We present the five most interesting takeaways from analysis of the vast trove of data thrown up by our Policy tool in the lead-up to this election. Since its debut on August 14, more than 120,000 people have viewed over 1.3 million pages of Policy, our tool for comparing parties’ different positions across various areas. … Read more
In 1996, NZ First went into coalition with Winston Peters’ old party. In 2005 it propped up a Labour government. Branko Marcetic looks back at those examples and how they fared. Only a few months ago, with Labour in polling doldrums and an apparent mood of anti-establishment change in the air, New Zealand First seemed … Read more
Farmers rallied against Labour and the Greens in Jacinda Ardern’s hometown Morrinsville yesterday. Simon Wilson went along to see what they had to say for themselves. The farmers stood around like cows outside the milking shed, pressed together, mostly all facing the same way, and the journalists moved among them like jackals, notebooks open, mics … Read more
The best interview of the election happened today on Morning Report, when Guyon Espiner made Winston Peters look like his race was already run. Duncan Greive recounts the 10 greatest hits. Winston Peters is the most reliably unflappable interview in New Zealand politics. He should get royalties every time someone brazenly answers a completely different … Read more
Branko Marcetic talks to current and past members of Young NZ First about their role in a party usually linked to the old, about rivalries, radicalism and alt-right infiltration. For the longest time, the idea of a New Zealand First youth wing seemed like an oxymoron. “Who qualifies?” went the joke; “Anyone under 50?” How … Read more
TV3 has a new poll out tonight. Simon Wilson unpicks what it will mean for the different parties if that poll reinforces the trend to Labour revealed in TVNZ’s poll three days ago. Warning: this story contains some outrageously unprovable assumptions. Here’s an interesting proposition about the election outcome, based largely on one big assumption: … Read more
Will the appeal to regional New Zealand and a pitch centred on reviving the economically interventionist state bear fruit for NZ First, asks former National Party cabinet minister Wayne Mapp. Is this going to be the year of Winston Peters, just as it was in 1996? The New Zealand First leader increasingly looks as though … Read more
Winston Peters battled Duncan Garner to the death in a live TV interview this week. Spinoff body language expert Hayden Donnell scoured the footage for hidden secrets. It’s been eight long months since the last installment of the New Zealand Herald’s groundbreaking interview series with body language expert Suzanne Masefield. In the series, Masefield revealed … Read more
In a followup to his report as an embedded NZ First member at the party’s conference, Branko Marcetic looks at how the Winston Peters bus is going through the gears and gives his take on the party’s prospects. The New Zealand First Party tends to be more associated in the public mind with mobility scooters and … Read more
The headlines don’t quite capture the core message of Winston Peters’ party, finds Branko Marcetic when he attends their pre-election conference. Midway through the first day of the New Zealand First conference, the 300 or so assembled party members considered a remit put forward by the party’s South Hutt branch. It proposed that the party … Read more
The New Zealand First leader is promising two referendums if his party is in government. One is daft and the other is daft and dangerous, writes Andrew Geddis If we believe Winston Peters’ speech to the New Zealand First party conference – admittedly a pretty risky thing to do, given past precedent – any future Government … Read more
The Greens had their annual conference this weekend: the perfect opportunity to provide the bold leadership and arresting policy they’ve been missing. Simon Wilson was there to find out if they took it. It’s about leadership. Political parties can have the best policies in the world but if we don’t believe their leaders are trustworthy, likeable … Read more
He was plucked in 2014 from the Labour caucus by National’s Murray McCully and made Pacific ambassador. Now, sporting a “Put New Zealand First Again” cap, the ego has landed in Camp Winston, becoming leader-in-waiting. Toby Manhire asks whether Shane Jones’ reinvention is a brilliant idea or a disaster in the making. The interminable prelude to Phil Goff’s … Read more
Pollwatch: Reid Research survey suggests a fourth National term remains easily the likeliest scenario, though NZ First is climbing, and their likely recruit is planning an announcement – after the rugby. Grim viewing for Labour on Three tonight. The 100-days-to-go Neswshub/Reid Research poll puts the party down 4.2% on 26.4%, within sniffing distance of their dismal 2014 … Read more
Winston Peters’ contemptible race-baiting rhetoric has hit a new low, but he’s able to go further than usually thanks to the party that gave us ‘Chinese-sounding names’ having already climbed half way, argues Keith Ng. You can try to have a sensible debate about immigration – and you can say it’s not about race – but inevitably, … Read more
New Zealand First’s eternally puckish leader delivered a typically pugilistic key-note speech at the party’s annual gathering in Dunedin yesterday. But which sledges sledged the sledgiest? The New Zealand First leader took to the stage in Dunedin yesterday afternoon following a rousing, bagpiped Flower of Scotland. “We remember where we came from”, rasped the pin-striped, … Read more