Our official watchdogs on food safety in the Ministry for Primary Industries need a reminder of whose interests they serve.

Last-minute Labour leadership contender Nanaia Mahuta wants to assert the Maori and Pasifika presence as the party rebuilds.

Labour's Hauraki-Waikato MP Nanaia Mahuta will contest the Labour Leadership.

Houses are going up by $30,000 a year but wages are only rising fractionally in one of the clearest illustrations of the worsening housing affordability crisis.

David Shearer has delivered a blunt message to Labour's former leader David Cunliffe: quit Parliament altogether. He explained his thinking to the Herald.

Labour's leadership contenders appear to think they are involved in an extreme version of the Hokey Cokey, writes Claire Trevett.

Labour MP David Shearer has ruled out a tilt at the leadership after weeks of speculation he would try to get his old job back.

The latest leadership crisis in the Labour Party comes on the heels of years of resignations, criticisms and a lack of confidence.

I was once at a party where a child was attacked by one of the host's two rottweilers. Fortunately, there were many people nearby so the dog's teeth and the child's throat were soon parted and the boy suffered no grievous harm.

Labour's acting leader David Parker is expected to put himself forward for Labour's leadership tomorrow.

Rust never sleeps. And neither, it seems, does John Key.

Someone ought to put David Cunliffe out of his political misery. He has allowed his nomination for the Labour Party leadership, which he gave up last week, to go forward - but he should reconsider.

He is confident he still has a significant core of support in Labour caucus despite the entry of Andrew Little yesterday.

Labour's latest leadership hopeful admits he may be the underdog but his entry could throw the contest wide open if he can persuade enough MPs he's what the party needs.

Andrew Little's not the "compromise" candidate, writes John Armstrong, rather, he's astutely pitched himself as the "unity" ticket in this campaign.

Andrew Little has confirmed he'll contest Labour's leadership, pitting him against former leader David Cunliffe and Grant Robertson for the top job.

New Napier MP, Labour's Stuart Nash says an email linking him to a Dirty Politics figure didn't force him out of his party's leadership race.

The Prime Minister might get to choose who sits where in the Cabinet and on his front bench, but it seems National's caucus has a far more anarchic pecking order - one based on speed and punctuality just once every three years.

Sir Roger Douglas writes: The election was an absolute disaster for Labour. The party's inability to deal with the result is apparent for all to see.

Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell's appointment to head the newly rebranded Maori Development portfolio reflects a new focus for what used to be Maori Affairs, Prime Minister John Key says.

Napier MP Stuart Nash has ruled himself out of the Labour leadership contest so he can turn his electorate into a "Labour fortress".

Maori Party Co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell has been appointed as a Minister after his party inked its confidence and supply deal with National this afternoon.

One of Labour's 2014 election candidates has written a stinging open letter to David Cunliffe, saying he would leave the party if Mr Cunliffe won the leadership contest.

After an initial flurry of snipes, Labour's new interim leader David Parker said he expected the forthcoming battle for the leadership to be "seemly".

Under pressure ahead of his resignation and his pending fight to regain the Labour leadership, David Cunliffe has made some candid and at times bizarre statements.

David Cunliffe officially resigns from his role as leader of the Labour Party today, and says he doesn't know whether he has the support of the caucus majority.