JK Rowling, but what are Terfs, or Trans … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Concern from the Cook Islands over travel bubble, inquiry clears Iain Lees-Galloway of any spending impropriety, and Oranga Tamariki facing further damaging report findings. A draft agreement on a travel bubble with the Cook Islands is close to being finalised, the PM revealed yesterday. Stuff reports it … Read more
All around the country, people are asking ‘what’s going to happen in the 2020 general election campaign?’ That’s because they haven’t read this guide, which reveals exactly what will happen in the 2020 general election campaign. Someone has finally put this term of parliament out of its misery. We’ve had three years of scandals, sex … Read more
Alongside the general election of 2020, New Zealanders will be asked to vote on the End of Life Choice bill, which allows voluntary euthanasia for those suffering terminal illnesses. Here’s our bumper question-and-answer special on what it involves. Click here for everything you need to know about the cannabis referendum. Read more from the Spinoff … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Collins wins and loses in new poll, investigations into managed isolation guards napping on the job, and Heron report damns Walker and Boag. The latest poll for National is much better than how they started the week, but they’re still down in a couple of … Read more
The crowd’s cheering, the lights are flashing. Two figures walk into the ring. It’s … the deputy prime minister and the leader of Act? If it weren’t for Andrew Falloon and Iain Lees-Galloway, this week would’ve belonged to Winston Peters and David Seymour. The leaders of the two lowest polling parties currently in parliament have … Read more
From a ministerial sacking to a ‘bombshell’ allegation in the house, yesterday was a rollercoaster even by recent standards, writes Spinoff political editor Justin Giovannetti It was deflection day at parliament. Dawn broke over a country where questions were still swirling around the misconduct of former National MP Andrew Falloon. But in keeping with the … Read more
So-called dirty deals have been roundly denounced over the years. Hayden Donnell argues that they need to be normalised, and even embraced, in September’s election. Just before the 2011 general election, Patrick Gower was confronted with a political act so stomach-churning, it forced him to abandon his trademark reserve. John Key was building up to … Read more
National has a new leader and it could upend parts of the political map that previously looked much more stable. So how could things change as a result? Under Simon Bridges, National needed to get exceptionally lucky to win the next election. While the party’s polling at the start of the year was strong enough … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Dunedin school to close and clean after positive Covid-19 test, massive economic rescue package announced, and tourists who didn’t self-isolate facing deportation. There are now 12 confirmed Covid-19 patients in New Zealand. The latest confirmed case is a student at Logan Park High School in Dunedin, … Read more
We’ve just had a taste of how the election campaign is going to go this year, with a raw and rowdy debate at the University of Auckland. Alex Braae recaps it. Unfortunately for voters, one of the most exciting versions of these big, multi-party free for alls has now already been and gone. Every year, … Read more