New Zealand’s top talkback host has been listening to the new leader of the Labour Party. She calls herself a progressive. There is evidence of her having said ‘comrade’. And she speaks very quickly. Leighton Smith has been dispatching stone cold common sense to ZB listeners between breakfast and noon for three decades. Following this … Read more
What would you do if your political allies were about to form a government but your party was in danger of not being part of it? Simon Wilson goes to Sunday’s Green rally, where the sole remaining co-leader launched the battle that will determine the party’s future, and may also define the shape of the … Read more
Branko Marcetic talks to current and past members of Young NZ First about their role in a party usually linked to the old, about rivalries, radicalism and alt-right infiltration. For the longest time, the idea of a New Zealand First youth wing seemed like an oxymoron. “Who qualifies?” went the joke; “Anyone under 50?” How … Read more
Systematic overfishing and dumping has left numbers dwindling, and recreational fishers are demanding an urgent response from politicians, writes Scott Macindoe of LegaSea. The world is running out of fish faster than we thought. Since the late 1990s the consensus has been that fish numbers around the world are declining. Massive industrial-scale fishing activity is … Read more
The sight of a small party going to the courts to seek a place on a television debate has become a regular sight in our election campaigns. Andrew Geddis walks us through the debate about the debates. No Gareth, you shall not go to the debate tonight In what is becoming a somewhat predictable election … Read more
At the start of the week the National Party took aim at gangs, prompting a debate around human rights. It all underlines how New Zealand would benefit from a written constitution, argues constitutional lawyer Andrew Butler It’s not about gangs. It’s about all of us. Human rights are about making sure that every individual is … Read more
Following a poll of readers, the tireless team behind the Spinoff Policy tool have added a bunch of extra categories. Close to 100,000 people have in the last few weeks visited our interactive tool Policy to compare key policies from all major political parties for election 2017. But are the team behind the thing, led by Asher … Read more
Yesterday on RNZ’s Morning Report journalist Guyon Espiner brought finance minister Steven Joyce together with Labour’s finance spokesperson Grant Robertson, and asked them both about Joyce’s accusation that Labour has a $11.7 billion hole in its spending plans. Here’s the transcript. In the interview, Guyon Espiner is sitting between the two politicians, with a laptop … Read more
Ben Thomas watched the Stuff Leader Debate and, unlike The Spinoff’s editor, calls an emphatic win for English. If the ghost of any of Canterbury’s rugby greats had appeared to Jacinda Ardern as she prepared for tonight’s debate it would have reminded her, “You can’t win without the ball”. Yet the Labour leader found herself … Read more
In the most obscure yet symbolically important debate of recent elections, Ardern attacked English with a pitiless fury. Duncan Greive recaps the massacre. Christchurch has lately been where Labour’s dreams go to die. Phil Goff and David Cunliffe both walked into The Press (now Stuff) debates with faint hopes and left with them in tatters, … Read more
Pollwatch: National drops into the 30s as Labour charges on after Joyce attack on their numbers. It seems longer, but it was this time last week that Bill English and Jacinda Ardern were debating for the first time in the campaign, immediately following the release of the astonishing Colmar Brunton poll for 1News. Astonishing because … Read more
The landslide victory for abortion legalisation in Ireland has reignited calls for abortion to be removed from the Crimes Act here. In this post first published in September 2017, long-time reproductive health campaigner Dame Margaret Sparrow gives 16 reasons the laws need to change. 16 REASONS TO CHANGE THE ABORTION LAWS 1. They are expensive. … Read more
When Jacinda Ardern and Bill English meet again at the Stuff Leaders Debate tonight at La Vida Conference Centre, it will represent an increasingly rare opportunity for Christchurch issues to be aired on a national stage. Barnaby Bennett explains what’s at stake. Tonight the leaders meet in Christchurch for their third big debate of this … Read more
Last night The Spinoff hosted ‘The Great Debate’ on Facebook Live. We wanted the most entertaining politicians on one stage to cause chaos, and that’s exactly what we got. Duncan Greive recounts the highlights. It was a trip. When we first started planning our debate, we envisaged something on an earth-floored barn, filmed on a … Read more
