I’ve never met Bradley Ambrose but he’s been on my mind a lot recently. He’s the journalist and cameraman whose recording device remained on the table during the utterly preposterous cup of tea John Banks and John Key shared in a café before the 2011 election. Remember it? The politicians, for their own reasons, invited … Read more
“I am not a political person but what I am is hurt,” says Bradley Ambrose ahead of his teapot-tapes defamation case at Auckland High Court. A crowdfunding campaign has been launched in an effort to ensure freelance camera operator Bradley Ambrose’s defamation suit against John Key makes it to court. The case, which is likely … Read more
2016 has lurched into a loping trot and with that comes all new Parliament TV. José Barbosa sits down, watches the first day of debate in the House and tries to find some foothold on sanity. As with all our TV coverage it comes with supplementary papers filed by our sponsors, Lightbox. Try a 30 … Read more
Only very rarely does the prime minister’s diary throw up an empty page, but so it was in the year of our lord 2016, after John Key decided he wouldn’t after all be travelling to Waitangi. It may be true that he once insisted he would mark the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty … Read more
Chaos reigned, if only briefly, over the Auckland CBD today. Don Rowe moves through a world of swirling ideology and takes an exhilirating walk down Queen Street with a few thousand other people. “You’re a very loud minority!” sneered a solitary businessman in an off-pink dress shirt. A few people turned their heads, someone called … Read more
In Gone By Lunchtime, the Spinoff’s new politics podcast, Toby Manhire is joined by former Native Affairs producer Annabelle Lee and Ben Thomas of political PR outfit Exceltium to discuss the Waitangi kerfuffles, the trade deal row, state of the nation speeches from the four main party leaders, and home baking. Listen on iTunes or … Read more
The first episode of On the Rag, a podcast hosted by Alex Casey which looks at, laughs at and questions the state of women in pop culture, news and the world. To look at back at the year of 2015, she is joined by comedian and author Michele A’Court and marketing guru and longtime good … Read more
A pantheon of New Zealand politics watchers were asked to cast their minds over 2015, select their champs and their flops, their ups and their downs, and the issue or story to look out for in 2016. Today, Part Four: The Big Issue for 2016. We asked our glittering academy to gaze into their crystal … Read more
A pantheon of New Zealand politics watchers were asked to cast their minds over 2015, select their champs and their flops, their ups and their downs, and the story to look out for in 2016. Today, Part Two: The Flops. We asked our experts to rank the three worst performing individuals in politics for 2015. … Read more
A pantheon of observers of New Zealand politics were asked to cast their minds over 2015, select champs and flops, ups and downs, and the story to look out for in 2016. Today, Part One: The Champs. We asked our experts to rank the three best performing individuals in politics for 2015. Below, read the … Read more
Recently NZ On Air published its 2015 report. Our thoughts on NZ On Air’s digital funding and other tidbits from the report can be read here. But that’s not all we gleamed from the numbers and tables … Without a doubt the most interesting morsel from the report is this: The Christian Broadcasting Association made … Read more
The NZ flag debate is fomenting confusion throughout the international press. Voting forms for New Zealand’s flag referendum have been dispatched by the legions of androgynous orange workers at the Electoral Commission, and the debate has returned to entertain and curse us. One point on which almost everyone, or at least those who favour a … Read more
During a quiet moment at the Apec summit in Manila, microphones picked up Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull and US President Barack Obama chatting like any pair of old geezers might, about bilaterals and what have you, and Obama has the gall to say “You actually talk to the New Zealanders?” He’s kidding, relax, he’s kidding. … Read more
For the second consecutive day, a group of opposition MPs has walked out of Parliamentary Question Time in protest at rulings by the speaker, David Carter, over remarks made by the Prime Minister. In the house yesterday, John Key enraged MPs who had raised concerns about New Zealand citizens in Australian detention on Christmas Island … Read more
In Geneva this week, Australian delegates appeared in a grey convention room as the UN Human Rights Council conducted its official Universal Periodic Review of the country’s human rights record. You can watch the whole thing, as it unfolded in the Palais des Nations, below, though it’s only fair to warn that it’s mostly tedious, … Read more
According to a range of sources the month concluded some days ago, but let’s face it you were so high on All Black hysteria you’d not have noticed the Spinoff Politics Power Rankings had we published them any earlier. So without any further delay: the Power Rankings for the month of October and up until … Read more
Nicky Hager tells The Spinoff about his case in the High Court, Dirty Politics a year on, and his next book – “one of the most important projects that I could imagine”. Nicky Hager has been back in headlines lately after court documents revealed, among other things, that Westpac had provided his transaction statements to … Read more
Following the All Blacks’ tense victory over the Springboks early on Sunday morning, the New Zealand prime minister did what he does, and, let’s be honest, what many of us would do were we the New Zealand prime minister: he sauntered into the team’s dressing room and chewed on a beer with The Boys. Photographer … Read more
At something like 5am in the Coca-Cola city, the deal was done. The nations’ representatives had presumably been reduced to 12 hangry men – or, more precisely, 11 men and one woman – and after more than five years of negotiation, squabbling and secrecy, a Partenariat Transpacifique, as they like to call it on the … Read more
Earlier today the New Zealand prime minister delivered his address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Here’s the whole thingamy: It was fairly brief, as far as these sorts of things go, but we know how busy you are, so we’ve boiled it down to a snackable 100 words: Mr President. The … Read more
Unpicking the meaning in a picture of the prime minister standing in reasonably close proximity with Potus. The New Zealand prime minister, John Key, is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, or the “UNGA games” as the event is probably not known. He had hoped to catch a moment with the US … Read more
In a new occasional feature, The Spinoff Politics invites voices from the blogosphere to address the issues of the day. This week, we asked FaceTheTruth and Liber Archie to consider the panda situation. FaceTheTruth: The panda and the flightless birds Here we go again, the MSM and the BDSM (blinkered, decadent social media) getting all … Read more
Years before he became our Prime Minister, John Key was just another electorate MP, wading through his constituents’ sewage. We look back at his time on the magical New Zealand docu-drama Neighbours at War – and get his brief memories of the moment. “You’re a racist,” the man yells. “And so is he.” ‘The man’ is a … Read more
The man who toppled Tony Abbott is a huge fan of the New Zealand Prime Minister. Late on Monday night, in the press conference following the spill that defenestrated Tony Abbott, Australia’s new Liberal Party leader and prime minister designate, Malcolm Turnbull, said this: “My firm belief is that to be a successful leader in … Read more
Last week TradeMe co-founder Rowan Simpson wrote a blog post explaining why he’d like to see the Red Peak flag on the official shortlist. To his surprise, his piece, and designer Aaron Dustin’s explanation of the flag’s story, captured the imagination of thousands. Here he writes a follow-up letter to Prime Minister John Key. Dear … Read more