At Large with Toby Manhire

At its fourth time of trying, the Opportunity Party is on track for something unprecedented: making it to parliament. And a massive part of that is down to its new leader: Qiulae Wong. What is she doing differently? How does the party, with its powerful board, work? Is it really a party of change? What does she say to the allegations from former members about a “toxic” culture? And has she even met Gareth Morgan? Wong sits down with Toby for the latest At Large leader interview.
At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Zoe Madden-Smith and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

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Advertising campaigns are meant to capture the popular imagination, just not like this. A bank called Kiwi, a green sheep called Buck and giddy humans combined over recent days to create a strange fable for our times. Hayden Donnell joins Toby to walk us through the story that went from a pocket of the internet, via his post for the Spinoff (headline: “Kiwibank is desperately trying to stop people saying they want to f*** its sheep mascot”) and all the way to the John Oliver show.
Plus: Lyric Waiwiri-Smith steps off the big pink bus to lay down the gauntlet in How Good, asking should huge campaign vehicles in fact be obligatory?
At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Zoe Madden-Smith and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

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Ali Mau first appeared on New Zealand screens more than three decades ago. She went on to run, for five years, the #MeTooNZ project for Stuff. Last year she published No Words for This – an autobiography the Spinoff called “gripping and revelatory”. Last month, after years of work, Mau and lawyer Zoë Lawton pressed go on Tika: a globally pioneering online service for survivors of sexual harm that joins the dots between survivors. What are the experiences that led to creating this technology? How does Tika work? And – a few weeks in – what has been the volume of response been so far?

And as images from the Cornell Seven and elsewhere flood our feeds, how does she assess the state of media and the legal system 10 years on from the advent of #MeToo?

At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Bridget Mills, Zoe Madden-Smith and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

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Winston Peters is contesting his 18th election this year; if you count a couple of by-elections, it’s his 20th campaign. He’s been giving ‘main character’ energy since he first entered politics with the National Party in 1978, and for more than three decades he’s been the talismanic figurehead of New Zealand First (who this year are polling consistently at or above 10%). Often cast in the role of Kingmaker, he’s now up against a new set of characters vying for the influential role.

For our first At Large leader interview, we take a wander through the political archives to find out what drives the Right Honourable Winston Peters in 2026.

At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Bridget Mills and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

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Andrew Campbell was chief press secretary to prime minister Jacinda Ardern through crisis after crisis: the March 15 massacre in Christchurch, the Whakaari (White Island) disaster, and the Covid pandemic. On the publication of his new book, In the Room, Campbell joins Toby to talk through what they got right, what they got wrong, and why there is such an enduring depth of feeling about Ardern today. He also recounts his own approach to the communications role, personal struggle with alcoholism, and how booze has become entwined with the political-media sphere.
Plus: Emma Gleason on Che Fu’s great New Zealand album, Navigator, turning 25.
At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Bridget Mills and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

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With the numbers of young people registered to vote at less than two-thirds, and an enrolment period coming to a close a fortnight earlier than recent elections, there is cause for serious concern, says Professor Andrew Geddis, electoral law expert from the University of Otago. We asked you for your questions about the voting process – the rules, the rorts, the practicalities, and here Geddis answers them.
Other questions include:

Plus: Tara Ward says forget Florence Pugh: the real star of East of Eden is north of Dunedin.
At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Bridget Mills and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

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In a campaign that sometimes feels like wading through wet cement, James Nokise is attempting the Everest of stand-up challenges – finding the comedy in the election. He’s doing 33 shows from one end of the country to the other as One Night Rant, riffing on the headlines of the day and the questions the audiences ask. He joins Toby to tell us how it’s going so far. What do people think of their politicians? Should those politicians be funnier? And what is the state of political comedy in Aotearoa today?

At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Bridget Mills and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

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The influence and ethics of political lobbying is under the spotlight in the 2026 campaign. What do lobbyists really do, what rules do they play by, and why has NZ failed time after time to do anything to tame the sinister stuff? Holly Bennett, founder and managing director of of Awhi, a kaupapa Māori government relations and communications firm in Auckland, joins Toby to talk it all through.
Plus, in How Good, Alice Neville on canned margarita, and why the Mighty Mighty was judged the mightiest of them all.
At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Bridget Mills and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

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In the face of a slump in youth enrolment and a campaign that is leaving many people cold or curled up cringing, an army of independent outfits are prodding the cattle and driving engagement – some of them are telling us how to vote.
Today we look at the enrolment insurgents including the Ellie Commission and On a Roll, and the tools designed to help you work out which party to vote for, such as Policy, On the Fence and Vote Compass, and talk to two of the people behind those efforts: Shanti Mathias from Policy.nz and Jean Donaldson from On the Fence.
At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Bridget Mills and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

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Three MPs, one party leader and two first-timers met last night at the Spinoff Great Mt Albert Debate. Toby Manhire is joined for a postmortem by Hayden Donnell and Lyric Waiwiri-Smith to assess the highs and lows from a fast-paced and fiery encounter featuring Labour candidate Helen White, who won the seat last time by 18 votes, Melissa Lee of National, the Greens’ Ricardo Menéndez March, Opportunity Party leader Qiulae Wong, Alex Price of the Act Party and NZ First’s Sheldon Eden-Whaitiri.
Watch the debate in full here: https://youtu.be/LZO7gu6rhQg
At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Bridget Mills and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

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