I'm not sure about the timing, but the day after Labour leadership coup rumours swept through Parliament, deputy leader Grant Robertson delivered a brilliant speech.

Most Western intelligence agencies had analytic teams that had developed whole disciplines around making sense of data, writes Audrey Young.

One can only hope that John Key doesn't run his Cabinet meetings the way he is running the Intelligence and Security Committee meeting, writes Audrey Young.

The Air Force kapa haka group and band spent several hours yesterday with a couple of schoolboy rugby teams in Washington DC.

It's usually the Terminator who says "I'll be back".

As a former Prime Minister and a man very firm in his views, Jim Bolger has always been a bit stroppy, writes Audrey Young.

The late Parekura Horomia was universally liked and respected across Parliament when he died, but he didn't always have the respect, writes Audrey Young.

When John Key met his second Chinese vice-premier in two days yesterday, he and Wang Yang shared a joke about the photo Key had seen of them hanging in Guangzhou's Foreign Affairs Museum.

Prime Minister John Key begins his Shanghai schedule today where chicken is likely to be off the menu.

Political editor Audrey Young blogs from China, where the PM has arrived for a week-long tour.

The new broom in the China leadership is ushering in a new era of trust in the relationship - after five years of a free trade agreement, writes Audrey Young.

It is a judgment that effectively says to the Crown, "You've won this time but we're watching", writes Audrey Young.

It didn't take long for David Carter to settle in to his job in his first question time as Speaker - it was almost business as usual, writes Audrey Young.

On the same day that NZ agreed to share Australia's boat people problem, Gillard agrees to look at collecting $600m in student debt from Kiwis in Australia, writes Audrey Young.

Parata may have been relieved when the State Services Commissioner told her this week that Longstone had agreed to resign, writes Audrey Young.

If the Electoral Integrity Act were still in force, Brendan Horan would also have been deemed to have resigned from Parliament, writes Audrey Young.

The United States was admitted to the East Asia Summit only last year, six years after the first summit.

The clear disrespect New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has for Parliament's Speaker, Lockwood Smith, is becoming more evident by the day, writes Audrey Young.

The Greens and the Prime Minister have been contradicting each other this week over whether the manufacturing sector is in crisis, writes Audrey Young.

The water rights issue heats up as Tuku Morgan replies to the PM's dismissal of Maori ownership, by calling him 'culturally ignorant'.

The unity on display at the Maori King's "people's hui" on water on Thursday wasn't exactly replicated yesterday at a gathering of iwi leaders.