Southern Say

Politics is something that has largely happened elsewhere for the previous five weeks, something for which we should all probably be very grateful.

Back in 2010, to mark its 50th anniversary and to shake up its cast, Coronation Street’s writers scripted an explosion and tram crash which took out two prominent characters.

Over the Christmas break, Wanaka will host the hugely popular Rhythm and Alps music festival.

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards was in our patch this week, briefing institutions and individuals on far-reaching law changes about to take effect in his patch.

Given the rollercoaster ride he has been on this year, it is unlikely Dunedin-based National Party list MP Michael Woodhouse will remember 2020 fondly.

As a doctor of theology, Dunedin MP David Clark will be very familiar with the phrase "to err is human, to forgive is divine".

Labour Dunedin list MP Rachel Brooking is still learning to navigate her way through the myriad corridors of the Parliamentary complex, let alone the tangles of the Parliamentary process.

Tuesday's report in the Otago Daily Times that Act New Zealand was considering setting up a southern base following its record party vote return in the 2020 election was, predictably, greeted with...

As Monday dawned, the opening notes of The Final Countdown came to mind.

Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean has been relatively low-key in her housing portfolio — barring an embarrassing slip-up concerning state housing numbers on live TV — but that changed yesterday with the...

Although under MMP it is, generally, really only the party vote that matters, that does not mean that parties do not want to win electorate seats.

Queenstown is right in the middle of one of the safest National electorates in the country, and few political leaders find their way there during campaign season.

The law governing elections is absolutely riven with inconsistencies, implausibilities and impracticalities, as anyone who has had to grapple with the Electoral Act 1993 can tell you.

Back in the first-past-the-post era, campaigning politicians could have been forgiven for bypassing the southern seats — for several of those electorates it was literally a one-in-100 year event if...

Speaking, as we were last week, of southerners wanting to see a speedy resolution to the many issues surrounding the future of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, the town of Mataura has the most...

As a rule, Labour finance ministers do not receive the warmest of welcomes from employers’ associations.