Bigger, better, faster responses are needed to meet future bio-threats: no more acting like ‘stunned mullets’, is the message from independent review leader Helen Clark, writes Nick Wilson. The world must decide what needs to change to prevent events like the Covid-19 pandemic happening again, according to the former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark. … Read more
A tiny minority of local residents – led by a former PM – are holding back the joy of hundreds of thousands, and millions in economic benefits. On Friday night Eden Park hosted a thrilling seesaw of a T20 between New Zealand and the West Indies. On Saturday the Tasman Mako secured back-to-back Mitre 10 … Read more
During Helen Clark’s second term, Don Brash’s Ōrewa speech saw National surge in the polls and the Labour government’s social policies tighten. Fifteen years years later, could history repeat? When a socially progressive party wins an overwhelming electoral mandate, it’s natural to wonder how long its luck will last. Will Labour really implement strong social … Read more
The scamp of New Zealand publishing is laid to rest, for now. In 2005 I wrote and released a book called On the conditions and possibilities of Helen Clark taking me as her Young Lover. I gave myself the name Richard Meros. My real name is Murdoch. Some people think that sounds like a pseudonym, … Read more
New Zealanders can’t get enough of The Chase, so why can’t we have our own version? And what would a homegrown version of the quiz show look like anyway? If The Chase were a pandemic, we’d all have herd immunity by now. The British TV quiz show has never been more popular with New Zealand … Read more
Dead People I Have Known, a memoir, just won the General Non-Fiction category at the New Zealand Book Awards. The judges were Hocken librarian and documentary and cultural heritage collections advisor Sharon Dell, bookseller and reviewer Stella Chrysostomou and journalist Guyon Espiner. Their comments, per the press release: “From the first page, Shayne Carter … Read more
An extraordinary week at the national broadcaster ends with a complete backdown on plans to downgrade RNZ Concert and make music staff redundant. Toby Manhire speaks to staff and Helen Clark, and asks: has RNZ’s embarrassment translated into RNZ getting a budget boost? Last Wednesday RNZ music staff were summoned to a meeting to hear … Read more
Concert FM is to be stripped down in favour of a new station for youth, even as the government prepares bigger plans for restructure. Toby Manhire on the mood inside and outside the national broadcaster. No one seriously thought things could stay as they were. RNZ’s music outputs had been subject to reviews, personnel changes, … Read more
After more than 40 years the war on drugs has had brutal consequences for justice in New Zealand. The movement to end the war is gathering momentum. Like most wars started by the United States, the war on drugs was launched for spurious and racially-motivated reasons by cynical political hawks. And like most wars started … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: 300 pages worth of health system review delivered, exportable green hydrogen examined, and small hospitality businesses pushed to the brink by Uber Eats. A massive doorstopper of a review has been delivered, into a sector that has been a massive headache for successive governments. The NZ Herald reports … Read more
Former prime minister Helen Clark has called for New Zealanders to vote yes when they hit the booth in next year’s cannabis referendum. Former prime minister Helen Clark says New Zealanders should vote yes to the legalisation of cannabis and the wiping of minor cannabis-related convictions at the 2020 cannabis referendum. The recommendation comes off … Read more
1000 Words is a Spinoff series talking to the photographers behind our most iconic political images. In this instalment, Don Rowe speaks to David White, the photographer who shot Colin Craig. Following a failed attempt at the Auckland mayoralty in 2010, notorious goof and Auckland accountant Colin Craig founded and led the New Zealand Conservative … Read more
The former NZ PM says the global policy boss for the online behemoth has contacted her saying he wants to visit NZ, following an angry backlash against the platform over its livestream of a mass terrorist murder at a Christchurch mosque. Toby Manhire reports Helen Clark has joined the chorus condemning Facebook and other online … Read more
Helen Clark is back, with a new book collecting her speeches from four decades in public life. She sat down with Alex Braae to discuss her extraordinary career, and where she’s headed next. In the many years Helen Clark has been involved in politics, firstly in New Zealand, and later at the United Nations, she … Read more
