Data from Policy.nz can tell us which were the ‘favourite’ policies for each of the main parties, and some surprising information about second party preferences. Chris McIntyre and Stella Blake-Kelly of Policy.nz explain Policy.nz summarises every single policy released by the major parties, making it easy for voters to compare. More than 410,000 people have now … Read more
The judges have spoken: These are the best ideas for changing Aotearoa for the better, courtesy of some of our brightest young minds. Policy.nz’s Chris McIntyre introduces the winners. Since Policy.nz launched in August, barely a day has passed without the parties announcing new policies. By our count, the parties have announced nearly 2,000 policies … Read more
The peerless Policy tool returns for its third edition, and it’s better than ever – fully geared to easily compare both parties and candidates across all the important issues. “The stand-out success of the 2017 election is the Policy tool published on the Spinoff website,” said political commentator Bryce Edwards three years ago. Now it’s … Read more
Just because few parties have released LGBTQI+ policies doesn’t mean the rainbow community won’t hold them to account. A new policy tool highlights the rainbow policies that matter this year, and which parties support them. “For Queer people, politics is personal – we neither have the luxury nor privilege to keep our lives outside politics.” … Read more
Politics is a contest of ideas, and ahead of the 2020 election, we want to hear yours. Question Time at parliament sometimes resembles an unruly classroom – and on a bad day, the comparison is unfair to classrooms. While creating the Policy tool, we wondered: could classrooms set an example for Question Time? Policy makes … Read more
The peerless Policy tool returns for its third edition, and it’s better than ever – fully geared to easily compare both parties and candidates across all the important issues. Campaigning might have been suspended for the rest of the week, along with much of normal life, but don’t let that stop you: it just provides … Read more
Policy responses around the world are massive in scale and constantly changing. Covid-19 Policy Watch captures it in simple, easy-to-compare form. Click here to visit Policy Watch Yesterday New Zealand recorded zero new cases of Covid-19 for the second consecutive day. As almost everyone agrees, that is a tremendous achievement – albeit one that has … Read more
Boomers versus zoomers, the great uncontested swathes, and what makes Greymouth special. Policy Local was made possible thanks to Google News Initiative, Meredith Connell, Spinoff Members and Jenny Sutton. With the votes now counted for the local elections, the team behind the candidate comparison super-tool, Policy Local, looks back on some of the more interesting … Read more
The candidate comparison super-tool is now live, making it easy to find out who is offering what in local elections from the top to the bottom of New Zealand. Here it is. Last time round, it was called “the stand-out success of the 2017 election”. Today Policy returns to The Spinoff, sharper, shinier, and a … Read more
The election campaign saw more 120,000 visits to Policy, our tool for comparing parties’ positions, leaving behind an incredible trove of user data. So what can it tell us about the big coalition questions? The Policy team get out their calculators. With the special votes in, the phone is back on the hook. National has … Read more
Since the Policy tool launched on the Spinoff last month, its creators have watched people arrive by the tens of thousands to learn about the parties’ positions. What lessons have they drawn? There’s a right way and a wrong way to think about voting. First you have to care. Easy enough. Then you’ve got to … Read more
Following a poll of readers, the tireless team behind the Spinoff Policy tool have added a bunch of extra categories. Close to 100,000 people have in the last few weeks visited our interactive tool Policy to compare key policies from all major political parties for election 2017. But are the team behind the thing, led by Asher … Read more
Almost a hundred thousand people have explored the main parties’ policy platforms on Policy since it launched three weeks on the Spinoff. And now it has an amazing new feature, blinkers, which challenges users to select the policies they prefer without a party logo beside them. The response to Policy has been overwhelming, both in … Read more
Coverage of politics generally, and this election particularly, is assailed for focusing too much on personality, and not enough on policy. In an attempt to redress that, we’re excited to unveil a major new project to help you get to grips with the rival parties’ policies and so decide how to cast your vote. Here the Spinoff’s Toby Manhire introduces Policy. … Read more