What the public wanted to hear from him was a large measure of mea culpa. What it got was Cunliffe blaming everyone but himself.

The blue tide that has ruled over Northland for the past 40 years swept over the region again with National Party retaining the Whangarei and Northland seats.

As National began to slide in the polls last week, one senior Beehive staffer was puzzled as to why.

So much for "dirty politics". So much for Nicky Hager, Cameron Slater, "Rawshark", "Whaledump", Kim Dotcom, Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange ...

Tax cuts are coming for most New Zealanders ... but you're going to have to wait for three years.

Labour leader David Cunliffe says he will not stand down despite a heavy defeat in election 2014.

Three more years they chanted at the National Party headquarters as the scale of their resounding victory in Election 2014 became clear.

An indisputable triumph for one man; a total and unmitigated disaster for his many enemies.

Mana leader Hone Harawira claims the National, Labour and Maori parties are all out to unseat him by throwing their weight behind Labour's Kelvin Davis.

PM John Key can't rule out US spy agency NSA having NZers' electronic communications under surveillance, even if this country's GCSB doesn't.

Labour leader David Cunliffe says he has sought reassurance from former Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark about the party's role in recent spying revelations.

John Key has struck directly at a specific detail in the spying claims, saying new laws passed last year had nothing to do with the alleged mass surveillance project.

The head of the Southern Cross Cable Network has disputed Prime Minister John Key's claim that a cable had been tapped into as part of a proposition to collect metadata.

Dear John and David. Please forgive the first-name familiarity. I'm older than you are so it doesn't feel terribly out of order.

The National Party wants to double the number of people studying engineering at university in a bid to get more graduates into jobs in the high-tech sector.

Any leader of a country visibly ages before your eyes, says John Key — it’s a high-stress environment.

The PM has been accused of withholding critical information on proposed mass surveillance from the public ahead of new spying legislation going through Parliament.

John Key says he won't release documents that show that spy agencies do not conduct mass surveillance until after Glenn Greenwald tries to prove the claim.

John Key says "without a shadow of a doubt GCSB does not conduct mass surveillance on New Zealand".

This time next week the people will have spoken - an election is that rare and precious moment when everyone in the country can be heard.

John Key will declassify highly sensitive documents to prove the GCSB pulled the plug on plans to spy on New Zealanders.

Paul Little writes: It has been a great election campaign for hoardings, which have done so much to brighten commuters' days.

The coolest head I have ever seen on a pair of shoulders is John Key's, writes Rodney Hide.

Can Twitter handle serious policy debates? This week has been dominated by tax policy.

Prime Minister John Key has ruled out a last minute deal in the Napier electorate

Prime Minister dismisses claims GCSB was involved in mass surveillance of New Zealanders and attacks the Pulitzer-winning journalist who made them.

John Key is the king of the political selfie, the prince of the walkabout. His is a campaign high on charm and low on policy detail but one which the polls suggest is working.