Public service chief executives should never be paid more than the prime minister, Labour Party leader Phil Goff says.

Prime Minister John Key arrived far too early for the party, but got the present he wanted at the annual Ratana celebrations yesterday.

A NZ toddler and his Indian-born mother were turned back from India and interrogated on their return to Auckland Airport because their names were on a terrorism blacklist.

Just over a year after being voted out of office, Helen Clark has been awarded the country's highest honour.

Peter Dunne has given up on his annual list of worst-behaved MPs, saying Speaker Lockwood Smith's reign has ushered in a new era of propriety.

Phil Goff has pleaded ignorance about how his "Nationhood" speech ended up with the same title as Don Brash's infamous Orewa address.

Treasury now believes unemployment will peak at 7 per cent, less than what it predicted when the recession first hit, John Key told Parliament today.

The Labour caucus backs "the tone and content" of a speech in which Phil Goff accused the Govt of reopening old racial wounds.

The PM has left the door open for Labour to work with the Government on a solution to the problematic foreshore and seabed law.

Labour leader Phil Goff has rubbished claims that his nationhood speech didn't sit well with party president Andrew Little.

Privately run prisons are on the Government's agenda after Parliament today passed a bill allowing them to be handed over.

The State Services Commission has ordered an investigation into a Labour Party complaint about National MP Paul Quinn.

Labour MP Shane Jones has attacked the Maori Party for a racially divisive attitude that makes it "the mirror image of Don Brash at Orewa".

Labour MP Trevor Mallard has outed himself for using his taxpayer-funded travel perk to jet to London to watch the All Blacks play.