The latest political attempts to besmirch Prime Minister John Key's reputation seem rather lame, writes Bryce Edwards.

How can a second-term government - often distracted by its own blunders - continue to poll around the record levels it was elected on, asks Bryce Edwards.

The reaction to the appointment of Susan Devoy as the new Race Relations Commissioner demonstrates NZ's sensitivity on Maori issues, writes Bryce Edwards.

Act Leader John Banks yesterday jumped at the chance of payback against David Shearer, demanding the Labour leader stand down over his "secret" United States bank account.

Being a political figure involves being subjected to various degrees of public scrutiny, and nobody knows this better than Shane Jones right now, writes Bryce Edwards.

The State Owned Enterprises are clearly still the battlefield at the moment for parliamentary politics. writes Bryce Edwards.

Today marks a qualitative shift in the highly contentious asset sales programme with the launch of the Mighty River Power shares offer, writes Bryce Edwards.

Much ink is being spilt and airtime apparently wasted on the annual conference of a political party that is currently polling at 0.1%, writes Bryce Armstrong.

The theme of Act's weekend conference was "rejuvenation", writes John Armstrong. There was precious little evidence of that to be seen where it really mattered.

Epsom voters are likely to be targeted by a combined scare campaign and charm offensive from Act as the party ratchets up its efforts to hold the seat.

Multi-millionaire Alan Gibbs says New Zealanders are "buggering up" their country by having unrealistic expectations of what governments can achieve, especially when it comes to spending money on so-called welfare entitlements.

Act is promising to reverse the "anti-development" and "anti-subdivision" elements of the Resource Management Act as it becomes the latest party to tackle housing affordability.

The Act Party is holding a "rejuvenation" conference today at the Kaukapakapa sculpture farm of wealthy benefactor and founding father Alan Gibbs.

Bryan Gould says the sale of favours by politicians should be anathema to any system of fair and open democracy. "I am surprised that so few seem to have grasped the unacceptable nature of this proposed arrangement."

John Banks may not get the sack as a minister but even the Prime Minister isn't going to go out of his way to defend him any more than he has to, writes Bryce Edwards.

The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision on whether Kim Dotcom will receive disclosure from the United States government in their case against him.

Alexander Gillespie says we need to know that our politicians and public officials are trustworthy. Corruption 'hurts everyone who depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority."

In our second debate on the Electoral Commission's recommendations for MMP, Graeme Edgeler and Muriel Newman put the arguments for and against reducing the threshold. Join the debate and leave your comments at the end.