In the lead up to the election, comedians Melanie Bracewell and Angella Dravid take a journey through the voting process in Make Me Tick, The Spinoff’s four part video series with the Electoral Commission. Today, Angella visits the voting booth. Last night, I forced myself to walk to the post box to submit my enrolment … Read more
All the information you’ll need about The Spinoff’s incredible election debate, screening LIVE at 7pm tonight on Facebook. Tonight The Spinoff hosts seven of election 2017’s most exciting candidates in a royal political rumble at the Generator’s 150 seat stadium in downtown Auckland. Hosted by our senior editor Toby Manhire, along with Simon Wilson and … Read more
Early voting for New Zealanders living overseas opens today. Rebekah Holt talks to some expat voters to discover whether the Jacinda effect has taken hold in Australia. In early July this year the then co-leader of the New Zealand Green Party James Shaw visited Melbourne to recruit NZ voters living here, and visit his dad. … Read more
Overseas voting for New Zealanders abroad opens today. London-based Kiwi Talia Shadwell explains how to do it – and why you should. Here are some things you can’t do in Antarctica: read Buzzfeed listicles, browse cat videos on YouTube, watch Paddy Gower on TV3. Here is something you can do: vote. This election, the 13 … Read more
Does being prime minister compel a person to lie? Of course, says Danyl McLauchlan, and thus far in this campaign it’s the more convincing liar with all the momentum. There’s a moment in Monday night’s NewsHub leaders debate I’ve been thinking about all day. It’s right at the beginning when the debate moderator and NewsHub’s … Read more
Prime Minister Bill English made an unexpected commitment last night to cut the number of kids living in poverty by 50,000 over the next three years, and another 50,000 in the three years following. What exactly does he mean by that, asks Max Rashbrooke – and could his plan ever even work? When Bill English … Read more
Annabelle Lee, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire weigh up the first big Bill English v Jacinda Ardern clashes, the shock National target on child poverty, the claims of a massive hole in Labour’s numbers and the poll convulsions. Advance voting opens on Monday, and election day is less than three weeks away. Burning hot with … Read more
Almost a hundred thousand people have explored the main parties’ policy platforms on Policy since it launched three weeks on the Spinoff. And now it has an amazing new feature, blinkers, which challenges users to select the policies they prefer without a party logo beside them. The response to Policy has been overwhelming, both in … Read more
In our video series Kiwis of Snapchat, comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens and luminaries making the news. Today: Green Party hopeful Robin McCandless heads out to meet the voters. Click here for all our Kiwis of Snapchat videos.
Bill English and Jacinda Ardern met this evening in their second big campaign set-piece, this time with Patrick Gower moderating. How did they fare? Ben Thomas: The drag race is on Jacinda Ardern’s second debate and probably her whole campaign could be summed up by her response to Bill English rattling off statistics about impressive … Read more
Steven Joyce and Grant Robertson traded hearty fiscal blows today. But what on earth were they on about? Over to you, Keith Ng. You think we’d all be numbed to the election year crayfest, but then comes an election year scandal to end all election year scandals: bad accounting! National and Labour’s finance spokespeople have … Read more
Tonight on Three at 8.30pm, Jacinda Ardern and Bill English meet again, in the first leaders’ debate since the other day. It’s a feature-length 90 minutes tonight, so here’s something to keep your energy up. We strongly advise using apple juice. Take a sip when you hear/see: Gower guffaws “Paddy” “The fact of the matter” … Read more
Watching the New Zealand election from London, Jono Hutchison is getting a bit of déjà vu. What follows is a cautionary tale of two conservative governments picking fights with human rights. Bill English and Paula Bennett yesterday announced a big crackdown on methamphetamine and gangs. The plan came with a big price tag – $82 million … Read more
In our video series Kiwis of Snapchat, comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens and luminaries making the news. Today: Bill and Paula may have finally hit on a way to show they’re as cool as Jacinda. Click here for all our Kiwis of Snapchat videos.
National’s new policy giving police powers to search gang members’ houses at any time to check for weapons shows them returning to their base with a vengeance, writes Duncan Greive. For weeks now we have watched National struggle to know how to respond to the “Jacinda Effect”. It has floated dismissing a lack of substance … Read more