The country’s two main parties are trading shots after a poll was leaked showing Labour ahead in the East Coast. National’s deputy leader called it a push poll only for Labour to release the details of a poll without any sign of push. Labour is hitting back at allegations from the National Party that it … Read more
Labour has made an extraordinary ascent in the polls and is now clinging to a mostly non-threatening brand of centrism. Hayden Donnell counts the cost of that strategy. Cast your mind back to 2016. As Bill English rolled out his budget, Grant Robertson issued what looked like a criticism. In an article headlined “a Budget … Read more
Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins showed their true colours in the first leaders’ debate, and they were pretty pale. Last night I settled in on the couch with a beer and takeaways, and watched an engaging, rambunctious and focused political debate. It was entertaining but also challenging and informative, and covered the critical issues facing … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Politics nerds rejoice with both a poll and a debate, a remarkable story of a high finance world crashing down, and travel agent industry up against it. The top-line figure is clear – Labour still has a massive poll lead over National, more than a … Read more
Who came out on top in tonight’s leaders’ debate? Here are our debate watchers’ verdicts. Toby Manhire: Everyone is knackered Given that most of the country, most of the Covid-battered world, is basically just knackered, is it any surprise that tonight’s opening debate felt a bit knackered, too? Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins walked down … Read more
John Campbell hosts Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins on a crunch evening in the campaign. Here are 11 things Toby Manhire reckons you might see. Tonight at 7pm the 2020 election campaign will – with a bit of luck – spring into life. A triangle of Js will take the stage at TVNZ’s central Auckland … Read more
Labour says this will be the Covid election. National says it’s about the economy. There’s something big being missed in the middle, writes Justin Giovannetti. It was the week the economy took centre stage. The scene was set in the pre-election fiscal update, which on Wednesday offered a sobering snapshot of what’s happening under the … Read more
If the government thought warding off a risk of economic catastrophe and unnecessary death was more important than securing the right to host the Rugby Championship, it has another thing coming, writes Hayden Donnell. Like many Kiwis, my biggest fear when Labour won the election in 2017 was that Jacinda Ardern would curse the All … Read more
Three surveys show the prime minister still has the public’s support, ahead of today’s announcement about whether the country will shift alert levels. As health experts cast doubt on the chances of a move to alert level one this week, New Zealanders remain confident in our political leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic. Cabinet is meeting this … Read more
Political leaders from the main parties gathered in Auckland today to address the business community and answer the question: ‘What is your party’s plan for economic growth?’ Here’s what they had to say. As the leaders of five main parties gathered today, the results of a Deloitte and Chapman Tripp election survey revealed some telling … Read more
Politicians have pivoted to online video like lions in heat. José Barbosa has trawled through the top five parties’ social media feeds to learn their secrets of going viral. The online video space is changing all the time. If you work in this sector, as I do, you better bloody well keep up and prime … Read more
Each week in the lead-up to the election, The Side Eye cartoonist Toby Morris is going to teach us how to draw a different New Zealand politician. First up, it’s the prime minister. Click here for the rest of the How to draw series. Click here for the rest of the How to draw series. … Read more
Google has launched a new election trends hub, deciphering how New Zealanders are searching for parties, leaders and major topics ahead of October 17. It’s been a long, hard six weeks since the “rogue” Newshub poll that gave Labour hope of governing alone after the October election. Since then, we’ve had a second wave of … Read more
With six weeks to go to election day, the Labour leader sits down with Spinoff political editor Justin Giovannetti to cast ahead to the world and New Zealand of the post-Covid future. For a leader whose brand was built on ideas of transformation and an optimistic projection of the future, Jacinda Ardern has spent a … Read more
The global trophy cabinet swells for the NZ prime minister with a silver in the UK magazine Prospect’s ranking. While you might not guess it by listening to, say, Mike Hosking, the star of Jacinda Ardern continues to shine bright in the international firmament. Not only has the Nobel winning economist Joe Stiglitz judged the … Read more
