A first-term National Party MP is seeking cross-party support for a law change for harsher penalties in cases of extreme cruelty to animals.

Acting Prime Minister Bill English says the changes make calculating holiday pay rates more transparent.

Unions and the Labour Party have reacted angrily to a Government decision to allow workers to cash in their fourth week of holidays.

A 6-year-old girl was crushed to death before her father's eyes yesterday after her quadbike rolled.

ACC board chairman John Judge today rejected an allegation he had acted politically over levy proposals.

The Govt's ACC levy increases are less than were recommended by the ACC board but still about $200 a year for an average income worker with a car.

Therapists and counsellors say tight new rules for claiming ACC subsidies for sexual abuse counselling have become "a rapists' charter"

The Labour caucus backs "the tone and content" of a speech in which Phil Goff accused the Govt of reopening old racial wounds.

Labour leader Phil Goff has rubbished claims that his nationhood speech didn't sit well with party president Andrew Little.

Labour's president, Andrew Little, reveals "personal concerns" over Phil Goff's nationhood speech with other Party members also unhappy.

Around 90 per cent of the increases in next year's ACC levies arise from a more conservative approach to ensuring the scheme is adequately funded.

Parliament's repeal of the use of provocation as a partial defence for murder does not have widespread support from the legal community.

The defence of provocation, which can be used to reduce murder to manslaughter, has been abolished.