The House

The political week has been packed with worthy distractions, but in the background all week Parliament has focused on passing new laws. Here are the highlights.

The House speaks to two members of the Samoan Community that came to Parliament to see the Restoring Citizenship Bill pass its final reading. 

At Parliament the vast majority of noise and passion was from the hikoi outside the chamber. The crowd so large that vast number likely never managed to get inside the grounds. Despite that, everyone was incredibly patient, friendly and polite. Inside, the debating chamber was never going to quite match the energy - or possibly the politeness.

After a tsunami of coverage out of Parliament last week, The House spoke to Press Gallery Chair Jason Walls about how the Press Gallery works.

The Treaty principles bill dominated Parliament's week, despite being the final bill debated. How was it talked about in the House when it was not the topic of a debate; who focussed on it, who ignored it, who was ignored?

In Parliament anything and everything can be political, or can be bent to politics. In recent memory, things as apparently innocuous as playground equipment, clothing, colours, or eating takeaways.

Following the Crown Apology for Abuse in State Care, Parliament passed the first reading of the Response to Abuse in Care Bill. Labour and National spoke of casting politics aside for a moment. Greens and Te Pāti Māori weren't so keen on that idea.

This week, the Parliament Bill committee heard from a 16 year old high school student, and a former prime minister, 65 years his senior.

Atop the Beehive a lone national flag is tortured daily by Wellington’s gales. We join its handlers up on the roof to chat, watching as its fraying edges whip the sky.

Parliament is a mercurial place. Debate can flick from amity to antagony with each shift in topic, especially if that topic is climate change or agriculture, or both.

Today, Parliament begun a new, three-week-long sitting block. If Question Time was the first round warm-up for a new bout - when the boxers are still a little tentative and trying out new things, - it's unlikely to be a quiet lead-up to Christmas.

In politics, they say you shouldn't have any skeletons in your closet. But what about in your Parliament?

In the Sunday edition of The House, a story from Thursday and a new story: Returning some stolen citizenships gets likelier, and a petitioner to Parliament wants to include an oral undertaking to The Treaty of Waitangi – a guarantee of freedom of religion.

After a robust select committee process, all parties now support a Members bill that would restore New Zealand citizenship to a select group of Samoans who lost it 4 decades ago.

Among all the government's resource management changes, the Fast-track Bill has received the bulk of attention. This week, a less traversed but equally significant bill from that suite became law.