Labour’s surge makes a change of government a very serious possibility. History offers some interesting lessons, writes former National cabinet minister Wayne Mapp Only once in the last 75 years has a government won four terms. That is the size of the hurdle facing National. It had been easy to forget that, with successive male … Read more
This week NZ First released their full list of candidates. Sam Brooks took a deep dive into the trenches of the internet to find out who these people are, where they came from, and what they bring to Team Winston. Like many people, I see New Zealand First as synonymous with Winston Peters, much in … Read more
Just how hard is it to win an election and successfully lead a government? Seems easy enough, but there’s only one way to find out for sure: simulate it in a computer game. No actual politics game measures up to the ideal politics game for which I yearn. What I want is basically a straight … Read more
In our video series Kiwis of Snapchat, comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens making the news. Today: didn’t we all do well? Morning has broken on the day after the first TV leaders debate. Bill English, Jacinda Ardern and Mike Hosking give their reflections on how they think the debate went. … Read more
Who won – Jacinda? Bill? A surprisingly competent Mike? A range of commentators from The Spinoff and all points on the political spectrum weigh in. Duncan Greive: Mike Hosking is still really good at this one thing Everyone from party leaders (with some justification) to activist movements wanted him gone. I myself wrote recently about … Read more
Pollwatch: The new One News poll proves the Jacinda effect is no blip. And the game has changed dramatically ahead of the first debate. For anyone who has been paying attention to New Zealand politics over recent years, these latest numbers from One News and Colmar Brunton don’t so much speak for themselves as shout … Read more
Leonie Hayden presents Kaupapa On The Couch, a six-part webseries looking at issues in te ao Māori that aren’t as well known or understood as they should be. This month: the Māori seats. What are they for and who cares about them anyway? Made with the support of NZ On Air.
In our video series Kiwis of Snapchat, comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens making the news. Today: Bill English gets hyped for tonight’s leaders’ debate. Click here for all our Kiwis of Snapchat videos. This content is entirely funded by Simplicity, New Zealand’s only non-profit fund manager, dedicated to making Kiwis wealthier … Read more
Tonight on TVNZ1 at 7pm, Jacinda Ardern and Bill English will go head-to-head in the first leader’s debate of the 2017 election. To make the viewing experience all the more exciting, we’ve assembled the mother of all drinking games. We strongly advise using non-alcoholic beverages. Take a sip when you hear/see: “Let me finish” “With … Read more
The SpinoffLab™ puts the Labour Party’s ad starring Jacinda Ardern through its captioning machine. View the first National Party ad, explained, here; the National Party teal-runners ad, explained, here; the first Labour Party ad, explained, here; and the first Green Party ad, explained, here. The leadership switcheroo meant plenty of things for the Labour Party, and among them … Read more
James Dann goes to a candidates meeting in a tightly fought seat. And the event’s biggest star, Gerry Brownlee, isn’t even standing there. Meet the candidate sessions are a wonderful opportunity for us to come together for two hours, ask our representatives and potential representatives important and meaningful questions, listen patiently to their responses, then … Read more
Political scandals are popping up everywhere but what the people really want is cold, hard stats. So Madeleine Chapman went along to the Labour and National campaign launches and crunched only the most important numbers. Campaign launches. How important are they in an election? This is a genuine question because, until recently, I’d never been to … Read more
Was this the feted mother of all scandals? Is it the bastard son of Dirty Politics? How many of Bill English’s children were on the stage at the National launch? Is Bob your uncle? This and more in NZ’s top genealogy-based election podcast. Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee and Ben Thomas take a moment’s pause from … Read more
The Winston Peters superannuation affair has put National’s ‘no surprises’ rules for government ministries and departments in the spotlight. Good, says Ben Thomas: everyone should know just how rotten the policy has become. We can only imagine how the National Party would have reacted if it was Helen Clark’s office. A crisis meeting would be held … Read more
