Politics

The Prime Minister’s plan to announce a roughly $100 million recovery package for Southland, in the wake of the likely closure of the Tiwai Smelter, was scuppered by New Zealand First at the eleventh hour.   RNZ understands, as a result, there will not be any specific amount of money allocated to th

Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway has been sacked from Cabinet and will not stand again at the election following revelations of a relationship with a former staffer. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it became clear his position as a minister was untenable as it opened up allegations of impr

Analysis – It appears New Zealand First and the Greens have given up trying to hide their true feelings. The unofficial campaign has well and truly kicked off with the party leaders taking the gloves off and going at each other at Parliament today. Green Party co-leader James Shaw has described New

The National Party has elected Judith Collins as its new leader to replace Todd Muller. deputy is Gerry Brownlie. Collins, 61, was first elected as an MP for Clevedon in 2002 and has been part of six Parliaments. The MP for Papakura has been the shadow Attorney General since May and holds the Nation

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has launched an investigation in relation to donations made to the Labour Party in 2017. In a statement, the SFO said it was conducting four investigations in relation to electoral funding, and a fifth was now before the courts. “We consider that making the current ann

Todd Muller has resigned as the National Party leader. In a statement Muller said he had taken time over the weekend to reflect on his experience over the last several weeks as leader of the opposition. “It has become clear to me that I am not the best person to be Leader of the Opposition […]

National MP Hamish Walker has announced that he will not be standing for re-election for the Southland electorate at the upcoming 2020 election. The backbencher MP had been behind the leak of Covid-19 patient details to media. “I wish to thank the people of Clutha-Southland who I have loved meeting,

National Party MP Hamish Walker has admitted to leaking Covid-19 patient details. Acting chief executive of Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust Michelle Boag has confirmed she gave the patient details to Walker. In a statement, Walker said: “I passed to members of the media, by email, information conta