Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Jim Bolger is back, Housing NZ CEO set to front up, and logging debris causes havoc after Tologa Bay flooding. Sector wide collective agreements, and minimum pay and conditions across industries, will be investigated by a government working group. The working group will look at ways to … Read more
Listen to Alex Casey, Leonie Hayden and Michele A’Court tackle the past month in women, news and popular culture, with thanks to our friends at The Women’s Bookshop. This month on On the Rag, we celebrate Ireland’s resounding Yes vote to repeal the amendment outlawing abortion, and look at the current state of things in New … Read more
National might be the largest polling party, but they’re sorely lacking any serious parliamentary sidekick. ACT clearly isn’t the solution, so how about contriving a new splinter-party? Good luck getting that past the electorate, writes Alex Braae Voters are a strange group of people to lump together. By and large they have little in common … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Eradication, not containment chosen for m. bovis outbreak, National eyes up new allies, and welfare working group disappoints activists. The government has decided to press ahead with eradication of cattle disease mycoplasma bovis. Radio NZ reports the eradication plan will cost close to a billion dollars, with the … Read more
The National leader will not be happy with just 9% picking him as preferred by PM in a new poll, especially with Judith Collins storming into the scene. But the bigger story is the mire in which Winston Peters finds his party. A funny old morning for Simon Bridges. The party you lead has just … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Major changes recommended to NCEA system, new poll has bad news for almost everyone, and two significant announcements will be made today. Huge changes have been recommended to the NCEA system by a review, reports Stuff. In particular, the changes would significantly lower the burden on students … Read more
Every little advantage counts in Parliament. Madeleine Chapman and Ra Pomare critically analyse the power sits of Question Time. No one has the time or energy to watch Parliament TV. It’s boring as hell. Except when it’s not. Question Time can be entertaining in the same way it’s sometimes entertaining to listen to kids argue: … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: PM steps in to cattle disease response, spotlight put on possible worker abuse in strip clubs, and a big win for local game company Grinding Gears. The bill for combatting cattle disease mycoplasma bovis is expected to grow, according to the Prime Minister. One News reports that the … Read more
The leader of the opposition has lately been touring the small towns and outer city suburbs. Why? Alex Braae went to Huapai in northwest Auckland to find out. Up and down the country over the next month, National leader Simon Bridges will be working the room in dozens of RSAs, community halls and churches. The … Read more
Given he’s regarded as a leader from the pragmatic centrist side of the National Party, it was puzzling to hear Simon Bridges this morning apparently endorse trickle-down theory. “I think there is some trickle-down effect actually, and a lot of people say no, no no,” said Bridges on The AM Show this morning, when questioned … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: A new poll is out, the government is considering public-private partnerships, and rents are rising rapidly. A new 1 News Colmar Brunton poll shows a drop for Labour, but government parties still comfortably ahead of the National party. It’s being reported by 1 News as the ‘end of the … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Australia plays politics with NZ’s refugee offer, National vows to reverse govt’s stance on oil exploration, and dentists warn against getting teeth done overseas. Behind closed doors, Australia asked New Zealand to keep a rejected offer to take refugees interred on Manus Island on the table, … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. Simon Bridges has put former rivals at the top of his reshuffled caucus, Finance Minister Grant Robertson hints at pay boosts for teachers and nurses, and the tourism industry is struggling to keep track of visitor numbers. New National leader Simon Bridges has reshuffled his caucus. The NZ Herald has a … Read more
Danyl Mclauchlan makes the case that what the new leader of the opposition doesn’t say matters – and what he does say probably doesn’t. The new National Party leader Simon Bridges seems like a smart, talented guy who will only become prime minister through sheer dumb luck. For now he’s leader of the opposition and the … Read more
When he was in his early twenties, I used to joke with him about the Bridges administration, circa 2020. He can get there in three years, if he gets it right and things fall into place, writes former National Party cabinet minister Wayne Mapp. From the moment he declared himself in the contest, Simon Bridges … Read more
The GBLT quartet chew over all the leadership changes. Coruscating analysis of the new leader of New Zealand’s biggest parliamentary party. Hot’n’smoky takes. Terrible but melodic puns. All that and more in a new audio content presentation from Annabelle Lee, Ben Thomas, Toby Manhire and a mostly grumpy, yet still comfortably most eloquent of the … Read more
On some scores, the National Party is streets ahead on Māori representation. But, asks Morgan Godfery, is it progress? Every politician keeps a list of regrets, and Labour politicians keep lists longer than most: they were the neoliberals, the foreshore and seabed thieves, and the slowpokes. If things were right and proper Simon Bridges would … Read more
In our video series Kiwis of Snapchat, comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens and luminaries making the news. Today, new National Party leader Simon Bridges takes a victory lap. Click here for all our Kiwis of Snapchat videos This section is made possible by Simplicity, the online nonprofit KiwiSaver plan that only … Read more
Welcome to the Cheat Sheet, a clickable, shareable, bite-sized FAQ on the news of the moment. Today, the new leader of the National party, Simon Bridges. Who? Simon Joseph Bridges, former lawyer, came into parliament at the same time as former lawyer Amy Adams, whom he beat to the leadership. The former West Aucklander took … Read more
New Zealanders sometimes like to claim that they are a classless society but anyone studying New Zealand English would know this isn’t true, writes NZ language expert Elizabeth Gordon In the early 1900s people were commenting on the newly developing New Zealand accent. They called it a “colonial twang” and they hated it. They said … Read more
A UMR Research survey puts the polarising MP in the lead – but only slightly, and her favourability numbers are dismal, an area in which Amy Adams holds bragging rights. The tussle to lead the biggest party in New Zealand’s parliament will be a tight one, if polling conducted largely prior to Bill English’s resignation … Read more
Mark Mitchell and Steven Joyce have added their names to the ballot for the contest to succeed Bill English as party leader. With a week till MPs make their decision, here are five observations on the race. 1 The newbies What looked like a three-horse race featuring Amy Adams, Simon Bridges and Judith Collins has … Read more
The National MP’s leadership bid has put his broad Kiwi accent back in the spotlight. Henderson-Massey local board chair and ‘proud Westie’ Shane Henderson thinks we should all lay off the jokes. I can empathise a little with Simon Bridges. Not with his politics, but with his accent. Last week Bridges announced his intention to … 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
What are Amy Adams, Simon Bridges and Judith Collins trying to tell us? Manhire and Morris condense the National Party rivals’ messages In a fortnight, the New Zealand National Party will have a new leader, following Bill English’s very sensible decision not to get up again, again. The task for his successor, in combating a … Read more
Once ’twere inevitable, ’twere best done quickly, and so it has passed. Bill English is leaving the National leadership and leaving parliament. That departure triggers a period of intense electioneering within the National caucus – unlike the expansive processes in Labour and the Greens, for example, only National MPs get to vote on their leader. Who … Read more
To paraphrase late-90s hitmakers LFO: Summer beards come and summer beards go, some are worthwhile and some are so-so. The summer of 2017-18 has been rife with speculation and chatter over which previously fresh-faced New Zealand politicians or television personalities have grown a summer beard. These are people who, like many working professionals, are precluded … Read more
In our video series Kiwis of Snapchat, comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens and luminaries making the news. Today, National MP Simon Bridges celebrates an epic practical joke at the swearing in of parliament. Click here for all our Kiwis of Snapchat videos
Transport minister Simon Bridges says no instruction was given to transport officials to hide the business case for the proposed new highway from Auckland to Whangarei. Simon Wilson reviews the paper trail that tells a peculiar story. First, this happened. On August 8 a staffer at the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) wrote an email to … Read more