An increase in excise tax is among likely recommendations of a report into alcohol to be released next week, the Bill English says.

The PM says the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous people that NZ signed up to overnight will have no practical effect, but Rodney Hide disagrees.

National has agreed to support the contentious UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The Maori Party's flagship policy is a step closer - but major details still have to be sorted out.

Fran O'Sullivan writes that the Maori Party is doing itself a disservice by acquiescing to National's foreshore 'solution'.

There will be no open cast mining on Great Barrier Island or Coromandel, John Key assured Parliament today, while under attack over the Govt's mining plan.

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples says working with the Nats in govt is proving to be "very difficult and stressful", writes John Armstrong.