With the past few weeks yielding some serious government botch-ups, the lead up to the election is going to be fraught with blame, frustration and needless cries of conspiracy, writes Pattrick Smellie of BusinessDesk. As of this morning, Monday August 31, there are just under seven weeks to go to polling day, assuming the election … Read more
As Auckland faced the resurgence of coronavirus, misinformation proliferated, and a lot of people encountered it, according to the latest Stickybeak poll for The Spinoff. Plus: What is Facebook’s impact on NZ society? With a third of New Zealand under alert level three lockdown, recent weeks have seen false claims around the source of the … Read more
Level one might not be back for some time amid warnings the current Auckland outbreak will linger. But the election campaign must go on – one way or another, writes political editor Justin Giovannetti. There’s an election campaign going on out there if you know where to look for it. With the move to extend … Read more
Compliance has dropped compared with the last time New Zealand was in a lockdown, a new Stickybeak poll for The Spinoff shows. Plus: how many people have taken a financial hit? Around the world, regions or nations that have exited then returned to lockdown have faced what has been called “lockdown fatigue”. It was certainly … Read more
What are the criteria and the scenarios, and when will the alert level decision be announced? On day 13 of Auckland’s alert level three lockdown and the rest of New Zealand’s level two restrictions, Jacinda Ardern and her cabinet meet today to make important decisions about when those statuses will change – and to what. … Read more
The seventh in a series of polls by Stickybeak for The Spinoff reveals how support for government measures have changed – and views on the National response. Twelve days ago New Zealand’s post-Covid honeymoon came to a sudden halt. The detection of Covid-19 in several members of an Auckland family, and cases in a number … Read more
The prime minister spoke to South Auckland and Pasifika media this afternoon. Justin Latif reports. Jacinda Ardern has paid tribute to the South Auckland family at the centre of the recent Covid-19 outbreak in Auckland, as well as the Pacific community for the way it has responded to the call to get tested. The prime … Read more
Three years. Two leaders. And a whole lot of diplomatic shade. This week, our country was name-dropped by a celebrity (twice), except that celebrity was sitting US president Donald Trump and the name-drop was a bizarre claim that the relatively small cluster of Covid-19 cases in Auckland right now was a “big surge”. The prime … Read more
The rumour that electrified New Zealand over the weekend was largely spread through Facebook-owned platforms. Duncan Greive asks how the government can continue to pay the social media giants to clean up messes they create. Yesterday David Farrier’s Webworm newsletter ran an interview with the probable source of the vile rumours that infested the country … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Reaction to the election delay, questions continue over the information given over testing, and Watercare CEO resigns amid drought. As you’ve no doubt heard by now, the election will be delayed by four weeks. Here’s a report on that from Justin Giovannetti, who writes that it follows consultation … Read more
With parties commanding a majority insisting on a delay, the pressure was mounting, but the prime minister insists she wasn’t cornered into making the call to postpone by four weeks to October 17. Justin Giovannetti reports from parliament. By postponing the general election by four weeks until October 17, the prime minister has forestalled a … Read more
Jacinda Ardern is preparing to make a major announcement on election timing as a majority of MPs appear determined to see it delayed. Public law expert Graeme Edgeler explores how it might all play out. Auckland is currently in lockdown with people required to stay at home except for “essential personal movements”, and will remain … Read more
She’s engaged, so why is the prime minister regularly appearing on a dating app? Zara Beauchamp investigates the strange case of Jacinda Ardern’s cameos on Tinder. I have recently gone back on dating apps. Since I was last in this murky, selfie-filled world of flirtation and despair, several things have changed – not least, a … Read more
Jacinda Ardern and her cabinet yesterday chose the middle and least bad option. The next week will be critical in assessing whether the right choice was made, writes Justin Giovannetti from parliament. The sense of relief in the basement of the Beehive was unspoken but plain yesterday as Jacinda Ardern and Ashley Bloomfield took their … Read more