Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Trump claims fraud with Biden holding slight edge, unemployment rate rise not as bad as feared, and Kim Dotcom extradition case to drag on further. If you switched the US election off early last night, you’ll probably have missed one of the most remarkable moments … Read more
New Zealand’s highest court has ruled internet entrepreneur Dotcom and three others liable for extradition on all but one count – but they had been wrongly denied a judicial review, so that will need to be heard before it goes to the minister. What has the Supreme Court ruled? The court has ruled that Kim … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Wellington’s future being thrashed out, second community case in Christchurch, and the US election is finally here. An issue that hasn’t been covered heavily in The Bulletin recently is the various issues coming to a boil in the capital city. The decisions made now have the … 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
Seven years on from his arrest, the extradition battle between Kim Dotcom and the United States reached New Zealand’s Supreme Court this week. RNZ‘s Kate Newton went to court to find out whether anyone seems to be winning. Ron Mansfield – bearded and bespectacled – stood at a blond wooden lectern in the centre of … Read more
With the demise of The Opportunities Party, the protest vote they garnered will need a new home. But where? Alex Braae assesses the candidates. Even as the fond memories of TOP’s brief existence fade away, a few defining pictures remain. There’s Gareth Morgan on a billboard, talking about lipstick. There’s Geoff Simmons, chatting away amiably … Read more
Next week, a new trans-Pacific fibre-optic cable connecting New Zealand to Australia, the Pacific and onto the United States will light up, changing the way data travels around the Pacific. In November 2000, New Zealand’s first trans-Pacific fibre-optic cable, the Southern Cross system, lit up for New Zealanders. We finally had our first direct connection … 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
José Barbosa infiltrates the glamorous Great Gatsby Party at the Toy Mansion, formerly home to Kim Dotcom, in a quest to recover his long lost undies. The Spinoff TV screens Fridays at 9.45pm from June 22nd on THREE. Thanks to NZ on Air.
Hosted by Jake Millar and the multi-millionaire Mowbray siblings, New Zealand’s new, young entrepreneurial elite gathered at the famed Dotcom/Toy Mansion for a night of tuxedos, evening gowns, and abundant champagne. Jihee Junn reluctantly went along. The first thing you see are the lights in the sky – two white beams dancing in the pitch … Read more
On Thursday night, a now iconic trio came together to play a video game and broadcast it to the world: Popular Twitch streamer Ninja, hip hop superstar Drake, and controversial New Zealand dance musician and political dilettante Kim Dotcom. Adam Goodall was watching. Wildly popular Twitch streamer Ninja and hip hop superstar Drake had been … Read more
Three years after she was so dramatically unveiled as leader of Kim Dotcom’s Internet Party, Laila Harré has returned to Labour. In a frank and revealing interview, she tells Toby Manhire what went down in 2014, and why she’s decided to throw her lot back in with the party she first joined 36 years ago. … Read more
A startling story that appears to contradict John Key’s 2014 account of the abandonment of a surveillance scheme is a bombshell – and a depressing object lesson in delay tactics and attention spans, writes Toby Manhire. So the saying goes, three years, two months and a couple of weeks is a long time in politics. Back … Read more
Director Annie Goldson introduces her Dotcom documentary and the one she calls its antithesis; and Julian Boshier talks about working with Wellington band Head Like a Hole for 15 years. Welcome to part five of our Film Festival filmmaker’s choice series. Kim Dotcom director Annie Goldson recommends Waru I’m really keen to see Waru, possibly because it’s … Read more
Annie Goldson’s new NZ Film Commission funded documentary about Kim Dotcom and his legal battle has just premiered at SXSW in Texas. We asked Dotcom’s US-based lawyer, Ira Rothken, to send us a quickfire review from the screening. He’s done just that, and attached Annie Goldson’s introductory remarks from the festival. Kim Dotcom: Caught in … Read more
Three years in the making, the New Zealand-made documentary Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web will premiere at the South By Southwest film festival in Texas on March 13. Watch the first trailer here.
Kim Dotcom is back in court. He won the battle to livestream it. Until we can bear it no longer we’re liveblogging that. UPDATED with February 2017 ruling. Monday February 20, 2017: We have a ruling! A mere five months on, the ruling is in, and Justice Gilbert says Dotcom and co are eligible for … Read more
Three years after she was so dramatically unveiled as leader of Kim Dotcom’s Internet Party, Laila Harré has returned to Labour. In a frank and revealing interview, she tells Toby Manhire what went down in 2014, and why she’s decided to throw her lot back in with the party she first joined 36 years ago. … Read more
Ahead of New Zealand’s 2014 ‘Moment of Truth’ election, millionaire Kim Dotcom launched the Internet Party, in an attempt to disrupt the political orthodoxy. Today, millionaire Gareth Morgan launched the Opportunities Party, in an attempt to disrupt the political orthodoxy. We asked Dotcom if he’d indulge our ‘slightly silly idea’ and offer some advice to … Read more
Privacy commissioner John Edwards assesses the newly drafted Intelligence and Security legislation, and responds to Kim Dotcom’s suggestion he’s a government lackey and ‘clown’ Until last night I was unfamiliar with the commissioning process for pieces for The Spinoff. Mine came in the form of a Twitter direct message. “John! fancy writing us a post … Read more
Theories have been circulating suggesting the mysterious figure behind the Panama Papers leaks may in fact be the NZ-based internet entrepreneur. The Spinoff begins its fearless mission to unmask John Doe by asking, is it you, Kim Dotcom? Rare is the day when the two most voluble and entertaining thought leaders of the New Zealand … Read more
From the legalistic urges of Colin Craig to Dirty Politics to the Kim Dotcom Town Hall spectacular, the unstoppable weirdness of the 2014 New Zealand general election was best encapsulated by the hashtag #PeakCray. In this chapter from the new collection Moments of Truth: The New Zealand General Election of 2014, Nicola Kean recounts the … Read more