Winston Peters puts an to the speculation that has been swirling around Parliament all week and confirms new deputy.

New Zealand First members have refused to comment on whether deputy leader Tracey Martin faced a challenge for her position.

It is too early in Andrew Little's career as a party leader to be ruling out realistic answers to problems he would face if he leads Labour to power.

Prime Minister John Key says axing the $1000 kickstart grant to new KiwiSaver members in the Budget "will not make a blind bit of difference to the number of people who join".

NZ First MP Ron Mark has labelled the Iraqi Army "cowards" and questioned why New Zealand forces were being put at risk trying to train an army that did not want to fight.

Keeping silent about axing the $1000 kickstart payment for new KiwiSaver members, isn't a broken promise, strictly speaking, writes Audrey Young.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully has taken Shane Jones, David Shearer and Winston Peters with him for his trip to the Cook Islands, where he is holding talks.

Stubbornness - born from a childhood that included numerous stints in foster homes - will be a trait that the country's newest MP brings to Parliament.

Rodney Hide writes: Little is polling below Labour's previous leaders, Cunliffe and Shearer. Peters is breathing down his neck. Key remains on 51% as preferred PM.

New Zealand First has confirmed its new MP will be parliamentary staffer and former hairdressing salon-owner Ria Bond.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is scheduled to hold a press conference in Invercargill this afternoon to confirm a new MP.

The National Party's support has remained steady despite its defeat in the Northland by-election, a new poll shows.

Treaty Minister Chris Finlayson says the impasse over Ngapuhi's settlement is largely personality-driven andNZ First leader Winston Peters could help resolving it.

New Zealand First is supporting a campaign for the referendum on changing the flag to first ask whether people want it changed at all.

Winston Peters sounds genuinely interested in a request from subtribes of Ngapuhi to intercede in the dispute that is standing in the way of a Treaty settlement the Northland region needs.

NZ First leader Winston Peters turns 70 today but he wants nothing to do with it, thank you very much.

Is everything I have ever done and will ever do in my life ultimately less significant than Winston Peters winning a by-election in Northland?

Winston Peters' triumph in the Northland byelection signals the most serious challenge he has mounted to National in two decades, writes John Armstrong.

At the moment, the only thing standing between New Zealand and its total loss of sovereignty is Winston Peters, writes Dita De Boni.

Tactical campaigning in the Northland byelection could get one candidate in trouble after he urged voters to vote for Winston Peters instead of himself.

Winston Peters’ first contribution to parliamentary proceedings in his new guise as MP-elect for Northland must rank among his more bizarre interventions.

Winston Peters cut a swathe through the wealthier parts of the Northland electorate in Saturday's byelection, securing the most votes in the National bastion of Kerikeri and matching the number cast....

NZ First leader Winston Peters says Prime Minister John Key is "acting like a spoilt brat" by saying he doubted Mr Peters would work constructively with National.

Prime Minister John Key says losing Northland in yesterday's byelection was disappointing but he was "pretty philosophical" about it.

Winston Peters' victory is an astonishing achievement. He cleaned out National. He cleaned out Labour, writes Rodney Hide.

It surely does not get much better than this for Winston Peters, writes John Armstrong.

NZ First leader Winston Peters has delivered National a humiliating bloodied nose in the Northland byelection, with a majority of 4,012 votes after the counting.

Provincial New Zealand wants to shake down the Government for some of the largesse offered to Northland with its byelection promise of new bridges galore.

What a madcap couple of months. The Northland byelection campaign has had all the infantile pranking, ill-discipline and personal baggage of an Auckland airport carousel at Maadi Cup time. Here, from....