'Where's it all coming from Sunshine?' asks National of Labour's new child policy that will give most parents of newborns $3000 a year.

Labour MP and novice DJ Jacinda Ardern has fielded offers for future gigs after her set at Auckland's Laneway music festival.

Labour's election-year offer of $60 a week for those with new babies will not be a vote winner with Eileen Reid.

John Armstrong asks: "If the policy is really designed to help struggling families, why include households which patently do not need hand-outs from the state to raise children?"

Labour leader David Cunliffe has set out a policy to give most parents of new born babies a payment of $60 a week until that baby turns one.

Parents with preschool-age children are expected to be the big winners from Labour leader David Cunliffe's State of the Nation address today.

Political parties should be in the practice of jettisoning policies that serve only to hamper their electoral prospects. It is up to any new leader to recognise these and act.

Labour's Shane Jones has used the rat-cunning skills that got him to the top of Maori fishing politics to manoeuvre his boss, David Cunliffe, into adopting new realism on offshore oil and gas exploration.

The National Government’s economic focus will be on paying down debt as Crown finance’s improve, Prime Minister John Key said this morning.

Read PM John Key's full state of the nation-style speech to the West Auckland Business Club.

Labour MP Jacinda Ardern is putting a different spin on the phrase "on the record" by agreeing to do a slot as a DJ at the Laneway Festival on Monday night.

The frenetic activity is all about National and Labour grappling with one another for the early election-year political initiative and - hopefully - retaining it, writes John Armstrong.

Labour is looking at the Norwegian model for regulating the oil and gas industry, including stronger environmental safeguards and steeper taxes.

Meet the backbenchers - Andrew Little, 48, married with one son, Labour List MP, elected in 2011.

Bill in works to make domestic violence a factor at sentencing - but first, the beach.

Labour says it will tackle "aggressive tax avoidance" by multinationals such as Facebook and Google which it says is costing the taxman hundreds of millions of dollars.

What a useful chap David Cunliffe is to have with you at a bunfight, writes Kerre McIvor.

A Labour Party candidate in the first Super City elections has been found guilty of two counts of using forged documents but has been acquitted on 18 other electoral fraud allegations.

A police log the Maori Party claims shows extended surveillance of those associated with the Ruatoki raids contains nothing to be worried about, National's Tau Henare says.

Labour's Shane Jones says Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell should "put up or shut up" over Operation Eight and Ruatoki raids documents.

A members bill put forward by Labour’s Phil Goff which would tighten up rules for foreigners buying rural land will be debated in Parliament after it was drawn from the ballot.

Labour would raise the age of eligibility for NZ Superannuation to 67, make KiwiSaver compulsory for employees and increase the KiwiSaver contribution rate if voted into power.

Mood for change seen in quake city as a good omen for party's chances in next year's election, says Cunliffe.

Editorial: Regulation appeals to governments because it is the easiest response to a problem. But each affects people's freedom in some way.

Shadow police minister Jacinda Ardern says she has been "banned" from visiting police stations by the Police Minister because cops were too busy to host her during the summer months.

Jim Anderton says some people were worrying that he was working Labour's Christchurch East byelection candidate Poto Williams so hard she was exhausted.