With business confidence having plunged, the prime minister’s goal this morning was to get the big beasts back onside. Did her speech, and her announcement of a new advisory council, do the trick? Toby Manhire went along to the breakfast to find out. Jacinda Ardern has talked a lot about elephants and rooms lately. In … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Renewed call for a Māori seats referendum, Russel McVeagh report released, and the stoush between two leading NZers over a charity concert escalates. Acting PM Winston Peters has renewed and updated his call for a two part referendum on the Māori electorates. Radio NZ reports his comments made … Read more
From day one, Clark’s government was confronted by a revolt from the NZ business world that came to be known as the ‘winter of discontent’. There is a similar chill in the air now, writes Branko Marcetic No matter what Jacinda Ardern does, she can’t quite seem to win over the business world. Since last … Read more
Most world leaders are content with typing their own name into Twitter, or coining new weird words. Not Helen Clark, who solves pub arguments and affirms her past deeds, writes Alex Casey. First published 3 August 2017. I’ll never forget the first time Helen Clark interacted with The Spinoff on Twitter. I think it was … Read more
It’s not every day you can say you expressed milk in the presence of world leaders. Gemma Gracewood looks back at that time she breastfed at the United Nations in New York, and considers what it’s like to work while parenting in the world of film and TV. One of the things about being a … Read more
Helen Clark’s ill-fated bid for the top job at the UN is documented with extraordinary proximity and passion in My Year with Helen. Alex Casey sits down with the former NZ prime minister and director Gaylene Preston, in an empty foyer at the movies, to discuss the shit that happens. Of all the firm handshakes … Read more
Every week Chartlander travels back through time, landing in a different year on the official New Zealand singles chart in the hopes of (re)discovering forgotten Top 40 gold. Today we go back to the last time the Labour Party came into power. The day is November 27, 1999, and Helen Clark has just been elected … Read more
Jacinda Ardern’s first week as Labour leader has brought a flood of admiring comparisons to Helen Clark. But Miriama Aoake argues that the comparison is false, largely because Ardern has proven more engaged with the concerns of Māori than the far more cynical Clark. Jacinda Ardern last week became the Labour Party’s fifth leader since Helen … Read more
Most world leaders are content with typing their own name into Twitter, or coining new weird words. Not Helen Clark, who solves pub arguments and affirms her past deeds, writes Alex Casey. I’ll never forget the first time Helen Clark interacted with The Spinoff on Twitter. I think it was a fave, or maybe a … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today Simon Day asks: is Duck Island Ice Cream the greatest thing the Tron has ever produced? Hamilton has suffered from an image problem for decades. Suffocated beneath the weight of its own branding, the legendary city slogan “More than … Read more
The Todd Barclay affair has prompted many memory lapses, but perhaps none as powerful as Prime Minister Bill English’s now-forgotten objections to cover-ups and deceit. Branko Marcetic looks back to 2002, when Helen Clark’s Paintergate and Corngate scandals were making the news – and Bill English was making hay. “Today we see the real story … Read more
The shorthand used in The 9th Floor insinuates that Jenny Shipley’s prime ministership was somehow less legitimate than that of her successor, and that’s just not true, argues Paul Brislen. I’ve really enjoyed Guyon Espiner’s The Ninth Floor series of interviews for RNZ with former prime ministers of New Zealand. I’ve learned a lot about Mike Moore that … Read more
From Don Brash to Helen Clark to the latest media spiel, the ‘debate’ is one of the great bogeymen of NZ politics. And it needs to get in the sea, writes Ben Thomas. It’s probably a little too cute to observe that the foreshore and seabed “debate” in New Zealand is built almost entirely on … Read more
In the fifth and final part of The 9th Floor, Guyon Espiner talks to Helen Clark about her three terms in power as she sought to draw a line under Rogernomics, unleash new social reforms and rethink New Zealand’s place in the world. In an hour-long conversation, Clark, Labour PM from 1999 to 2008: Discusses the “turning … Read more
Stephen Mills from UMR Research breaks down the Key prime ministership through their long-running polls, revealing a somewhat polarising politician who didn’t quite reach the beloved status of his predecessor. As John Key is about to leave Parliament it is timely to look at his immediate legacy. He was consistently lauded by political journalists for his … Read more