Audrey Young
Senior Political Correspondent
Audrey Young, Senior Political Correspondent at the New Zealand Herald based at Parliament, specialises in writing about politics and power.
I’m Audrey Young – Senior Political Correspondent at the New Zealand Herald. I was the NZ Herald’s political editor for 18 years, through some of the most tumultuous political times. In 2021 I moved into a new role as Senior Political Correspondent, where I now have more time to produce in depth stories, which are not necessarily part of the daily news cycle. I love getting my teeth into a complex issue or helping bring some clarity to a misunderstood issue. And I have a special interest in foreign affairs and Treaty of Waitangi issues. In 2018 and 2020 I was Voyager Political Journalist of the Year. Occasionally I also dish out my own awards and rankings to politicians, which includes rating the performance of Cabinet Ministers or the opposition’s Shadow Cabinet. I’ve been working at the Herald for so long that my 30th anniversary was mentioned in Parliament. However, I never tire of seeing what people do to try to gain power and what they do when they get there. I was pleased to be the union representative on the Press Council for six years. In a previous life, I worked as a sub-editor at the ill-fated Auckland Sun, was a tutor for a Pacific Island journalism course at Manukau Polytechnic in Otara, and was a teacher in Wellington.
Check out Audrey’s latest content
Audrey Young: KC smackdown – top barristers join Treaty bill backlash
OPINION: Protesters have some heavyweight legal experts on their side.
Audrey Young: Opposition party power rankings – the top 10
OPINION: Some former Government MPs seem invigorated by being in Opposition.
Audrey Young: Trump 2.0, Treaty bill tweaks and a media brickbat
OPINION: Kamala Harris conceded with a speech full of soaring and meaningless rhetoric.
Audrey Young: Meet members of Waitangi Tribunal, which is set for a shake-up
The Waitangi Tribunal leans towards a highly educated membership.
Audrey Young: Trump warnings fall flat in final days of presidential race
OPINION: Damnation be damned – American voters won't be swayed.
Public service's new fixit man: 'I have the luxury of an extremely low heart rate'
Sir Brian Roche says being involved with rugby has exposed him to some great leaders.
Audrey Young: Biggest losers – Andrew Bayly, Darleen Tana and Tory Whanau blow it
OPINION: Bayly can kiss goodbye to a second term as a minister.
Metiria Turei emerges from obscurity – with a new book
The Treaty of Waitangi has been central to Metiria Turei's life.
Audrey Young: 'You'd be limping' – senior MPs bring schoolyard politics to Parliament
OPINION: Parliament's a serious place, but sometimes the silliness wins.
Audrey Young: Solicitor-General and Attorney-General clash over prosecution guidelines
COMMENT: Judith Collins expressed disquiet about the new guidelines.
Parliament must stop drift to ‘judicial supremacy’, says lawyer
The Supreme Court is departing from its lane, a new report says.
The reinvention of Judith Collins: 'I did not shed a tear'
Judith Collins on misogyny, China, Nato, GE – and the portfolios she always wanted.
Audrey Young: Govt wasting time and money on pointless election promises
OPINION: Why draft a bill that's going nowhere? Or amend sports rules for no reason?
'Winston didn't want a 65-year-old larrikin': Shane Jones gets serious after talking-to
Shane Jones is playing the jester less as he goes about his politics
Audrey Young: Minister gets top marks despite $30m te reo raid
OPINION: Erica Stanford proved she could be ruthless when she needed some quick cash.
Audrey Young: Labour's howls of protest have a whiff of hypocrisy
OPINION: If only the Opposition had practised what they preached when they were in charge.
Helen Clark on Israel-Palestine conflict - the old way has failed
Former PM is part of The Elders, a group of former leaders set up by Nelson Mandela.
Audrey Young: Te Pāti Māori MP scores spectacular own-goal over 'lies' slur
OPINION: Tākuta Ferris proved his point with his own blatant porky.
Audrey Young: The tsunami of policies aimed at Māori
OPINION: Māori claim to have been 'thrown under the bus' by the Government. Here's how.
Peters pulls Ngata into Treaty debate from the grave
Sir Apirana Ngata's family discussed how to respond to him being used in debate.
