In politics, there are bad days. And then there are really bad days. Cunliffe was having one of the latter. It must have been sheer torture, writes John Armstrong.

Labour has revealed that it embarrassingly sent internal policy documents and speech notes for leader David Cunliffe to a National Party Cabinet Minister.

Labour has extended the deadline for selection of the candidate for Tamaki Makaurau electorate to allow for a TVNZ inquiry into Labour Party activism.

Labour leader David Cunliffe has come clean about the trust set up to handle his donations during last year's leadership contest - naming three donors.

David Cunliffe has admitted a trust was used to take donations for his leadership campaign, allowing him to sidestep the obligation to disclose donations.

Labour says it will ensure the Rena owners remove the wrecked container ship if elected to Government.

Labour leader David Cunliffe has confirmed he used a trust to deal with donations to his leadership campaign in last year's run-off for Labour's top job.

The economy is not suddenly perfect just because the economic cycle has turned for the better, writes Liam Dann. There is still serious work to be done,

Labour leader David Cunliffe used an "agent arrangement" to take donations to his leadership campaign last November.

Matt McCarten, Labour's new chief of staff, will have to find a way to make Cunliffe palatable to the centre without alienating those on the left, writes John Armstrong.

David Cunliffe's move to appoint long-time union organiser Matt McCarten as his key political operative is a smart move, writes Fran O'Sullivan.

Former TV star Tamati Coffey wants to be Rotorua's next MP, and has been nominated for selection as a candidate for the Labour Party.

Editorial: David Cunliffe's attempt to upend the chessboard by appointing Matt McCarten as his chief of staff and key strategist is neither exasperation nor desperation.

Mike Williams, quipped that Cunliffe's choice was either a stroke of brilliance or of lunacy, writes Brian Rudman. Certainly keeping the reins on McCarten is going to be a task for Cunliffe.

Matt McCarten's appointment as Labour leader David Cunliffe's chief of staff has reawakened a longstanding rift.

McCarten's campaign skills should help draw voters back to Labour in its metropolitan strongholds, writes John Armstrong.

The Commerce Commission has announced it will investigate claims that Countdown and its parent company, Woolworths, are engaging in extortionate behaviour.

Labour leader David Cunliffe and MPs Shane Jones and Grant Robertson could be forced to publicly declare who gave them donations of more than $500 during last year's leadership contest despite the party's attempts to keep them confidential.

The Labour Party is guaranteed one thing in the countdown to this year's general election: there is no danger of David Cunliffe peaking too soon.

It is a truism of politics that a "partisan" is always a member of the opposite party.

Labour's decision to back the fast-tracking of Auckland's $2.86 billion city rail link at this year's general election is the good news.

New Zealanders are switching to cheaper power companies in droves with help from Government-sponsored campaign.

Shane Taurima probably felt he was trying to make New Zealand a better place, even if he went about it the wrong way, as everyone seems to agree, writes Geoff Kemp.

Labour MP Shane Jones has gone into bat for Shane Taurima, saying his chances with Labour should not be written off because of one mistake.

A Labour party candidate in Auckland's first Super City elections will serve five months' community detention for his involvement in New Zealand's first electoral fraud.

TVNZ chief executive Kevin Kenrick says the state broadcaster gave Shane Taurima a journalism-or-politics ultimatum when he was reinstated at TVNZ.

David Cunliffe has probably done enough to avoid Labour suffering too much collateral damage from the Shane Taurima affair, writes John Armstrong.