The Good Oil was founded by Cam Slater, a multi-award-winning blogger and journalist. It used to be called The BFD. The name changed in 2024 but the publication itself carried on: the same business (BFD Publishing Limited) still publishes it, and the old thebfd.co.nz address now brings readers straight here. Cam's political writing goes back further than that, to his Whale Oil blog, and 2025 marked twenty years of it.
Most of what we publish is New Zealand political news, analysis and commentary, with a regular eye on Australia, Britain and the rest of the world. The Good Oil breaks its own stories and keeps a close watch on the rest of the media. It also runs plenty that's there purely for entertainment. We wear our opinions on our sleeve. You don't have to share them to be informed by them, and many of our readers don't.
Stories We Broke
We don't hide our opinions, but plenty of what we publish starts with our own digging: a leaked email, a video, a tip-off, a stack of documents. These are some of the stories we put out first, under The BFD name and since, along with where the rest of the media picked them up.
- EXCLUSIVE: Government and Police Lockdown Actions NOT Legally Supported, 4 May 2020 (as The BFD). An email from Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement, sent three days into the first Level 4 lockdown, set out how little power police actually had to enforce it. The NZ Herald ran its own story on the same emails about an hour later.
- New Zealander of the Year Siouxsie Wiles – Unmasked, 9 September 2021 (as The BFD). Video of Dr Siouxsie Wiles and a friend, unmasked at Judges Bay during Auckland's Level 4 lockdown, with the friend going for a swim. Wiles said she hadn't broken the rules herself but accepted her friend had. Followed by the NZ Herald, Stuff and Newstalk ZB.
- Exclusive: Willie Jackson Accused of Bullying, Union-Busting and Cronyism to Protect His Missus, 3 December 2025. Matt McCarten's complaint to the Speaker, alleging that Labour MP Willie Jackson intervened at the Manukau Urban Māori Authority, where his wife is chief executive. Followed by Centrist and, a fortnight later, the NZ Herald.
- Exclusive: Documents Expose Willie Jackson's Trespass Shenanigans to Bust Union and Shield His Manky Missus, 8 December 2025. The trespass notices and emails behind the MUMA dispute, published while the rest of the media still hadn't touched it. Followed by Centrist, which noted we were the first to publish the documents.
Who writes for The Good Oil
It isn't a one-man show. Writers whose work appears here include Cam Slater, Chris Trotter, Lushington Brady, Nathan Smith, Graham Adams, David Farrar, Lindsay Mitchell, Frank Newman, Muriel Newman, Olivia Pierson, Dr Oliver Hartwich, Dr Eric Crampton, Dr Bryce Wilkinson, Briar Lipson, Lindsay Perigo and Peter Gibbons. Daily cartoons come from BoomSlang and SonovaMin. You'll find everyone else on our authors page.
What you'll find here
Alongside the news and opinion there are cartoons and photoshops, daily puzzles (a crossword, sudoku, codecracker and trivia) and The Good Oil Podcast, where Cam sits down with guests from Winston Peters to Barry Soper and Marewa Glover. Every morning there's a General Debate thread and every evening there's Backchat, where readers can talk about whatever's on their mind.
The comments are a big part of the place. Readers are quick to pick up our mistakes and rein in any excesses, and over the years that's turned The Good Oil into a community, with people from right across the political spectrum pitching in. Comments are moderated under our commenting rules.
If you know something we should hear about, use the tipline. It's confidential and we never reveal sources. Email tipoff@goodoil.news, use our Telegram tipline, or ring the anonymous line on 09 889 8355.
Memberships
Most of what we publish is free to read. If you sign up for a free account you can join the conversation in the comments. A free account also gets new posts sent straight to your inbox, so you won't miss anything because of a pesky algorithm or news feed.
Paid memberships keep The Good Oil independent, and they come in three tiers:
- Basic, NZ$5 a month or NZ$50 a year: no ads, plus Daily Trivia.
- Basic+, NZ$15 a month or NZ$150 a year: everything in Basic plus the daily crossword, sudoku and codecracker, and the SonovaMin and BoomSlang cartoons.
- VIP, NZ$25 a month or NZ$250 a year: everything in Basic+ plus the Ten@10 curated articles newsletter, Real Good Oil and Political Intelligence: Quick Hits.
Each paid tier comes with a seven-day free trial. Paid members can also read our subscriber-only articles, and that includes most episodes of The Good Oil Podcast. Choose a membership.
If you're new to The Good Oil, pop in once a day for a week and see whether it suits you.
Important Disclaimer
All comments on this website are purely the opinions of the individual commenters and do not represent the views of commenters’ employers, friends, clubs they may belong to, and so on. Commenters’ views also do not represent those of the website owner, contributors, moderators or anyone else.