The House: Recent Episodes
RNZ
Foreign Affairs is a portfolio that Winston Peters often receives bi-partisan congratulations on. In an otherwise adversarial scrutiny week, his hearing with the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee had a bastion of amicability and trust.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
This week at Parliament is Estimates Scrutiny week, when Ministers face Select Committees to defend their budget plans. We talk with Green MP, Lawrence Xu-Nan, a star scrutiny performer from last time round. As a former academic and one of a number of MPs with a PhD, Xu-Nan has the brutal research experience that is surely useful for digging into something as labyrinthine and esoteric as a budget.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
For electorate M Ps, weekends are generally spent in the community meeting constituents. The House popped into a morning tea Q&A hosted by Matt Doocey.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Parliament and the Courts are different branches of our democracy. On Thursday, during the debate on MP punishments they overlapped.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
The Government had three things on its to-do list for the week. It managed... some of them, including the one that allows its own continued survival.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
This week the Health Committee heard oral submissions on the Government's Medicines Amendment Bill, which speeds up the approvals process for medication.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Parliament, with an early history saturated in alcohol, has had no in-house bar at all for months. It seems almost no-one even noticed. The new bar, Pint of Order, has now opened and its dinky size may show just how much Parliament has changed.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
The House chats with two long serving MPs to get some insight into some of the political strategy behind member’s bills
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
After the first few speeches of the Budget Debate, the House knuckled down for a long and jam-packed dose of urgency.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
The opening stanzas of a new budget begin in quiet formality, but get loud and political quickly.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
The House sits down with Clerk Assistant James Picker to chat through the Budget process and what you can expect to see in the House on the day.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
The highly anticipated debate on the report of the privileges committee only lasted for about 25 minutes before it was cut short by a surprise adjournment motion.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Former Governor General Sir Anand Satyanand talks about the role’s interlinked relationship with Parliament and the Executive, and as a guardrail for democracy.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Parliament's Speaker, Gerry Brownlee spoke to MPs on Thursday about the Privileges Committee's unprecedented recommendations for punishing Te Pāti Māori MPs. His response was telling. We decode his comments.Note: A slip of the tongue in this episode causes MP Duncan Webb to be renamed Duncan Green. Apologies.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
The commitments that public organisations are subject to under treaty settlements are being treated like transactions, not relationships, says Auditor-General John Ryan, who briefed the Māori Affairs Committee on the issue this week.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Last week the Government announced that they wouldn't be introducing a new independent redress system for survivors of abuse in state care. This week they had the task of defending that position from a barrage of Opposition criticism during an urgent debate.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
This Sunday edition of the House is a compilation of the week's reporting, including: coverage of the Government's surprise Equal Pay Amendment Bill, and the farewell of retiring Labour journeyman David Parker.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
After two decades in Parliament, Labour's David Parker is leaving politics. The House looks at some of the highlights of his valedictory statement made on Wednesday this week.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
The Equal Pay Amendment Bill wasn't in the Government's initially released plan for Parliament's week. It was included at the eleventh hour. It's late arrival, it's urgent passing, and its intent all caused anger in the House.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Returning from three weeks on recess, MPs' first business was a motion in honour of a pope. Speeches were a little more honest, and a little more heartfelt than typical. Especially one of them. And it may have included Parliament's first Hail Mary that wasn't a political desperation move.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Parliament’s select committees are well known. But the public never gets to watch the Cabinet committees, which all policies go through before reaching Parliament. Louis Collins chats with the Deputy Leader of the House, National Party MP Louise Upston, to understand what happens in the sub-committees which are Cabinet's workhorses.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Other nations are experiencing the erosion of democratic norms – even authoritarianism. Is our constitution strong enough to withstand it?
