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.

Labour spokesman says foreign firms' drive for big profits putting local industries in jeopardy.

David Cunliffe has seized the moral high ground from the PM by offering to pay compensation to the Pike River families, John Armstrong says.

Air New Zealand has frequently been a political football for politicians of all stripes.

Is David Cunliffe exploiting the Pike River tragedy for political purposes? Of course he is, writes John Armstrong.

Labour list MP Moana Mackey is using taxpayer money to rent her Gisborne electorate office from her mother.

You have to feel for David Cunliffe. He is beavering away making Labour a credible alternative, say Rodney Hide.

Spring has sprung and with it a focus on renewal among political parties, writes Claire Trevett. National MPs are obediently acting like deciduous trees.

The Government caucus has only 14 women, only 24 per cent of its 59 MPs, resulting in a Parliament, as a whole, in which only 32 per cent of MPs are women, writes Brian Rudman.

The bipartisan position on free trade is now in limbo, and Labour's position of withholding support until it sees details is not as radical as the original plan to oppose it.

Labour's new rule to ensure at least half of its MPs are women by 2017 is likely to lead to increased pressure on Phil Goff and Trevor Mallard to quit Parliament.

The Labour Party's annual conference was a case of veering from the seemingly ridiculous to the truly sublime, writes John Armstrong

David Cunliffe has vowed to take Prince William and his family to poorer streets such as McGehan Close and a closed tannery in Shannon.

Labour leader David Cunliffe intervened in a meeting of affiliated unions at the party conference in Wigram to broker a compromise resolution on the Trans Pacific Partnership.

Well might the biblical warning about reaping what you sow haunt David Cunliffe as he delivers his first speech to a Labour Party conference as leader.

David Cunliffe is expected to announce a new policy to set up a state-owned or state-backed insurance company in his speech to the Labour conference today.

David Cunliffe's leadership will be put to an early test at the Labour Party conference this weekend as he mediates between two divergent forces in the party on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

David Cunliffe's popularity began to wane almost as soon as the media spotlight ceased illuminating the contest over the Labour Party's parliamentary leadership, writes Dr Damien Rogers.

One of NZ's largest home builders says new loan restrictions have cost it 24 new-home builds in the first month alone - and it expects more as the policy bites.

The Labour Party conference in Christchurch this weekend looks set to approve a remit that will require its list to "fairly represent" gays and lesbians among candidates.