A minister of health with a humility bypass creates a problem for Jacinda Ardern – especially when he’s contrasted with Ashley Bloomfield, writes Toby Manhire. With the cadence of a fingernail sliding down a blackboard, David Clark spent much of yesterday declining to accept responsibility. Speaking with Lisa Owen on Checkpoint, he spent several minutes … Read more
In the 2020 election, first term MP Chlöe Swarbrick will be one of just two Greens explicitly running to win an electorate. She spoke to Alex Braae about how she rates her chances of taking down National’s deputy leader. After four frantic years in politics, Chlöe Swarbrick has finally been forced to slow down. Since … Read more
The Mana Movement has effectively ceased to exist as an independent party as it turns all its resources over to the Māori Party. But in a strange twist, Mana could still be on the ballot. One of the most decisive political rifts over the last decade has finally come to an end with Mana Movement … Read more
Gina Dao-McLay from the Make it 16 campaign on how lowering the voting age could make all the difference. My 18th birthday is eight days after September’s general election. I want to vote. I’m ready to vote. But the law currently stops me from doing so. As co-director of Make it 16, a campaign launched … Read more
The government says it’s providing an essential service as the country emerges from Covid-19; the opposition says it’s election propaganda in disguise. Which side is right about Unite for the Recovery? Being the opposition to a first-term New Zealand government simply isn’t fair. Voters historically appear minded to give whoever is in charge the benefit … Read more
Facebook has unveiled tougher rules to control political content posted on its main platform and Instagram in the months before the September election, reports Justin Giovannetti. As of next month only New Zealanders who have provided Facebook with a form of government-issued identification will be able to post ads that make references to political figures, … Read more
Labour has announced the party list they’ll take into the 2020 election, and there are a few surprises. What’s all this then? Labour have put forward the 84 people who will be on their list for the 2020 election. If the party gets its way, those names will basically be a list of who’s who … Read more
Down in the polls and facing the risk of oblivion, New Zealand First has had a very busy Friday. Justin Giovannetti looks at the start of an NZ First electoral strategy focused on being tough. There’s no surer sign that it’s election time than the blitz of news coming out of New Zealand First. With … Read more
National and Labour have once again dominated the Electoral Commission’s broadcast allocation, reports The Spinoff’s minor party correspondent Alex Braae. The pot of money for political parties to spend on election advertising on radio, television and the internet has been divvied up for 2020, with Labour and National securing more than a million dollars each … Read more
It’s election year, but thanks to the not insignificant matter of a global pandemic, we’ve barely heard from the minor parties. So we decided to give them a chance to explain how they would have handled the Covid-19 response had they been in parliament. Getting attention from the opposition benches is hard enough in politics. … Read more
The government has announced the shape of the cannabis legalisation bill that we’ll vote on in September’s referendum. So if the country decides to vote yes, what will the new rules be? What’s all this then? When New Zealand goes to the polls in September, we won’t just be voting on local MPs and who … Read more
Rebuilding support for her seatless party in the midst of a global pandemic is an unenviable task, but new Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer is taking it in her stride. On April 15 the Māori Party announced its new co-leaders, one tāne, one wahine, as per the party’s charter. In the top spots, the sometimes … Read more
The final verdict is in on how electorates will change for the 2020 election. So what’s different? And will the changes affect the place where you live? What’s all this then? Because the population of New Zealand isn’t normally forced to stay in exactly one place for extended periods of time, the Representation Commission changes … Read more
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here. 7.00pm: … Read more
Andrew Geddis explores the legal issues around a possible postponement to the election date. There’s a lot we don’t yet know about how Covid-19 will impact us here in Aotearoa New Zealand. But the advice from experts – massive respect, as we used to say back in the day, to Siouxsie Wiles and her fellow … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: New travel restrictions make Covid-19 recession all but certain, further cases of the virus confirmed, and March 15 commemoration called off. Major new travel restrictions were announced over the weekend, making a recession this year all but certain to happen. Toby Manhire has put together the essential … 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
Generation Zero and the School Strike 4 Climate movement have helped put climate change permanently on New Zealand’s political agenda. But here, two leading figures explain why they won’t be telling young people how to vote in the election. Aotearoa’s environmental movement has a proud and long history of remaining nonpartisan. It is something that … Read more
A new poem by Wellington poet Sam Duckor-Jones. Reading time: Approximately 10 minutes. Party Legend Vote for me / I’m from a very distinguished flame / I attended a school for gifted merchandise / Yet this is also an everyman’s story / I have a very relatable familiar regular story / Sure … Read more
From the US primaries to the New Zealand election campaign, the battle of the memes is something to take very seriously, writes Sarah Austen-Smith. Simon Bridges is single-handedly killing every last Māui dolphin. Jacinda Ardern is personally stealing from you to pay for her promises. In the wild west of political memes, almost nothing is … Read more
Winston Peters was once the one who could plausibly rail against the self-interest of the establishment. Today that seems laughable, So where are the real critics offering reform, asks Danyl Mclauchlan. Politics is messy. It’s chaotic; most things happen for complex combinations of reasons and these are not always obvious, and the best explanations you … Read more
In a pointed op-ed for The Spinoff this morning, the Green Party’s transport spokesperson, Julie Anne Genter, voices dissatisfaction with the ‘NZ Upgrade’, calling the motorway focus ‘nowhere near what we need’. The first details of the huge $12 billion infrastructure spend-up came on Wednesday morning, ahead of the all-star announcement in Auckland. Some $200 … Read more
Can the Spinoff politics podcast’s tense coalition of Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas survive an election year in which each will be striving to carve out their own identity? And can Madeleine Chapman stay awake while they’re doing it? The political year has got off to a hiss and a roar and the … Read more
How does MMP work – and how can you make the most of your two ticks? Danyl Mclauchlan has your crucial election year primer. It’s an election year in New Zealand. Again. Our political calendar always starts with a sequence of set pieces, and these intensify going into a campaign year, starting with Ratana. After … Read more
We need Māori voices in parliament who aren’t beholden to the major parties, writes former Green Party policy co-convenor and candidate Jack McDonald (Taranaki, Ngāti Haupoto). I was one of those kids that was always interested in politics. I have early blurry memories of excitedly watched election night results. In our primary school leaving book, … Read more
Some New Zealand parties have signed up. Others are still deciding. But if they don’t, should you trust them at all, asks Cate Owen. You shouldn’t just care that political parties are buying digital ads, you should treat any party that won’t sign up to Facebook’s political ad transparency measures with suspicion. Why? Because digital … Read more
As the Labour caucus gathers for its annual retreat in the Wairarapa, Toby Manhire asks what might be on the agenda. Labour MPs are meeting today in Martinborough for their now traditional January dress-down gear-up for the political year. The Brackenridge resort, just off the road to Lake Ferry, has in recent years seen the … Read more
It’s a huge call for the National leader: should he rule out working with NZ First after the 2020 election? Alex Braae speculates on the options. Updated February 2: Simon Bridges has made the call, ruling out working with not just Winston Peters, but NZ First as a party. He says he doesn’t trust them, or … Read more
Toby Manhire undertakes a very possibly foolish attempt to whittle down the dates to the likeliest polling day, based on All Blacks, Trump, school holidays and the vibe. I feared I might have missed something when on Sunday a newspaper preview of the year noted “the general election in November”. That same day, in another … Read more