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Peter Boshier says the public can rest assured that there is an enduring institution fighting for fairness and accountability.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
This Sunday edition of the House is a compilation of the week's reporting, including: a Question Time naughtiness scavenger hunt, the Annual Review debate on Health, and the very unusual death of a Government bill — the Treaty bill.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Members' bills die ugly deaths regularly, but I can find no record in recent history of a government bill sent into the House to suffer the indignity of a negative vote. It was either unusually masochistic or the outcome of poor political judgement.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Despite this years' budget only a month away, the Government still have t's to cross i's to dot in regard to spending from previous years. The annual review debate is the final stage in that very long process.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Arguments, inferences, imputations, epithets, ironical expressions, or expressions of opinion. It's not a lost verse from The Sound of Music's 'My Favourite Things'. It's a partial list of things Question Time questions cannot include. There are also some must-haves; and separate requirements for answers. The House goes on a scavenger hunt, to find examples inside one Question Time.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Parliament’s Privileges Committee has been a major source of news over the last few weeks. What is privilege, and how does the committee typically work? ...and because this is a Sunday episode of the House, it also includes a replay of Wednesday's episode on leniency towards MPs 'schoolyard stupidity' during Question Time.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Parliament has voted to allow the Justice Committee to continue processing submissions on the Treaty principles bill, even after the committee's work on the bill is finished. This will allow them to be collected along with the submissions that were considered by the committee as part of its report.We chat with the Clerk of the House of Representatives, David Wilson for background on the parliamentary rules and processes behind this move.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Nearly 25 years after the “corngate” saga of the early 2000s, the debate on Genetic Modification is back in New Zealand’s political consciousness thanks to the Gene Technology Bill, which is currently going through the select committee process.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Gerry Brownlee was a teacher when ‘the cane’ ruled the classroom. As Parliament’s Speaker, he is reluctant to reach beyond threats and pleas.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
After a select committee process that presented MPs with lots of constitutional questions, the Parliament Bill is back in the House.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
The House chats with two MPs from the Parliament Bill Committee about some interesting suggestions from submitters - namely a Parliamentary Budget Office.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Parliament spent much of this week debating bills under urgency. The Government can get more done in the House that way, but there is a trade-off in committees.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
MPs were welcomed back to this three week sitting block by more urgency, and a boisterous question time.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Parliament’s recent inquiry and debate on climate change adaptation asked small questions, looked short term and inched towards reactive solutions.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
This Week, Parliament had the debate on the Budget Policy Statement, which gave us a few hints as to what we can expect come Budget Day on 22 May.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
The first dose of Parliamentary urgency was dished out this week, to address a law that has fallen behind common practice.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
This week, MPs got their first chance to debate on a new bill that would extend the three year parliamentary term to four years.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
This week's legislative agenda began with the first reading of a bill that enables congestion charging in our cities.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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?
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
This week Parliament did something important and unusual, giving the Taranaki Maunga legal personhood.
This episode has audio from the third reading of Taranaki's collective redress bill. For a look at the Bill itself, particularly the history, acknowledgments and apologies within it, read this article.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
After a series of speeches acknowledging several notable deaths that occurred over the Summer, Parliament kicked off 2025 by doing what it does best - arguing.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Before the normal political welcome, MPs spent time farewelling the fallen, particularly Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming and Dame Tariana Turia.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Parliament's adjournment debate is a showcase of vitriol leavened with humour. It is likely the most chaotic, unfocussed, haphazard, and sometimes incoherent political event of the year. We have the lowlights.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
On Parliament's last day of the year, there was the rare occurrence of a personal (conscience) vote on selling booze over the Easter weekend. While it didn't have the numbers to pass, it was a chance to get a rare glimpse of the factions within the major parties.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Before the Speaker Gerry Brownlee overturned Barbara Kuriger’s Fast-track ruling, there was a lengthy and fascinating debate in the House. We couldn’t give justice to the constitutional and parliamentary to-and-fro on our show - so here it all is as a podcast extra.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Last week’s fights with the Speaker over the Fast Track schedule may have changed the tone in Parliament.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Parliament's final full week was a legislating blitz to complete unfinished legislation, and introduce new bills for the public to chew on over summer. And in this Sunday wrap of the week we also look at one unfortunate select committee, drowning under an unusual preponderance of work.
This Sunday show from The House comprises material from the weekday shows from Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
In the midst of this week's blitz to complete unfinished work before the summer recess, there was also a clutch of brand new legislation. Something for submitters to improve over the break, including a bill that creates a new offence - stalking.
This is the Friday 13th show from The House - an extra programme because Parliament sat beyond its usual week.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
This week, media and public focus on Parliament honed in on the hullabaloo around ferries and speakers rulings. Meanwhile, over 30 hours of urgency were used to consider eleven bills have been going through the House this week.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
In its first year, this parliament has sent 78 new laws to the twelve subject select committees. That should mean they are reviewing six bills each, except the Justice Committee has been sent 26 of them - including many of the most contested. Why?
