Our old mates the Australians are going to the polls on Saturday. What should we watch out for over here? Alex Braae has a cheat sheet for all the Trans-Tasman political nerds out there. What’s all this then? New Zealanders, all let us rejoice, because one of the weirdest democracies in the world is about … Read more
As the number of New Zealand citizens deported from Australia grows, so too does the death toll. Don Rowe reports on the rising human costs of Australia’s immigration reforms. This feature was made possible thanks to reader contributions via Spinoff Members. See here for more. In June 2017, at the Anchor Baptist Church in Lower … Read more
Jacinda Ardern flies to Nauru this week for the 49th Pacific Islands Forum, and the host nation is already making headlines way beyond the official agenda. Don Rowe explains Fifty years after it became the world’s smallest republic, Nauru plays host this week to the 49th Pacific Islands Forum amid international outrage over the treatment of … Read more
The roulette wheel of Australian politics has spun again, with the marble landing on the conservative MP Scott Morrison. The Sydney MP and treasurer has come through the middle of the Malcolm Turnbull vs Peter Dutton hellfire clash to become Liberal leader and prime minister designate, beating Dutton in the final round 45-40. But: who … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Something major is going down in Australia today, two stories of troubling inaction on sexual assault, and m. bovis fears at massive feedlot. In Australian politics today, something will happen. Sorry, I can’t really be any more specific than that, because the events of yesterday were so … Read more
Green MP Gareth Hughes reports from Australia, where the seemingly neverending political upheaval is getting in the way of big decisions – like what to do about climate change. Political spills are as quintessentially Australian as that image of the dingo eating the washed-up shark on the beach while two snakes mate in the foreground. … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: NZ MPs have ringside seats to Australian chaos, Catholic Bishop of Dunedin apologises to city, and red zone ‘quake outcasts’ to be paid out. It’s all going off in Australian politics right now, and in a weird coincidence, some New Zealand MPs have had ringside seats. Deputy … Read more
Malcolm Turnbull has just survived a Liberal party-room vote, but the country’s politics are as riven by backbiting as ever. Frank Bongiorno explains how all of this became the norm Back in 2012, a major study on the selection and removal of party leaders in Anglo parliamentary democracies was published. The book contained a section with … Read more
Australian prime ministers are like a well functioning train system. If you miss one, there’s always another one just around the corner. In today’s cheat sheet, could the lucky country be about to see a another PM booted? Hang on, what is a spill? A spill (pronounced speeeeel) is when a parliamentary caucus all gets … Read more