COMMENT: Labour still come across as the party barking at every passing car, making it up as they go along, writes Toby Manhire.

Immigration NZ figures show 20,000 work visas were given to chefs from overseas in the past five years.

COMMENT: Little gifted National a new weapon to use against his party, the enemy of orthodoxy, writes Audrey Young.

Stuart Nash highlighted the spending patterns after a Herald investigation revealed more than 90 per cent of burglaries went unsolved last year.

The Labour Party is justifiably celebrating a victory on legislation to end "zero-hour contracts" even if it is victory on a fine point of law.

It was an ominous sign when Prime Minister John Key wandered into his weekly post-Cabinet press conference and announced, "I've got a bit of a head cold."

Little more than two years have passed since the country had an intense debate on the rightful limits of the state's powers of domestic surveillance.

They all suffer from it but some of them are more inflicted with it than others. Essentially it's the politics of convenience, writes Barry Soper.

For those who can't come up with their own dream, Labour has even prescribed one. This is what you dream of: a house, work, love and hope, Claire Trevett writes.

MPs personalising their messages to voters as they attempt to tap into underlying concerns for future.

Labour leader Andrew Little thinks it would a good idea for the Government to chip in and support the social media campaign to buy a sliver of land in Golden Bay.

Another British law change has just made it harder for Kiwis to live and work in the United Kingdom.

If I was a greedy, grasping, socialist, I would be totally underwhelmed by Labour leader Andrew Little promising free "post-school" education.

Labour leader Andrew Little has accused Prime Minister John Key of a lack of leadership and says he will still visit Te Tii Marae today.

A flagship anti-violence initiative that counts the Prime Minister as an ambassador is without funding for the coming year after Government support dried up.

If this was such a bad deal, how is it possible that a dozen countries all got sucked in and put their name to the sort of trouble the placard wavers are proclaiming?

Free tertiary education is a daring reversal of the thrust of educational and economic policy of the past 30 years.

On today's forecasts, the promise of one free year from 2019 at an annual cost of $265 million is not unrealistic, writes Audrey Young.

Labour has announced a multi-billion dollar plan to provide every New Zealander with three years of free tertiary education.

Anti-TPP policy is strongly favoured by unions and caucus left, writes Audrey Young.

Labour leader Andrew Little instructed his foreign affairs spokes, David Shearer, to apologise to the caucus over comments on the TPP.

Labour has joined the campaign to oppose the deal as the focus turns to the signing in Auckland next week.

Andrew Kirton has been selected as the Labour Party's new general secretary.

A former Labour member plans to run a candidate in Te Atatu in protest at Phil Twyford's use of Chinese-sounding names to analyse Auckland property purchases.

National has finished the first year of its third term in as strong a position as it was a year ago, according to the latest Herald-DigiPoll survey.

The "powerful" privileges committee has an unusually full agenda owing to some blatant breaches of parliamentary standards by the Labour Party.

Labour leader Andrew Little has carried out a refreshing reshuffle of his parliamentary line-up.

Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell has weighed into the debate over Labour's reshuffle.

Growing numbers of Kiwis risk becoming homeless in old age because of falling home ownership rates, rising rents and static housing subsidies, the Salvation Army says.