In an astonishing interview on Newstalk ZB, Jami-Lee Ross has taken the principled stance of not resigning to fight a by-election he has no chance of winning. Will Simon Bridges now look to the waka jumping law? Throughout this week, rogue National MP Jami-Lee Ross has shown himself accomplished at the marathon press conference. Tonight, … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Ross saga flies off in half a dozen different directions, Wellington bus drivers vote on indefinite length strike, and a tragedy for DOC. It’s not really clear what you’d call this story any more, because it’s now about half a dozen different stories. That follows another wild … Read more
Jami-Lee Ross’s ever-changing story about the $100,000 donation originating from businessman Zhang Yikun makes it hard to assess precisely what Police would be investigating. Either way, we’re all the poorer for the way it’s played out, writes writes law professor Andrew Geddis When Jami-Lee Ross re-enacted the Joker’s “everything burns” scene from The Dark Knight … Read more
The casual ethnic calculations of National leader Simon Bridges and the rebel MP Jami-Lee Ross are just the latest example of the marginalisation of Kiwi Asian voices in our politics, writes Sudhvir Singh One of the many spectacular revelations from the National Party saga this week is the shameful and tokenistic way Jami-Lee Ross and … Read more
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
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
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
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
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
The ongoing saga around leaked details of the National leader’s transport spending reveals a party with serious internal problems, writes Jane Patterson for RNZ If National Party leader Simon Bridges wasn’t already sweating he will be now, with a second leak, possibly from within his own caucus. First there was a leak to Newshub about his travel … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: National party tries to both change and stay the same at conference, meth-scare Housing NZ properties reopened, and could The Opportunities Party be saved? The National Party have had their weekend in the spotlight, holding their first conference in opposition in a decade. But who, or what, … Read more
In presenting himself with a new, softer image, the National leader’s conference speech sought to move beyond relitigating the fights of the past, writes Ben Thomas Simon Bridges is keen to avoid the mistakes of the past. The video warming up his speech to the National Party conference today showed a montage of his life, … Read more
Another one bites the dust, with Northcote MP Jonathan Coleman deciding to retire from politics. He follows Bill English and Steven Joyce out the door, as the party’s cleanout continues. So, who’s next? The trickle is fast becoming a flood. In the space of about six weeks, the National Party has lost three of their … Read more
Has the government been too keen to go for working groups, panels and inquiries, over actual action? Alex Braae counts the announcements. As new ministers get their feet under their desks, they start to cast around for things to do. All of a sudden they have access to the comparatively vast resources of the public … Read more
As the contest unfolds, expect deals, departures and a determination to keep ructions away from public sight, writes former National government adviser Zach Castles. National’s leadership race has seen an endless stream of topline biographies on three heavy-hitting National MPs who want to lead the National Party and ultimately our country – Amy Adams, Simon … Read more
As finance minister, his decisions were crucial to our quick recovery. In choosing his replacement as National Party leader, the question is whether to try to emulate Jacinda Ardern or reach for something very different, writes former National cabinet minister Wayne Mapp. What is Bill English’s political legacy? More than anything, it will undoubtedly be … Read more
???????????? Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire on the English legacy and the contenders to succeed him as National Party leader in this collectible special edition. In the historic third Gone By Lunchtime Emergency Podcast (the last two, following the departures of John Key and Andrew Little both also featured clever gone-by-x-based headline jokes), Ben Thomas and … Read more
Opinion: Early moves by members of the new cabinet risk doing real damage to New Zealand’s constitutional framework, argues National MP Chris Penk. In the opening months of the Labour-NZ First-Greens triumvirate, a very real narrative is emerging: ministers are bending the branches of government to breaking point. By constitutional convention, respective roles played by … Read more
The jungle drums are beating for a change at the top of the National Party. But, predicts Ben Thomas, a former advisor to a National minister, it’s not Bill English who should be worried. It’s probably fair to say most readers of plucky Auckland-based internet start-up The Spinoff have no idea how conservative the National … Read more
When backbench murmurings about leadership change seep through the media, the flow becomes hellishly difficult to staunch, writes Toby Manhire. To get a sense of the steel behind the caucus murmurings about a change in the leadership of the National Party, consider that they were communicated to Newstalk ZB political editor Barry Soper just in … Read more
This year we had the most extraordinary election. Simon Wilson looks at where to now for the new government and the new opposition. Earlier this year Spinoff writer Simon Wilson scored an unusual double in the Canon Media Awards: he won the politics and business category awards for both long-form feature writing and opinion writing. … Read more
Jacinda Ardern has made an impressive start, leading a government of continuity. And for National, how serious is talk of a new conservative party springing up, asks former cabinet minister Wayne Mapp. Two months in shows a government, and in particular a prime minister starting to become more comfortable about the reality of governing. Without … Read more
David Bennett, National MP for Hamilton East, stood yesterday in the House of Representatives and intoned: ‘This country has embarked on a socialist experiment in the last few weeks’, and then basically just said socialism a lot.
The 52nd New Zealand Parliament was sworn in this week. Many things were on display but it would have taken an eagle eye to spot everything that was happening and all that was said. We’ve taken pity on the novices out here and compiled this annotated video guide to the proceedings.