After 24 years in business the storied, parliament-adjacent Astoria cafe is to close. Danyl Mclauchlan pays tribute to a hotbed of political intrigue that was ultimately too beautiful for this world. How well I remember my first visit. It was high summer in Wellington, the late 1990s, and I met some friends for a picnic … Read more
Three years after its debut, Chris McDowall releases an updated version of his epic graph view of our national political history. Prior to the 2017 general election, I worked with Tim Denee to create a graphical history of New Zealand’s parliaments. It was an attempt to map parliamentary representation back to the first election in … Read more
What is vote volatility and how will it affect the Labour Party over the next three years? Jack Vowles, professor of political science, explains. As the dust begins to settle after the 2020 election, a new electoral landscape becomes visible. It is remarkably different from the one before. One way to put this in perspective … Read more
Each week in the lead-up to the election, The Side Eye cartoonist Toby Morris is going to teach us how to draw a different New Zealand politician. This week, it’s the New Zealand First leader. Click here for the rest of the How to draw series. The Side Eye is a monthly non-fiction comic by Toby … Read more
Despite Judith Collins’ claim, the caretaker convention – the understanding that in certain circumstances significant governing decisions should have a parliamentary majority, or be consulted on by the opposition – does not apply in the pre-election period. And for some perfectly good reasons, writes law professor Claudia Geiringer. In July 1984, the Muldoon government was … Read more
A saddle sore, a teal bridesmaid’s dress and the Ngāruawāhia High School hall: how Marilyn Waring became the National candidate for Raglan. An extract from her new memoir The Political Years. In 1974, it was my habit to go to the library at Victoria University of Wellington, in New Zealand’s capital, to read each morning’s newspaper. On … Read more
Today it’s babies and playgrounds, but parliament’s early days were more like a drunken party. This story was originally published on RNZ On the night of 14 June 1984, a drunken Prime Minister Robert Muldoon staggered down a Beehive corridor and announced a snap election to a moustachioed, beige-suit-wearing press pack. “It doesn’t give you … Read more
Earlier this month the government cancelled the New Zealand passport of a woman living in Australia, citing classified security concerns. Stripping a NZ citizen of their passport might seem unprecedented – but it’s happened before, writes David Belgrave. Most of us in New Zealand believe that we have a basic right to travel outside the … Read more
Longtime friend and fellow Alliance MP Matt Robson says farewell to Jim Anderton, a colossus of New Zealand politics who sought to do what was right, not was expedient. On turning on the radio in 1980, just returned from overseas, I heard an unfamiliar voice. The voice outlined that the Labour Party would campaign vigorously … Read more
Jamie Wall looks back at the years in which the rugby may or may not have changed the course of our political history. It’s no secret that rugby means a lot to New Zealanders. There’s been studies on how our obsession for the national game affects society off the field, for example how a single … Read more
What could a TV2 election special from 2002 teach modern news producers as they prepare for Saturday night’s big event? Calum Henderson investigates. Election night has historically been one of the biggest events in live television, second only to the telethon. This year, all the major newsy channels will be working hell for leather, designing … 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
Every week Chartlander travels back through time, landing in a different year on the official New Zealand singles chart in the hopes of (re)discovering forgotten Top 40 gold. Today we continue our tour of classic general elections in the mid-1970s. The date is November 29, 1975 – almost as far back as the official New … Read more
The Spinoff Review of Books salutes the unbylined New Zealand Herald correspondent who filed this fantastically arse-licking report from the election campaign trail on November 7, 1935. During the present election campaign probably no man connected with politics has been busier than the Minister of Finance, Mr Coates, who, after a week of campaigning, is now in … Read more
Every week Chartlander travels back through time, landing in a different year on the official New Zealand singles chart in the hopes of (re)discovering forgotten Top 40 gold. Today we continue our tour of classic general elections at the dawn of MMP. The date is the 12th of October, 1996, and today New Zealanders will … Read more
Every week Chartlander travels back through time, landing in a different year on the official New Zealand singles chart in the hopes of (re)discovering forgotten Top 40 gold. Today we continue our tour of significant election moments. The date is Thursday the 14th of June, 1984. Tonight, New Zealand’s prime minister Robert Muldoon will get … Read more
The Todd Barclay affair has prompted many memory lapses, but perhaps none as powerful as Prime Minister Bill English’s now-forgotten objections to cover-ups and deceit. Branko Marcetic looks back to 2002, when Helen Clark’s Paintergate and Corngate scandals were making the news – and Bill English was making hay. “Today we see the real story … Read more
In the fifth and final part of The 9th Floor, Guyon Espiner talks to Helen Clark about her three terms in power as she sought to draw a line under Rogernomics, unleash new social reforms and rethink New Zealand’s place in the world. In an hour-long conversation, Clark, Labour PM from 1999 to 2008: Discusses the “turning … Read more
The best New Zealand production of the year isn’t TV or radio – it’s a podcast and online video which uses hindsight and our former prime ministers to produce a series of lasting power, says Duncan Greive. While it mightn’t seem so on Twitter during Question Time or in the comments sections of any semi-popular … Read more
In the fourth of Guyon Espiner’s extended interviews with former prime ministers for RNZ, Jenny Shipley mounts a robust defence of the welfare reforms she oversaw as minister under Jim Bolger, assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Winston Peters, and points to sexism in political commentary. In the hour-long conversation, Shipley, who was PM from 1997 … Read more
In the third of Guyon Espiner’s extended interviews with former prime ministers for RNZ, Jim Bolger, who led the National Party to power in 1990 pledging to return the ‘decent society’ to New Zealand, criticises the prevailing economic orthodoxy, saying it has led to a dangerous gap between rich and poor. Bolger defends the record of Ruth Richardson, who as finance … Read more
Watch the first in RNZ’s big new series of interviews, The 9th Floor, and read our slightly shorter interview with their interviewer – on the contrast with Morning Report, Jim Bolger’s surprise attack on neoliberalism, and why John Key isn’t involved. RNZ this morning launched an ambitious new series of filmed interviews with former New Zealand prime … Read more