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Last month, twelve Pacific speakers and clerks from around Oceania traded the warm shores of the South Pacific for Wellington in spring. They were here for a week of networking and learning, with doses of casual diplomacy.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Parliament was heaving with activity this week, though not with debates, bills, or even any sittings of the House. Instead, the corridors and committee rooms were alive with the hustle and bustle of Scrutiny Week.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Whether its about the lack of it, the quality of it, or the cost of it, discussions about housing are omnipresent at Parliament. This week, both Housing Ministers sat down in front of MPs for a session of explain and answer on the topic.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
While New Zealand's defence force deals with budget issues, lagging equipment, and the aftermath of the Manawanui, Defence Minister Judith Collins made it clear that NZDF still have the unwavering support of their minister.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Scrutiny Week is underway with annual reviews of government entities with multi-billion dollar budgets. Also underway are political games you would never dare try in your own performance review. Exhibit A is Shane Reti facing Ayesha Verrall in the Health Committee.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
There are just five House sitting days of Parliament left. They will feel like a warm down after what happens prior – five tough days of government scrutiny, with help from Parliament's watchdog. The House chats with Mark Evans and Lyndsey Gibson from the Office of the Auditor General about Scrutiny Week.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
The Green's Benjamin Doyle has joined the 54th Parliament about a third of the way into its term. Their maiden statement wrapped up a huge week for Parliament.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
The House speaks to two members of the Samoan Community that came to Parliament to see the Restoring Citizenship Bill pass its final reading.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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.
Parliament has featured in New Zealand’s official Gazette thrice in three days. Once over a possible referendum to ban fireworks, twice over the removal of an MP who caused fireworks.
New Zealand's official newspaper, The Gazette, has mentioned Parliament twice this week. Once to announce an MP was getting the rocket, and once to outline a hope to ban rockets entirely.
In the Sunday edition of The House Louis Collins talks Ministerial Statements with Chris Penk, and Phil Smith considers messages coming from public to government.
On Tuesday, the Government made a Ministerial statement about the sinking of the HMNZS Manawanui. RNZ's The House sat down with the Minister who made it.
Watching people make submissions to select committees about laws can give you an idea of what types of expertise and experience are most useful; and that one of the most crucial might just be... people like you.
Rather than wait for the Opposition to apply for an urgent debate, the Government decided to get in first and on Tuesday, gave a Ministerial Statement on the sinking of HMNZS Manawanui.
In sports, you don’t argue with the ref. It’s a similar situation at Parliament with the Speaker. The Speaker isn’t just Gerry Brownlee though. There are four other presiding officers he can rely on to help carry the load.
Attend the session where MPs’ oral questions to the Government are vetted and authenticated by Parliament’s Office of the Clerk.
On the Sunday edition of The House, Louis and Phil consider a new Bill that reworks much of the legislation that underpins the running of Parliament, including its funding. (This episode combines two weekday episodes on aspects of The Parliament Bill and adds extra content.)
With all the talk about the Parliament Bill, The House sheds some light on some of the other items of business at Parliament this week.
The Parliament Bill intends to prevent governments from wielding the power of the purse over the bodies that run Parliament. Phil Smith chats with Adrian Rurawhe (Labour) and Ricardo Menendez March (Green).
After years of suggestions for constitutional reform, the Parliament Bill has been introduced. In a rare occurrence at Parliament, a special committee has been set up to examine the bill.
Opposition MPs have rediscovered an old filibustering tactic and are using it to protest the Government's scanty use of Parliament's select committees.
Parliament was buzzing with te reo this week. With many members using it in Question Time, the translation team certainly would have been busy.
Opposition MPs appear to have rediscovered an old filibustering tactic and are using it to protest the Government's liking for sending bills to select committees for very short periods.
The Government's first budget is finally reaching the end of its long approval process, and it's going to be just in time. You might have thought it was all done and dusted months ago, but Parliament is pretty careful with giving away pocket money.
Chris Hipkins discusses his formal parliamentary title: Leader of the Opposition, and the very different job of leading in opposition.
Question Time is the political equivalent of managers being grilled in front of the board, even when the Prime Minister is being quizzed by the opposition. Imagining it as literally that gives a different slant to teasing out the answers, the deflections and obfuscations.
Parliament adjourned early today in respect for Kiingi Tuheitia, the late leader of the Māori Kingitanga. Before they adjourned there were speeches.
