Who came out on top in tonight's minor party leaders' debate? The Herald's top political correspondents make their picks.

Winston Peters would not state a preference for the next Prime Minister during tonight's minor leader's debate - and Colin Craig sought to use it against him.

Minor parties will almost certainly make up part of the next Government and the leaders are facing off over dinner tonight. Click here for the latest updates.

Under the Greens new labour policy, youth wages and the 90-day trial period would be scrapped and the minimum wage would rise to $18 an hour by 2017.

Winston Peters' talk of sitting on Parliament's cross benches after the election - rather than entering a coalition or propping up a minority government - has never sounded totally convincing.

Power bills have been rising relentlessly. The two sides of politics are divided on house best to rein that in - competition or regulation.

Despite the building tension surrounding the election, the first major debate between party representatives on technology and innovation remained relatively civil.

After being left out of the televised leaders debate, the Greens co-leaders staged a counter-debate at an Auckland bar.

The battle for the Te Tai Hauauru electorate is almost neck and neck between the Labour and Maori Party candidates according to a new poll on Maori Television.

Labour and the Greens both want an immediate start to Auckland's underground railway, but are divided over whether to complete the $2 billion-plus Waikato Expressway.

National has just announced $100 million over four years for new urban cycleways, as Labour and the Greens promise to eclipse that investment.

Greens co-leader Russel Norman was literally up in arms about public transport yesterday - but he still missed the bus.

Stephen Moyer, 44, is a British Hollywood star who plays a vampire on TV. I looked up his Wikipedia entry.

New Zealanders are strongly in favour of a proposal to give tertiary students free trips on public transport, a Herald-DigiPoll survey shows.

John Key has taken a shot at Russel Norman, saying he must have been smoking dope to believe the Greens could pay off debt faster than National.

In health, the election has become a bidding war focused on the new centre ground of free doctor visits.

The Green Party is offering a simple answer to child poverty: give beneficiary parents the same wage subsidies paid to low and middle income earners with children. That, the party calculates, would give beneficiaries an extra $60 a week.

The Greens say their policy of raising the top tax rate to generate close to $1b to tackle child poverty was not about penalising the rich but sharing the benefits.

Most ACC clients who complain about their treatment by the accident insurer believe their grievances have been handled poorly by the corporation, a new Auditor General's report has found.

The Green Party would push for almost half a billion spending over five years on public transport in Christchurch.

'Do you want to leave now?' asked the host of last night's Helensville debate of Prime Minister John Key - who came closest to being kicked out.

Oil industry executives were treated to $7200 on wine tasting alone during a taxpayer-funded junket to New Zealand, the Green Party says.

Greens want to spend more than $10 billion on public transport and rail projects over the next decade, allowing buses and trains to run every few minutes at rush hour.

Labour and the Green Party have conceded that a capital gains tax would not be a "panacea" for New Zealand's unaffordable housing crisis.

National's $212 million plan to fast-track regional road projects using asset sales cash is not backed by a strong economic case, OIA documents reveal.

MPs have headed off on the campaign trail with one last blast at their rivals.

Ms Turei tells the story over cups of hot chocolate - fortified with Bailey's against a chilly evening.