The saga of the Ministry of Social Development's failings certainly drew attention away from that ugly wart of what John Key knew and when about Kim Dotcom, writes Claire Trevett.

Housing NZ spent $1.6 million on security firms last year for work which included monitoring about 355 houses which were sitting empty waiting for tenants.

Labour leader David Shearer has refused to comment on reports that his press secretary's partner was the source for apparent GCSB leaks.

The GCSB started an investigation into its staff last night after the Labour leader said he'd been leaked information about John Key's knowledge of the Dotcom case.

Labour could learn a lot from the chocolate wars - that bitter contest that played out on the bloody battlefields of the supermarket shelves in 2009, writes Claire Trevett.

A United States judge has allowed the case against Megaupload to proceed after throwing out an appeal from its founder Kim Doctom.

John Tamihere will have to wait until November to find out if the Labour Party will take him back as a member - and it could depend on whether others have objections.

John Key insists he knew nothing about Kim Dotcom before this year, as new evidence reveals his office was told about Dotcom's bid to buy a Coatesville mansion last July.

Thousands of young New Zealanders are leaving for Australia because of a failing job market, says Labour's finance spokesman David Parker.

John Key's explanation of how the illegal spying on Kim Dotcom occurred is wrong in law and could not have happened the way he describes, legal experts say.

Labour is due for a reshuffle toward the end of the year, but one MP is promising she'll resist any attempt to take the edcucation portfolio from her.

David Shearer's reshuffle of his Labour team will be on the radical side, writes John Armstrong. "It has to be. His current front-bench is simply not cutting it."

John Tamihere is understood to be eyeing a return to Parliament in 2014 - almost a decade after his "front bums" and Holocaust outburst.

While Labour is pecking away in a number of policy areas, they lack much in the way of an argument to explain what is wrong with the incumbents, writes Toby Mahire

John Key was yesterday again on the back foot in Parliament over questions about how much he knew about the involvement of his spy agencies in the Dotcom debacle.

Monetary policy is always contentious when the dollar is high, and at the moment it is very high.

Dr Andrew Cardow says Paula Bennett appears to be working under the belief that beneficiaries do not have the wherewithal to decide what is best for their children.