Audrey Young: David Seymour's Treaty bill is already a disaster
OPINION: No, we don't yet have a draft. But we have at least one unworkable principle.
Audrey Young: New Māori Queen begins her reign with a deep well of goodwill
OPINION: Also in this week's wrap – Shane Jones takes his medicine.
Audrey Young: The mother of all political questions - Hipkins wades into Māori sovereignty debate
OPINION: Also in this week's wrap – the controversial comments that won't go away.
Goldsmith does things at pace, official tells Waitangi Tribunal hearing into foreshore and seabed decision
Iwi complain about 'injustice' of three-week consultation on law change.
Ministers' meeting with seafood industry slammed by lawyer in tribunal
PM Luxon defends the decision to revert to the former threshold for customary title.
Audrey Young: Foreshore and seabed bill close to being finalised – what you need to know
The facts behind the latest moves to change the legislation.
Audrey Young: If Seymour can't stop dissing the boss, he shouldn't be Deputy PM
OPINION: Act's leader is pushing his luck over the Treaty principles bill.
'Grew up thinking I was bad at maths': Erica Stanford's mini revolution for education
Education Minister moving fast over maths failures.
Audrey Young: Government on track for post-Olympic policy sprint
OPINION: Also in this week's wrap – the PM's embarrassing benefit blunders.
The Treaty talk an expert worried about for 8 months and why the Govt is going 'too far'
An incident at Ōkāhu Bay left an indelible mark on the young Claudia Orange.
Audrey Young: Hipkins' political radar way off with petty, outdated questions
OPINION: Kiwi voters are worried about many things. Lapel pins are not one of them.
Audrey Young: Cabinet report card - the ministers thriving and those just surviving
OPINION: This minister wasn’t ready when a crisis struck - and scores just 3 out of 10.
Warnings of ‘catastrophic conflict’ by Australian Aukus sceptic
NZ advised to co-operate militarily with Australia but not under Aukus.
Audrey Young: Urgent action required as Act, Te Pāti Māori battle rages
OPINION: The temperature at Parliament has reached boiling point.
Audrey Young: Caring words for abuse survivors are easy. Actions won't be
OPINION: Many of the royal commission's recommendations run contrary to the Govt's agenda.
David Lange: You cannot speak of NZ now without my involvement in what it has become
REPRISED: A one-on-one interview with the incomparable David Lange.
Winston Peters questions legitimacy of Noumea referendum
The NZ Foreign Minister says there has been 'democratic injury' on both sides.
Audrey Young: Trump shooting and Treaty fights – the political heat is on
OPINION: As Donald Trump's lead extends, NZ has some big foreign policy calls to make.
Audrey Young: Disturbing undertones in Te Pāti Māori's messaging
OPINION: Ads promoting Budget day protests featured guns against a fiery backdrop.
Audrey Young: Buckle in – money is tight, you’d better believe it
OPINION: Cuts to Government agencies will become business as usual.
Audrey Young: All eyes on Budget borrowing; brickbat for a nasty ad
OPINION: There's one line Nicola Willis really doesn't want to cross with her tax cuts.
Inside a $2 billion pay-equity debacle
The union says many care and support workers are back to square one.
Audrey Young: 'Targeted extermination' - tensions high over controversial bill
OPINION: Te Pāti Māori didn't hold back in the House - neither did Act's Karen Chhour.
Audrey Young: Inside David Seymour's inner circle; the surprise MPs who inspired him
The Act leader received memorable advice after watching a Mexican drug movie.
Audrey Young: The best of a boring bunch of pre-Budget speeches
OPINION: Also in today's politics briefing - MP David MacLeod's donations drama.
Audrey Young: Badly behaved MPs needed a time-out
OPINION: Misconduct and extreme rhetoric have become too familiar in NZ politics.
Audrey Young: State schools 'converted' to charter schools? Brace for controversy
OPINION: David Seymour says a separate agency will oversee up to 50 new charter schools.
How Luxon sees the world: The global events that shaped the PM
Christopher Luxon's American political hero might surprise you.
Audrey Young: Nicola Willis on the Budget - it's bad, but not 'Ruth Richardson bad'
OPINION: The fiscal news is grim, Willis admits, but an austerity Budget isn't the answer.
