The House

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.

Gerry Brownlee was a teacher when ‘the cane’ ruled the classroom. As Parliament’s Speaker, he is reluctant to reach beyond threats and pleas.

After a select committee process that presented MPs with lots of constitutional questions, the Parliament Bill is back in the House.

The House chats with two MPs from the Parliament Bill Committee about some interesting suggestions from submitters - namely a Parliamentary Budget Office.

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.

MPs were welcomed back to this three week sitting block by more urgency, and a boisterous question time.

Parliament’s recent inquiry and debate on climate change adaptation asked small questions, looked short term and inched towards reactive solutions.

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.

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.