Across the prime minister’s Monday morning broadcast interviews, there was one overwhelming theme: the behaviour of NZ First and Winston Peters, who happens also to be the deputy prime minister. With turmoil engulfing government coalition partner NZ First and deputy PM Winston Peters, the logical next person to ask for a view was Jacinda Ardern. … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Deputy PM both admits and denies involvement in smear on journos, new poll shows National have the numbers, and dozens of Te Kuiti sawmill jobs gone. NZ First leader Winston Peters has admitted and also denied involvement in a hit job against journalists pursuing the … Read more
Five years after he joined Morning Report, Guyon Espiner explains why he’s leaving the show, and responds to criticisms of his use of te reo, and those interruptions. Originally published on RNZ After five years and 1000 shows I’m switching off the 4am alarm. This is my final week on Morning Report and I’d like to tell you … Read more
The question is: could another National MP do better, writes Guyon Espiner for RNZ Simon Bridges isn’t running out of luck. He never had luck. It’s his caucus that is running out, running out of reasons to keep him on. The job description for Leader of the Opposition has only one KPI. Actually, it’s a … Read more
Acting PM Winston Peters did the rounds this morning and nobody was safe. We present a list of Winnie’s sassiest zingers. AM SHOW Winston joined Duncan Garner by video link to cover China and guns. Things got off to a cracking start, and went downhill from there. Duncan Garner: I tend to disagree with you … Read more
For a government promising “a year of delivery”, Ardern’s team has begun in something of a defensive crouch, writes Guyon Espiner for RNZ Labour will count itself lucky the Newshub-Reid Research poll was held for nine days and released the night before MPs returned to parliament on Tuesday. The poll, completed on 2 February but … Read more
The RNZ columnist reviews the year, and lays out the challenges for the parties in 2019 This assessment may surprise you coming from someone who spends his professional life criticising and critiquing politicians: Over the past 20 years we have been among the best governed countries in the world. No, it’s not just the festive … Read more
It has been the best-performing media brand of the past five years. Yet Labour’s bold plans to grow it have caused RNZ nothing but trouble so far, and major clouds loom on the horizon, writes Duncan Greive. While reporting this series I spoke to over a dozen executives, senior editors and reporters across the New … Read more
If Andrew Little had forgotten how hard it will be to liberalise the criminal justice system, two colleagues reminded him on the very night he began his task, writes Guyon Espiner for RNZ The Criminal Justice Summit, which is to lay the foundations for an advisory group to then flesh out the government’s goal of … Read more
The government says new data suggesting foreign buyers have a much larger role in the housing market than previously thought is “a vindication” of its foreign buyer ban. But that doesn’t mean the ban makes any sense, writes Guyon Espiner for RNZ. It’s a great bumper sticker. Ban foreign buyers! It’s simple, it resonates and … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: SIS connection to spy firm Thompson and Clark probed, effect of capital gains tax debated, and yet another small town bank closing down. The SIS is internally investigating concerns around bias towards security firm Thompson and Clark, reports Radio NZ. The concerns relate to emails, uncovered under … Read more
In just one day the number two in the government has deployed three of the weapons that have sustained him in politics over four decades, writes Guyon Espiner for RNZ. They are three of the life-long loves for Winston Peters: legal action, exercising the balance of power and the execution of perfect timing. On the … Read more
Journalist, broadcaster and former member of the press gallery Guyon Espiner analyses New Zealand’s foreign policy, and how it must look to outsiders, in the first of a new fortnightly column for RNZ. To outsiders New Zealand foreign policy must look like a riddle wrapped in a mystery, perhaps clear only to the enigmatic deputy prime … Read more
The best interview of the election happened today on Morning Report, when Guyon Espiner made Winston Peters look like his race was already run. Duncan Greive recounts the 10 greatest hits. Winston Peters is the most reliably unflappable interview in New Zealand politics. He should get royalties every time someone brazenly answers a completely different … Read more
This Te Wiki o Te Reo we’re sharing the stories of New Zealanders who have challenged themselves to learn te reo Māori. Today: RNZ Morning Report host Guyon Espiner writes about fighting the ‘whitelash’. When I started learning te reo Māori in earnest this year I had one main fear: humiliation. I expected that Pākeha … 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
Like the podcast, but a book! While that sounds boring and pointless, Duncan Greive controversially argues that it’s actually good. I found the 9th Floor “urgent and revelatory” upon its release in April and May, writing somewhat pompously that it “strips our recent political history of much of the distracting rancour which accompanied it in … Read more
Just over three years ago, Susie Ferguson began as co-host of NZ’s most important news programme, Morning Report. She joins Toby Manhire to discuss the show, her rapport with Guyon Espiner, sexist abuse from listeners, how she ended up in NZ, and a dramatic head knock at the hands of her toddler Even before an … Read more
Watch the first in RNZ’s big new series of interviews, The 9th Floor, and read our slightly shorter interview with their interviewer – on the contrast with Morning Report, Jim Bolger’s surprise attack on neoliberalism, and why John Key isn’t involved. RNZ this morning launched an ambitious new series of filmed interviews with former New Zealand prime … Read more