Johnny Blades

The community is welcomed back into Parliament's grounds, the next step in the transition back from stinky rubbish tip to a place for picnics, petitions, play and protest.

A motion in Parliament to mark the third anniversary of the Christchurch mosque terror attacks found MPs reflecting on how there is still work to do to counter extremism and hate speech.

The notion that MPs are people of honour who must be taken at their word was briefly tested in a skirmish which resulted in the first ejection of an MP from the chamber this year.

This week, not only did MPs have to contend with a riot on their front lawn, they also had to come to grips with a new hybrid parliament in which some members participated by Zoom.

Parliament has passed a law to establish a roadside oral fluid testing regime to test for recent drug use, and proposes that drivers who fail two consecutive oral fluid tests would incur an…

This week in the House began with a motion in support of Ukraine and it will end with a special debate on a bill not even yet introduced. Chris Hipkins explains some of the parliamentary week's…

Paige Harris never met her mother. She wasn’t even on her birth certificate. Parliament is passing a law to fix that injustice - just for Paige.

In the latest from The House, MPs strike a balance in shaping legislation to enable Abortion Safe Areas.

A week of the House included a near miss by Chris Luxon, a lot of debate over a confidence motion and near completion for a bill to ban attempts to 'convert' gender and sexual orientations.

A Government bill to ban those deemed dangerous from coming anywhere near guns has had a successful first reading in Parliament.

Parliament's new year has begun in the traditional fashion with a very wide debate that is a multi-party pep rally. And it's no short booster. This one takes 13 hours.

Armed conflict in West Papua continues to claim lives, displace tens of thousands of people and cause resentment at Indonesian rule.

A Polish man imprisoned by an Indonesian court in 2018 after visiting West Papua as a tourist remains languishing in a cell in Papua's remote interior.

The United Nations has glaring problems in Samoa where the government is calling for the UN's role in the country to be reviewed.

PNG's government is under pressure to clarify its message about Covid vaccination, and MPs who spread baseless claims about vaccines have been asked to shut up.

Despite a mixed response to COP26, Papua New Guinea's delegation is encouraged by new commitments made on protecting rainforests.

Social tensions are rising in Papua New Guinea over Covid-19 vaccination, as people working to help curb the spread of the virus face mob attacks. PNG's biggest urban centres and...

Samoa has been urged by the international community to counter domestic and gender-based violence. Audio

West Papuans have taken flight from armed conflict into one of the most remote parts of neighbouring Papua New Guinea.

The president of the Federated States of Micronesia offers some level-headed takes on the fraught issues confronting the Pacific Islands region.

The Covid-19 crisis in Papua New Guinea is deepening, as the country's main hospitals are increasingly swamped by cases.

Ni-Vanuatu workers coming to New Zealand for seasonal employment are enjoying the benefits of a one-way travel bubble, but their mission abroad comes with steep challenges.

Church leaders warn that having soldiers in classrooms in West Papua is proving traumatic for children.

The thorny issue of deep sea mining reared its head again at the UN General Assembly.

Australia's new security pact with the US and the UK has touched a nerve at the core of Pacific regionalism.