There is no more reliably rowdy candidate meeting than the one held just off Aro Street in Wellington. Danyl Mclauchlan puts on his waterproofs and heads to the hall. “Like Back Benches on mescaline,” is how MC Bryan Crump billed the 2017 Meet the Candidates evening at Aro Valley Community Centre. The meeting is famous … Read more
Choosing to relegate te reo into a group of languages is an insulting breach of treaty obligations, revealing a serious lack of commitment to the revitalisation of the language, argues Graham Cameron. Among the key messages the National Party wanted to highlight from their 2017 election campaign launch was their proposed education policy package. The … Read more
The NZ election campaign coincides with a crunch time for the future of the Trans Pacific Partnership. In the absence of the US, attempts to renegotiate an 11-member TPP risk scuppering a deal that could bring enormous benefits to New Zealand, argues Stephen Jacobi, executive director of the NZ International Business Forum. Good ideas never … 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, Melanie discovers the value of one vote. Whenever I talk about voting with my friends, they often say they can’t be … Read more
The New Zealand First leader is paid almost $200,000 a year in public money. Shouldn’t he be leading the conscientious objectors rather than claiming superannuation, asks Duncan Greive. This column was written in 2017, before Winston Peters was in government. As deputy prime minister, his salary is now $334, 734. The “mother of all scandals” … Read more
In the latest of our series that uses science to caption the parties’ campaign commercials, we examine National’s jogging sensation. In 2014, the National Party metaphor division pitted the blue people boat against the motley people boat, all to the tune of a pretty legal Eminemesque soundtrack. After three years of deep thinking and fresh … Read more
The National Party’s response to the new Labour challenge was laid out at their big event yesterday. Toby Manhire joins the blue sea in Henderson It was a family affair at the National Party campaign launch in west Auckland yesterday. Dr Mary English was alongside her husband all afternoon, and esteemed at length in his … Read more
Right now the polls suggest Labour and National are sharing about 80% of the vote. If they draw level at 40% each, who will get into parliament and who will get thrown out? And what about the Greens? We’re not saying they’re going to get 40% each. But that does seem to be the number … Read more
In her third candidate diary entry for the Spinoff, the National Party’s East Coast Bays hopeful Erica Stanford reveals the workload, the unexpected pleasures of door-knocking and the terror of a TV interview. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my supporters and tender my resignation. JKLOL. Seems to be the thing to do though, doesn’t … Read more
Three years ago, National was landed in hot water over the music used in a campaign ad. Surely it wouldn’t risk any kind of repeat? Surely. Or would it? Hayden Donnell jumps down the rabbit hole. The last time National released a campaign ad, it ended up in court. Lawyers for Eminem accused the party … Read more
It’s a throwaway line pretending to be a throwaway joke (in the loosest sense of the word). What it reveals is incredibly worrying, writes Leonie Hayden. It’s a fairly typical episode of Seven Sharp. A tragic tale of forestry worker deaths told sensitively by Maiki Sherman. Some quite interesting stats around what election issues people … Read more
Matt Vickers, author of Lecretia’s Choice, has been an outspoken advocate for a new assisted dying law. Here he looks at the parties’ positions with that priority in mind. If assisted dying is in any way important to you, it is likely to influence how you vote in the upcoming general election. Unfortunately, a number … Read more
Parties are forever chasing the youth vote, but it’s during election season when the power of young political supporters is at its height. Branko Marcetic meets the leaders of the parties’ youth wings – and finds them fired up and ready to go. The various political party youth wings are a little like the small … Read more
The very latest from the Ardernified election campaign, which has claimed yet another leader resignation. Fresh from having read all 140 pages of the Prefu just minutes after it was published, Annabelle Lee, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire rest their chins upon their fingers and analyse the issues of the moment. How is National coping … Read more
Asian New Zealanders should not have to put up with ineffectual representation decided by Pākehā party bosses, writes Porirua GP and film-maker Sapna Samant. With just over a month to election day, we’re overwhelmed with voices from the left and the right, punditry and predictions. A considerable majority of it is by Pākehā, for Pākehā. … Read more