This week New Zealand’s Parliament hosted the Commonwealth Youth Parliament, bringing youth leaders together from Fiji to the Falklands.
MPs have been debating whether to lower the voting age for local council elections to 16 years of age from the current age of 18.
The last sitting week of the 53rd Parliament has a fairly packed schedule of government business, plus debate on the Standing Orders Committee's regular report, and the Adjournment Debate.
If there’s one group who we don’t hear enough about, it’s the photographers who cover Parliament. A new exhibition is casting light on five of these practitioners. We talk to two of them.
Among a long week of debates at Parliament, MPs still found the time for farewell speeches from departing colleagues. Todd Muller's stood out and while uncomfortable for his colleagues, it is worth noting.
As more valedictory speeches were heard in Parliament’s chamber, a warning was sounded from a departing MP about race baiting and dog whistling to extremism.
It is the second to last sitting week for Parliament but there is still a mountain of bills to get finalised before the MPs wearily trudge home.
The Labour MP for Māngere, Aupito William Sio is leaving Parliament after a sixteen year-stint which encompassed nine years in Opposition bookended by spells in Government.
Parliament has just days left before it ends for the election. The closer dissolution gets, the harder the MPs are pushing to fit everything in - almost like they're cramming four years of legislating into three years.
Valedictory speech season has begun, and if there’s a common theme cropping up already, it’s a plea for a less toxic style of politics in Parliament.
This week is the first of the last three weeks in the 53rd Parliament, a busy time as the Government still has a lot that it wants to finish before the House rises.
The majority of all female elected representatives across the Pacific Islands region visited Wellington for a development event, showcasing the merits of soft diplomacy, Parliament-style.
This week MPs had a special debate about the report of the Regulations Review Committee on Covid-19 Secondary Legislation.
A new Member's Bill looks to fix a 40-year-old outcome of the anti-Pacific racism of the Dawn raids era, restoring the right to New Zealand citizenship for a generation of Samoan people.
The Intelligence and Security Committee has received a briefing on long-term national security threats which has incorporated a public survey and public consultation which found New Zealanders perceive threats to national security are increasing.
We're reminded of the important role of the Regulations Review Committee as Parliament this week holds a special debate about the committee's report on Covid-19 regulations.
Todd Muller is leaving Parliament. Known for a brief stint as Opposition leader, he also won plaudits for his bipartisanship and advocating for awareness about mental health.
Visitors entering the main entrance to Parliament can finally notice some visual signs of Māori culture and physical recognition of mana whenua.
As MPs count down to the election Parliament’s mood changes. The Opposition’s House leader Michael Woodhouse predicts “more anger, frivolity, perhaps less discipline”. “Perhaps” seems generous.
A cross-party inter-parliamentary delegation to Samoa is an important way of building relationships and understanding with another regional country but also among the group's MPs themselves.
During a briefer than usual urgent sitting in Parliament this week, multiple bills were progressed through multiple stages each in what would normally take a couple of sitting weeks of debate.
When MPs screw up the consequences can be public and brutal. But sometimes that response has solid reasons which safeguard our system of responsible government.
Parliament has just six weeks left before it breaks for the election. There is still a lot yet to do, and to slow that down, one or two matters of privilege.
As an MP Sir Geoffrey Palmer had a huge impact on the interlocking shapes of government and parliament. The great reformer is still brimming with ideas for improvement.
Something of a throwback to when most National MPs staunchly represented farming interests, Ian McKelvie is however ending his career as an MP not defined by the tribal lines of party politics.
This week, RNZ’s Parliament show, The House, focused on the processes and outcomes of Parliament’s Select Committees. The Sunday show is a collation of this content.
The Therapeutic Products Bill is one of those pieces of legislation that requires a fair bit of panel-beating in a select committee, and even then not everyone's happy with its shape.
When things threaten to go awry it can help us learn how they work. So, how do Select Committees decide to amend bills, who helps them; and how do they track amendments and communicate with the legal drafters?
An Imprest Supply Bill is Parliament’s way of saying to the government 'yes you can have that money, but also if you find you need to use more money on it, you don't need to come back and ask again'.
Parliament has hit the time of year it turns into a combination of Glastonbury and the Inquisition - the multi-pronged miniterial grilling called Estimates Hearings.
The ACT Party has this month latched on to a Question Time tactic of using consecutive supplementary questions on a repetitive theme as a pile-on against the government.
