The House

The Prime Minister’s much repeated claim that he “saved school lunches” because Labour "failed to fund them" is nonsense, and relies on us not understanding how budgets actually work. We analyse the claim, the reality, and the budget approach that allows the misinterpretation.

The first dose of Parliamentary urgency was dished out this week, to address a law that has fallen behind common practice.

This week, MPs got their first chance to debate on a new bill that would extend the three year parliamentary term to four years.

This week's legislative agenda began with the first reading of a bill that enables congestion charging in our cities.

Before MPs got down to debating legislation this week, they spent time debating the resignation last week of National Party minister, Andrew Bayly. Responses ranged from nothing-to-see-here to what-aren't-they-telling-us.

Political voices have become very familiar since the beginning of radio, but they haven’t always sounded the same. Listen to 14 former Prime Ministers (and one Speaker) from 1912 to 1990.

While they didn't turn up in an Aston Martin, the heads of New Zealand's spy agencies, the GCSB and the NZSIS came to Parliament this week to give MPs, media, and the public a rare glimpse into New Zealand's intelligence community.

Some debates at Parliament are a bit monochromatic, but not many. In most policy areas the best descriptor is 'it’s complicated'. The problem will be complicated, any worthwhile solutions, complicated; the politics lying between the problem and a solution... complicated. And few things are more complicated than a topic debated this week – criminal justice sentencing.

Marama Davidson, after time off for cancer treatment, is back at Parliament and is already busy with her members bill that would require manufacturers to make repair parts and information available to consumers.

This Sunday edition of The House includes Tuesday's story about rules on MP misbehaviour (but with extra material – including one rule that seems to very specifically apply), and Thursday's story looking at the now completed debate on the Prime Ministers Statement – which boiled down to being a 13-hour long debate over growth.

So far this year, Parliament has been dominated by one very long debate on whether the House approves of the Prime Minister's speech outlining his plan for the year. We look at some of its themes and rhetorical stylings.

On Wednesday this week, the Health Committee heard from both the Mental Health Minister and members of the public who offered their lived experience of mental health treatment.

On Monday David Seymour mounted Parliament's lower front steps in a vehicle. The Speaker was not impressed. So what are the rules and who can punish an MP or Minister?

Parliament may have been on summer break, but its website was anything but quiet. The House chatted to the person overseeing an unprecedented number of submissions.

This week Parliament did something important and unusual, giving the Taranaki Maunga legal personhood.