Jami Lee-Ross’s secret recording may not contain a smoking gun on party donations, but the comments about ethnicity and his own MPs leave National’s leader on shaky ground, writes RNZ’s political editor Go here to read or listen to the recording released by rebel MP Jami-Lee Ross Don’t worry about the allegations about electoral fraud, … Read more
In a post on Facebook Jami-Lee Ross has published audio which he says “confirms Simon Bridges and I discussing a $100k donation on 25 June. Simon Bridges says I’m lying – this is part of the evidence I gave to police today.” Jami-Lee Ross: Good thanks, buddy, how are you? Simon Bridges: Good, buddy, good. What’ve … Read more
Editor’s note: this post was removed pending an update to take in new information from Jami-Lee Ross’s latest press conference. New version is here.
Every great political moment births a thousand not-so-great political memes. Madeleine Chapman gets the ball rolling on the Ross-Bridges saga Politics is happening! Jami-Lee Ross began his Tuesday as the National MP for Botany and Simon Bridges’ “numbers man”. He ended the day having called Bridges a “corrupt politician”, guilty of criminal activity, and not … Read more
The developments at parliament yesterday are almost without precedent, as renegade National MP Jami-Lee Ross threw astonishing accusations at his party leader Simon Bridges. In this post drawn from this morning’s Bulletin, the Spinoff’s daily email newsletter, Alex Braae takes on the crucial what-next questions. What did Ross allege? The Botany MP claimed that Simon … Read more
To have a hope of surviving the fallout from Jami-Lee Ross’s extraordinary attacks, a lot of things have to go right for the National leader – and they have to go right at the right time, writes RNZ’s Guyon Espiner For Simon Bridges, emerging unscathed from the Jami-Lee Ross saga is the political equivalent of … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: National party knife-fight gets extremely bloody, Naura detainee refugees may be allowed to come to NZ, and a shake-up coming for Māori media. The developments at Parliament yesterday are almost without precedent, as renegade National MP Jami-Lee Ross threw astonishing accusations at his party leader Simon … Read more
The ballistic exchanges at parliament as Jami-Lee Ross took on Simon Bridges left even veteran Press Gallery journalists astonished, writes RNZ political editor Jane Patterson Even the most long serving of Press Gallery reporters say they’ve seen nothing like the extraordinary political events that exploded at parliament yesterday. You’d have to go to back to … Read more
Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire assess an extraordinary 24 hours in NZ politics, as the leak saga culminates in Jami-Lee Ross quitting parliament, accusing the National leader of corruption on the way out. Guest starring Sam Brooks with a critique of Ross’s incredible dramatic monologue. A relatively unspectacular expenses leak has transmogrified into the biggest … Read more
So remember how there was a bit of a battle going on between National leader Simon Bridges and Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross? It has just stepped up about 16 million notches. Jami-Lee Ross has gone absolutely all-in against the National party leadership of Simon Bridges, in a way that has no obvious precedent in New … Read more
Even a unanimous vote by the National caucus to give the rebel MP the boot may not be enough to save the leader, writes Toby Manhire As he isn’t shy to remind us, Winston Peters rightly predicted Brexit and rightly predicted President Trump. He probably predicted the kayak octoslap and Lotto history being made by … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Brutal day looms for National amid Jami-Lee Ross saga, serious allegations made by Nicky Hager against NZDF, and damning indictment of MSD culture. The National Party has found itself plunged into a crisis over MP Jami-Lee Ross. He was named in a report as the most likely … Read more
The party’s best hope of returning to power is to stay high in the polls while knocking NZ First under the threshold. Bridges is under huge pressure today after the Jami-Lee Ross saga, but his MPs would be foolish to start apeing Labour’s approach to leaders in opposition, writes Liam Hehir The question of Simon … Read more
Political leaders and their advisers know that the kind of disunity evidenced by the Jami-Lee Ross attacks is uniquely toxic with the public, writes Danyl Mclauchlan It was such a reasonable assumption. When someone leaked Simon Bridges’ travel expenses the National leader did what politicians always do when assigning blame: he asked himself the timeless … Read more
In a dramatic turn of events, the National Party expenses leak has suddenly turned about a thousand times more toxic. What the hell is going on? In a series of four tweets, National MP Jami-Lee Ross has detonated a bomb under the leadership of Simon Bridges. Just a few minutes before the National leader began … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: River quality report paints complex picture, Greens hit out at synthetics plan, while National come to the table on child poverty. A major annual water report has come out, showing a complex picture of the state of our rivers. If you’re looking for a quick, one line … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Queenstown airport expansion halted, secondary school teachers reject pay offer, and National MP taking a break for health reasons. An airport expansion in Queenstown has been cancelled, after strong opposition from the community. Simply put, they didn’t want the noise, and they didn’t want the numbers that … Read more
Introducing our new video series Kiwis of Snapchat, wherein comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens making the news. Today, Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross is still steamed about window-washers.