Legislation tackling a power imbalance in the grocery industry is among several bills that wound their way through the committee stage in Parliament this week.
Among Parliament's key bills this week is one to update emergency management relationships and one to protect your bank deposits because mattresses have better uses. Grant Robertson picks his bills to watch.
Jan Logie admits she had “zero faith in our political system” before entering Parliament, but remains hopeful of what can be achieved here, as she prepares to retire as MP.
As she prepares to retire after 18 years in Parliament, National's Jacqui Dean has a refreshing knack for straight talk, and doesn’t mince her words about the work of an MP.
In the first in a series of exit interviews with retiring MPs, The House sits down with Green MP Jan Logie and National’s Jacqui Dean to reflect on their time at Parliament.
For any of Parliament’s speakers, the daily Question Time is a tricky horse to manage, let alone tame. Every Speaker brings a different approach, the current Speaker is trying riding with no reins at all.
MPs have been making laws to enable access to alcohol at race meetings on race days and during those early hours at pubs when rugby's World Cup is broadcast from France.
As the election nears, Question Time transforms into a forum for party political messaging. It’s not the ideal format for messaging and it doesn’t always go well.
Five MPs travelled to Westport as part of a Parliamentary Outreach Programme aimed at connecting New Zealanders throughout the country with Parliament and its processes.
Parliament Journalist Phil Smith has a crack at making a submission to MPs. Here is why you should bother, how you do it, how you really shouldn't, and how his went.
In a week when Parliament sat under urgency, across four long Tuesdays, quite a lot of legislative business has been progressed.
There’s been a distinct niggly energy about the exchanges in the House this week, and it’s got something to do with the fact Parliament is sitting under urgency.
The holidays may be coming, but Parliament is winding up for looks likely to be its biggest week of the year.
Parliament is this week to sit under urgency as the Government seeks additional sitting hours to clear a backlog of legislation that it wants to progress.
“An incredibly diverse and eclectic collection”, the Parliamentary Collection has great art, black rods, protest bricks, bodily parts and much more.
Parliament makes a rare step and amends a reserved provision of electoral law — something designed to be hard to achieve.
A former Prime Minister has warned MPs they face a daunting challenge to maintain public confidence in the Parliament system in the age of disinformation.
Every three years senior MPs meet to reimagine Parliament, considering which rule changes might strengthen representative democracy and executive oversight.
This week four backbencher bills got a shot at glory. Two were gloriously popular, one successful but contentious, and one pipped at the legislative post.
MPs who are former members of the NZDF had plenty to say when the first reading of the Inspector-General Defence Bill got underway.
This week’s agenda in Parliament illustrates some of the variety of motivations that lie behind prospective laws.
Whether cross-party or inter-parliament collectives, MP groups are all about human connections which help MPs, and importantly us, find out what makes them tick.
The House sits down with retiring MP Trevor Mallard for an insider's view of the tactics and strategy of Parliament, of what has changed, and what still should.
Parliament began today with a motion to condemn Iran for repression of protests. That was a motion without notice that everyone knew would happen. We attempt to explain motions. Wish us luck.
Soraya Peke-Mason's arrival as MP means an historic achievement of gender equity in New Zealand’s Parliament, while heralding another chapter in the political history of Rātana.
After consuming much of Parliament's energy last week, the Fair Pay Agreements Bill looks set to do so again this week as its committee stage continues.
Trevor Mallard has ended his career as an MP this week after 38 years. Much has changed. We sat down to chat through his storied history and get his insights.
In October 2022, before Trevor Mallard resigned he spoke at length to The House. This is the fuller interview. Two shorter packages of cuts repeat this material.
Parliament takes security seriously, but not just the physical kind. Sometimes the biggest risks arrive through the smallest holes.
As this week of Parliament was getting underway, just after the prayers, the House heard a rare message from the Governor-General.
Following a two-week recess, MPs are set to engage in feisty debate about proposed labour laws that could raise wages through sector-wide collective bargaining.
Parliament's new Speaker originally chose to be a whip but fate intervened. Meet the man who marshals the MPs: an interview-walk through the fascinating life and career of Adrian Rurawhe.
What do Nicole McKee, Joseph Mooney, Teanau Tuiono and Sarah Pallett have in common? They’re first term MPs who have shared their experiences with us.
When Parliament gets a new speaker MPs re-test the rules and the limits. Will this one let you away with things the previous one would not? Can you cripple their confidence and make them easier to manage?
