KEY POINTS:
Full visual coverage of Parliament begins today, offering the country uninterrupted hours of MPs debating issues such as the Budget, criminal justice reform and one another's virtues.
The live coverage, which will cost $1.8 million a year, is being introduced to give the public more access to proceedings.
At a set-up cost of $4 million, eight remote-controlled cameras will record the activities of Parliament's debating chamber from 2pm until the House adjourns at 10pm.
The extended coverage will initially only stream live from Parliament's website.
A spokeswoman for Speaker Margaret Wilson said it was hoped full proceedings would be on television next year, but who would screen it was being negotiated.
She said there was an appetite for extended coverage, especially on important or controversial legislation such as Sue Bradford's smacking law.
Question time will continue to be broadcast live through TVNZ and Radio NZ websites and on Sky News - the only televised live version of it.
It was possible the coverage would ultimately extend to select committees.
A TVNZ spokeswoman said the network would continue with its webcast of question time but had no immediate plans to screen further live Parliamentary coverage.
She said TVNZ would consider whether more use could be made of the extra coverage closer to the launch of the company's digital factual channel, due in March on the Freeview digital platform.
For today, the real action could be on the main television channels - TVNZ, TV3, Sky News and Maori Television - who have issued a joint statement saying they will ignore a ban on satire depicting MPs.
The ban was introduced in a change to the rules that broadened the filming allowed, with the proviso that footage could not be used to ridicule or denigrate MPs, or for satire.
The ban will be further considered by the standing orders committee, which introduced the rule.
It was opposed by the Green Party, and National leader John Key has since changed his tune on the rule, saying it was unworkable and the standing orders committee should reconsider it.
Speaker Margaret Wilson has invited the press gallery and Commonwealth Press Union's media freedom committee to provide possible solutions and further discuss the rules.
House watch
TODAY
* 2pm: Question time. Watch MPs question ministers on their departments. Often accompanied by interesting interjections and heckling.
* 3pm (approx): An eight-hour debate begins on the measures in the Budget (the committee stage of the Appropriation (2007-08 Estimates Bill).
* 6pm until 7.30pm: Intermission. MPs eat dinner.
* 7.30-10pm: More Budget debate. Possible move on to debate on the Criminal Justice Reform Bill, which creates new sentences such as home and community detention to reduce the number of people in prison. It also provides for tougher parole laws, to keep the people in prison for longer.
* Order may be disrupted by a snap debate on a topical issue, if sought and granted by the Speaker. Watch full proceedings on www.parliament.nz.
* Watch question time only:
On tvnz.co.nz
On Sky News (channel 90)
Or listen on radionz.co.nz/parliament
