OPINION: What's on special? The election is looking like an impulse buy.

COMMENT: Once again we are being asked to vote without knowing what we are voting for.

COMMENT: The true scandal is our welfare system shelling out money to fit and able.

COMMENT: What's Labour's tax policy? Don't know? Don't feel bad. Neither does Labour.

COMMENT: Hipkins proves a convenient scapegoat.

Farmers are right to be worried about Labour's plan to tax water

OPINION: Labour could still win government this election. Politics is a wonderful thing.

COMMENT: Salaries should be kept secret.

COMMENT: Metiria Turei's confession - smart politics or dumb move?

COMMENT: Time for Little to rise above the negativity.

COMMENT: State agents rummaging through your recycling bin? What next?

COMMENT: Memo to employers: watch out for a particular ex-employee from Southern Spars.

COMMENT: Today's "well prepared" is yesterday's "cheating".

COMMENT: It's not leadership to be blaming others for your folly.

OPINION: Army visits to schools is the right introduction for our children.

COMMENT: Dairy owners are left to fend for themselves without even the promise of help.

COMMENT: By quitting the race, Rohan Lord proved he is not right for politics.

COMMENT: Our global ranking on children's rights a wake-up call.

COMMENT: Council rules are a roadblock to Auckland's development.

COMMENT: Willie Jackson 'omnishambles' reflects poorly on the party's ability to govern.

COMMENT: Easter Egg hunts are for children, not Government office workers.

COMMENT: Education Minister Hekia Parata is patting her own back.

COMMENT: It's a great time to be alive, writes Rodney Hide.

Chief of Defence's response to Hager/Stephenson's book is professional, says Rodney Hide.

COMMENT: Rookie MP Todd Barclay is creating controversy in Clutha-Southland.

COMMENT: Red tape is costing us homes and opportunities and a cause worth campaigning on, says Rodney Hide.

COMMENT: Diversity has become the new thing among the Wellington and Auckland power elite, says Rodney Hide.

OPINION: The big mistake in politics is to underestimate opponents. Clearly, I underestimated Little and Ardern, writes Rodney Hide.

COMMENT: Just who are the "My People" Hone Harawira talks of?

COMMENT: I had my doubts about Bill English. It's not that I didn't think him capable. He's extremely so.

COMMENT: Jackson was standing for Labour. And yes, Little had lured him with the promise of a high place on Labour's list, writes Rodney Hide.

COMMENT: The choice of job opportunities is too narrow and compulsory te reo for 10 years would cost our children a lot but add not much.

Trump hysteria has become a parody in which the screamiest and stupidest attacks become headlines.

COMMENT: Former Clerk of the House David McGee is recommending that resigning list MPs not be replaced by the next willing candidate on their party list.

COMMENT: There many excellent reasons for the Prime Minister to stay away from Waitangi but being banned from speaking isn't one of them.

COMMENT: Your ride will arrive with a tap of your phone. It will whisk you to your destination and disappear to the next fare.

COMMENT: Trendsetter Winston Peters ended 2016 offering to be the first man to re-enter Pike River.

COMMENT: It's very exciting with Gareth already taking the trouble to explain what "talking politics in the TOP way" means.

COMMENT: The most common question in politics is, "Why not me?" That's the question National MPs have spent the week asking.

Parliament had a good week passing the Hurunui/Kaikoura Earthquakes Emergency Relief Act.

COMMENT: Earthquakes make New Zealand great. We would not have a country without them.

COMMENT: I am still revelling in Donald Trump's victory.

COMMENT: One of the great joys of politics is being accountable to, well, everyone.

COMMENT: We must fervently hope there are no more by-elections because the real expense is they make politicians dig deeper into our pockets.

The Honourable Minister's behaviour was less than honourable.

COMMENT: If Labour wins the the byelection no one will notice. There will not be a ripple. If they lose, there will be a political tsunami.

COMMENT: Phil Goff has the potential to be an excellent mayor. He is capable and personable. I don't know anyone who doesn't like him.

COMMENT: Paul Thomas is from a remarkable family of eight boys and three girls. All eight boys served in the New Zealand army. Five saw active duty.

COMMENT: Making unlawful detention subsequently lawful only deepens the outrage.

COMMENT: Labour is the narrow party that has shut itself off from the great bulk of New Zealanders.

COMMENT: Unions used to bring the country to its knees, now it can't manage to organise a boycott of a meal delivery company.

COMMENT: If politics was the Olympics, Winston Peters would be three-times triple-gold. No one comes close.

COMMENT: People's Party was announced with a narrower focus than its name suggests. Its target is Asian and ethnic voters and its issue is fighting crime.

COMMENT: I suggest teenagers are doing their sexual exploration online by sending each other naughty pictures and watching porn.

COMMENT: Immigration NZ announced a trial in Queenstown to make it less likely that that they will lock up au pairs travelling with their families.

COMMENT: Dame Lowell Goddard has badly let the team down. Her failure has been splashed through the British papers. It's not a good look.

COMMENT: Our justice system can't admit mistakes and fights not for justice but to be right.

COMMENT: I have to admit to a bad week. It started Monday. It was cold and I thought: "Huh, where's global warming?"

COMMENT: We have the power to change our own lives and far better to live a life of hope and ambition than one of hopelessness and despair.

COMMENT: The Auckland housing market is planned chaos. We have Government intervention upon intervention.

It's tricky for politicians. They want to be seen to be doing something but don't want to do too much.

COMMENT: The downgrade to manslaughter is a disgrace to justice, and a further abuse of a poor little boy.

COMMENT: There's much that Government could do that would be useful. Taxing us more is not one of them.

COMMENT: I would not want to be shot crouching in a toilet cubicle begging for my life. I would rather fight back even if my situation was hopeless.

COMMENT: Max Key has broken all the rules on being a politician's son: Don't embarrass Dad. Keep out of the media. Stay out of trouble.

COMMENT: I am pleased for Labour and the Greens. Truly I am. They have tied the knot. They have announced they're together.

COMMENT: The torturing and killing of poor little Moko has saddened and angered New Zealanders to a degree that I lack the words to explain.

COMMENT: It's hard for Little to win some media coverage - especially when up against a popular PM who has stolen your policies and wears your clothes.

COMMENT: The Panama Papers big reveal proved better in prospect than reality.

COMMENT: Imagine how much investment there would be if their returns were taxed entirely away. Who would be the losers? The multinationals? Or Kiwis?

COMMENT: The land tax on foreigners is the perfect policy for John Key: it won't work, won't upset voters, shows he's "doing something".

COMMENT: Politics can be nasty. It's often incompetent. Somehow Little has managed to plumb new depths.

COMMENT: John Key should be judged on his performance as Prime Minister, not on his tax return.

COMMENT: Every time I think of Labour Leader Andrew Little - which I must confess is getting less and less - I can't help but feel sorry for him.

COMMENT: Give us back the self-respect and dignity that comes from standing up for ourselves and our rights.

COMMENT: I think the earthquakes have been that hardship and challenge. They have brought out the best in people and reminded us all what's important.

COMMENT: New Zealanders shouldn't struggle to understand the phenomenon that is Donald Trump - our own outsiders have spanked the establishment, writes Rodney Hide.

COMMENT: There's a reason John Key remains PM, having outpolled five successive Labour Party leaders: he is smart. And not just smart: very smart.