Trust in media, or lack thereof, was front and centre as the Minister of Broadcasting had a week of being grilled in parliament's Question Time about the Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media Bill.
Parliament looks like a big old gray box for keeping MPs in, but there are many more folk including many visitors and tourists. Say, a group of students from Taranaki.
A double shot of crime legislation features in a Parliament week laden with Government bills that are scheduled to get a first reading.
This week Parliament debated a members' bill from Rachel Boyack that aims to combat official gobbledegook. Some MPs fought it tooth and nail as tantamount to balderdash, gadzooks!
MPs have been reflecting on the Queen's death again, with the passage of a bill under urgency to create a one-off public holiday for her. But not all the reflections were misty-eyed.
After a couple of short weeks at Parliament MPs are getting back into the rhythm with some work to catch up on, like a tardy approval of the budget.
The revitalisation of te reo Māori was abundantly evident as a big crowd converged on Parliament to mark 50 years since the Māori Language Petition.
Parliament sat for less than two hours this week, sending condolences to King Charles and giving itself an extension on its budget homework.
Parliament TV offers the public the chance to catch all sittings of Parliament and more besides.
Press Gallery journalists are in their element after the regular bridge run returned from the Grand Hall to the 1st floor foyer of Parliament House, the place known as 'the tiles'.
Debate during the first reading of the Self-contained Motor Vehicles Legislation Bill offered insights into the lives of at least two MPs and the marketing mindset of another pair.
The government’s busy legislative agenda continues, and the remaining portfolios to be scrutinised in the Estimates debate are expected to wrap up this week.
It’s six months since the occupation of Parliament's grounds for three weeks, but the human cost is only now becoming clear.
Previous experience as a Minister of Conservation and Land Information was instructive in the shaping of Eugenie Sage's Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill.
A new Speaker of Parliament was elected with widespread support today, with his authority tested early by an awkward speech from a rebel MP.
This week Parliament activity is dominated by the expected transition to a new Speaker, with the incumbent Trevor Mallard about to resign.
Parliament is considering changing its rules and asking for advice. It is your chance to offer suggestions on an aspect of New Zealand's constitution.
When politicians have staffing issues there is an odd triangular relationship to juggle. MPs' staff are employed by someone else. Someone who can't control the MPs.
A couple of MPs this week unexpectedly got to run the show from the big chair, because Parliament’s debating chamber can’t function without a chairperson presiding.
Two bills related to crime and high risk offenders have passed a third reading, doubling the opportunity for Opposition MPs to label the Government ”soft on crime”.
It’s not often a group of workers think ‘we need more bosses’. That’s what MPs did this week - kind of. Parliament may now have more presiding officers than it’s ever had.
The House hears from two Hansard editors about the unique work of the team whose reports become part of Parliament's official record and can be seen by anyone.
This week Parliament's debating chamber was knee-deep in bills. We have a quick run-through of the 14 different wanna-be laws it debated.
In his maiden speech the newly sworn-in MP for Tauranga warns of a malaise in the country, and urges the nation to 'get busy winning'.
For the next while Parliament is sitting an extra morning each week. It has hit the twixt-reviews sweet-spot and has also has a lot of new ideas to debate.
Parliament at night is a different vibe to Parliament during the day. Staff numbers on precinct have mostly thinned out, but it's a time when the weird and wonderful can happen.
We meet a new MP, Dan Rosewarne who gave hs maiden speech this week: a chance to say 'who I am, how I got to be here and what I hope to achieve'.
Last week Parliament was taken over by the new leaders Youth Parliament - an opportunity for rangatahi to speak and the rest of us to pay attention.
MPs in Parliament shout at each other a lot, but they also cooperate a lot, including about the timetable for that shouting. It's all more efficient that way.
There are various parts of Parliament that could be deemed crucial to the functioning of the place, but perhaps none quite so much as the House Office.
MPs talk about money a lot. The rest of us often blank out the financials as 'just math'. Annoyingly the money is important so The House tries to explain all that dry 'Appropriations' money talk.
For the students of parliament, public law or politics, the best place to be right in the heart of the legislative chamber, but kind of invisible. In other words, part of the Chamber Operations team.
Parliament began the week at top pace moving five bills through ten stages in an evening, though there's a little bit of double counting going on.
One of Parliament's best exponents of the skills of gladiatorial quizzes offers advice on "surviving Question Time".