Phil Smith

Parliament's year begins with a very long debate. The House reviews the event and samples a few of the best speakers.

The government continues legislating apace, with frequent extra sittings. Among the priorities this week was a bill to "rebalance" employee-employer rights. The debate was lopsided.

Parliament's Question Time is often frustrating but elections politicise it further, as recent exchanges on unemployment and gas imports demonstrate.

The House: Parliament's first week is the 2026 election campaign writ small, from departing MPs, to the week's 13-hour long debate over whether the government should continue.

Analysis: We look back at this year's Parliament in data, including just how much coffee fuels our democracy?

Parliament's week began with condolences for the Bondi attack, but their divergences and message choices said a lot.

Parliament has been pushing hard, rushing through bills and working under urgency all week, but one bill bypassed the rules, adding things not usually allowed.

The last full week has been packed work as the government tries to complete its agenda, adding 10 new bills to the pile.

Parliament's biannual Scrutiny Weeks involve a sudden glut of oversight, but what reaches the public is only a glimpse behind the curtain.

This week, parliament produced two signs of the election to come - crucial work on tweaking rules and a new calendar that may just hint at an election date.

Parliament's Question Time is correctly named. Actual answers can be thin on the ground.

Parliament is always a story of continuing business, but plot summaries were needed this week to reveal 'the story so far…'.

A good pub quiz team always needs a music and a sports nerd and a celebrity news addict, but for wide general knowledge an MP might be just the thing.

RNZ takes a tour of 'The Beehive Bunker' - the National Crisis Management Centre.

The government's 2025 budget was finally agreed this week. The last major hurdle involved a long walk through a political minefield of questions, and even some answers.

Parliament's week is traditionally shaped across three days. That shape is increasingly being squeezed and select committees are being forced into the margins.

Parliament's Westminster underpinnings sometimes jar against modern Kiwi sensibilities, especially with te ao Māori.

Analysis - Mendacity is the bane of good debate. In Parliament both lies and claims of lies used to be naughty, but the floodgates may have opened on the latter.

Members' bills can come from any backbench MP. Usually successful government bills far outnumber opposition bills - but not this Parliament.

Analysis: Last week, the Speaker made new rules and interpretations on the fly in punishing an MP who challenged the government to show some spine.

National avoided taking a stand on Palestine in Parliament's urgent debate. What can we learn from the PM's answers on Palestine and Gaza during Question Time?

One of Parliament's quiet, powerful committees is opposition-led and cross-partisan, but a new law from ACT may undermine that.

The big laws debated by Parliament get a lot of attention, but others are so small as to be barely noticed.

Parliament's Speaker is considering a major rewrite of the rules for Question Time to prevent "an unequal competition".

Parliament this week is all-House, with extra debates and an interesting array of topics. However, slow progress has stymied some government plans.