Johnny Blades

A new Parliament, a new Prime Minister, a new Speaker. There was a lot going on at Parliament in the first week of its 54th incarnation.

Parliament business got underway after the State Opening of the 54th Parliament, a ceremony of pomp and pageantry culminating in the Speech from the Throne.

The new Speaker Gerry Brownlee has offered a heads-up about how he'll run Parliament, with Standing Orders to be a mere guide rather than a strict line to follow.

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.

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.

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.

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.