Judge delivers verdict on early NZ justice system
Justice David Collins points to early miscarriages of justice in colonial New Zealand.
Audrey Young: The minister who made a criminal mess of Budget reveal
OPINION: Everybody - including the PM - left yesterday's press conference confused.
MPs spitting the dummy: Who followed through on threats to quit on principle?
OPINION: Some MPs are just plain offended at how they are treated by their party.
Audrey Young: Peters switches from statesman to street-brawler
OPINION: Also in today's political wrap - what on earth is up with Green MPs?
Audrey Young: A 'sense of suppressed tension' in Labour Party
OPINION: Three things Labour needs to get settled before it can regain credibility.
Audrey Young: Peters has the most to complain about after grim poll result
OPINION: The poll will only prove to Peters' team that statesmanship doesn't win votes.
Audrey Young: National's comeback kid has a lot on his plate
OPINION: Three years ago, 'Goldie' was in the political doldrums.
Audrey Young: What if Government loses Waitangi Tribunal fight?
OPINION: Both parties have talked themselves into a pistols-at-dawn showdown.
Audrey Young: Minister for Children v Waitangi Tribunal - the players and the issues
OPINION: Crown Law has pulled out its big guns to challenge the Tribunal summons.
Audrey Young: Police push their luck on pay as mass layoffs continue
OPINION: Police's flat rejection of the latest offer seems slightly detached from reality.
Audrey Young: Luxon’s Philippines visit follows years of neglect, but the PM and his daughter know it well
OPINION: The Philippines is a central part of the US 'lattice' response to China.
Audrey Young: Government on collision course with Waitangi Tribunal
OPINION: An already tense relationship just got a whole lot worse.
'I’m an extrovert, I’m relational and I know the markets well:' Luxon on his foreign foray
PM's next steps in a push to lift the intensity of NZ's relationships.
Winston Peters' inner circle - the people he depends on
'The person you see in the public arena is not the person you see behind closed doors.'
Audrey Young: Luxon can't talk down seismic foreign policy shift
OPINION: Today's NZ-US statement virtually signs us up to Aukus II.
Parliament shock: Act, NZ First side with opposition as Nats vote against bill
Act and NZ First have helped the Green Party bill get to select committee.
Audrey Young: Labour takes aim at Luxon's targets... and misses
OPINION: Voters don't have a problem with setting targets, so why does Labour?
Winston Peters delivers hard-hitting speech at UN: ‘Gaza is an utter catastrophe’
Winston Peters says civilians must not pay the price of defeating Hamas.
Audrey Young: Māori wards set to become next race relations flashpoint
OPINION: Both National and Labour have played a part in the growing controversy.
Revival of Anzus is a prop for Aukus architecture - Helen Clark
Helen Clark says it is a policy lurch, Winston Peters says there's nothing new in it.
Audrey Young: Government ropes in old mates for new jobs
OPINION: Two more former National ministers were roped into jobs advising new Government.
Audrey Young: Luxon executes delicate diplomatic dance over China hacking case
OPINION: The situation demanded some delicate diplomacy from Christopher Luxon.
Audrey Young: Collins keeps her cool as spy revelations heat up
OPINION: For the first time, hackers have targeted the heart of NZ's democracy.
Audrey Young: Hipkins' bid to control division over tax
OPINION: Hipkins cannot take the support of Labour members for granted.
Audrey Young: Willis blindsided by disability support controversy
OPINION: The Finance Minister was not best pleased to start her week with a PR disaster.
Luxon’s inner circle - the PM’s most important advisers revealed
The people Christopher Luxon depends on in politics, the public service and business.
Audrey Young: Peters rubs salt into wound with 'fiscal hole' claim
OPINION: Peters' race comments aren't the only ones that likely gave the PM a headache.
Audrey Young: Hero to zero in 6 months - the Green Party's horror run
OPINION: The crisis-hit Greens really needed a break. Not this week.
Jonathan Hunt — the king of conviviality
Legendary former Speaker also had some difficult years.
Govt stops putting general Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation
NZ First wants Treaty matters decided by Parliament, not the courts.
Audrey Young: Tone deaf or 'kick-a***'? PM's political radar offline again
OPINION: The problem isn't what the PM says, but how he says it.