Despite Judith Collins’ claim, the caretaker convention – the understanding that in certain circumstances significant governing decisions should have a parliamentary majority, or be consulted on by the opposition – does not apply in the pre-election period. And for some perfectly good reasons, writes law professor Claudia Geiringer. In July 1984, the Muldoon government was … Read more
UK-based New Zealand journalist Nicola Kean on Boris Johnson’s big victory, and the conundrum of voting under a FPP system. Politics is a brutal business. My clearest memory in the sleep-deprived aftermath of New Zealand’s 2017 campaign was Te Ururoa Flavell weeping in the Mediaworks carpark after stepping down as Māori Party leader live on … Read more
A mystery donation to National has people asking how secure our electoral system is from corrupt foreign actors. Law expert Andrew Geddis explains what’s at stake. Following some damn fine newspapering by Matt Nippert, a $150,000 donation given in 2017 to National from the Chinese billionaire owned “Inner Mongolia Rider Horse Industry (NZ) Ltd” is … Read more
Spoiler: it’s New Zealand. Julienne Molineaux explains the strange relic in the local body electoral system. The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than … Read more
Annabelle Lee, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire send their lifeboats into the great capital gains tax minestrone ocean. Michael Cullen’s Tax Working Group report has been published, sending the nation into untold capital gains tax convulsions. The Gone By Lunchtime panel piles in. How is Jacinda Ardern faring in making the case? What case is … Read more
Arthur William Taylor was released from prison this month, and is set to continue his legal work started behind bars including campaigning to restore voting rights to people in prison. But why did prisoners lose the right to vote in the first place? On November 10, 2010, a young Simon Bridges took to the … Read more
Compared with other democracies, New Zealand has relatively few checks on its parliament, so it would be misjudged to extend the gap between visits to the ballot box, writes Liam Hehir. Nick Smith, National’s spokesman for electoral reform, has suggested a number of reforms to the rules about how and when we elect members of … Read more
New Zealanders could be getting votes on cannabis reform, MMP and assisted dying – but politicians have a bunch of questions to answer first, writes Andrew Geddis New Zealand’s recent experience with using referendums to make decisions has all been a bit odd, really. We had a rather pointless one in 2011 on whether to … Read more
The Māori electoral option results are in, but for now we have more questions than answers. The results from the latest Māori electoral option process tell us something about how Māoridom views the Māori seats. Unfortunately, they don’t tell us enough about what we really need to know. And given the ongoing political debate around the … Read more
Spinoff cheat sheet: For four months from 3 April, Māori can choose whether they want to be on the Māori electoral roll or the general electoral roll. It’s an important decision that could influence the next election and the shape of our parliament. What’s all this then? Since 1975, Māori in New Zealand have been able … Read more
In low income areas of New Zealand, where there is very low voter turnout, children and highly engaged principals are making a big difference. Kirsten Warner shares the Bring An Adult to Vote initiative. At Holy Family School in Porirua, the $40 cost of the school three-photo pack was beyond the reach of many families. … Read more
Your indispensable guide to counting the numbers on election night. Simon Wilson explains the official way they do it and offers a cheat’s alternative. You vote for a party that doesn’t make it into parliament and your party vote is just discarded? Sorry, it’s true. Your vote is set to one side and not considered … 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
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 new four part video series with the Electoral Commission. Today, Angella contemplates the branches of government. I went to St Patrick’s School up until the age of 12. I … 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 new four part video series with the Electoral Commission. Today, Melanie gets hyped for the history of democracy. When Angella and I were told that the first topic we were … Read more
The New Zealand First leader is promising two referendums if his party is in government. One is daft and the other is daft and dangerous, writes Andrew Geddis If we believe Winston Peters’ speech to the New Zealand First party conference – admittedly a pretty risky thing to do, given past precedent – any future Government … Read more
The shocking true story of a law professor, a student radio station and a pro-cannabis political party conspiring to introduce US-style negative election campaigning to the nation’s airwaves, all with the help of the NZ Court of Appeal. As regular readers of The Spinoff may be aware, 2017 is an election year in New Zealand. … Read more
Geoffrey Palmer, Winston Peters, Judith Collins, Andrew Little, Richard Prebble, Metiria Turei, Willie Jackson and more on two decades of a proportional system, how they’ve changed their view of MMP, and what still needs fixing. On Saturday October 12, 1996, New Zealanders voted under the Mixed Member Proportional system for the first time. After 143 … Read more
In the Spinoff’s monthly politics recap, Annabelle Lee and Ben Thomas join Toby Manhire for a power-walk through the topical rain forest. If you’re interested in hearing what Toby, Ben and Annabelle have to say about the local elections, the excitements of Phil Goff, someone called Tana winning the Porirua mayoralty, voter turnout, a byelection … Read more