If Labour leader David Shearer wants a tip from a winner, former Prime Minister Helen Clark says her advice is always to "be yourself".

The Act Party wants National supporters to save it from oblivion at next year's election, telling them it needs not just one, but two Parliamentary seats.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said his concerns about the bill had widened beyond the four he specified in his first reading.

Matt McCarten says John Key must feel like he's in a B-grade horror movie where his prom dates keep coming to gruesome demises.

Prime Minister John Key's decision to suddenly back Auckland on big infrastructure investments wasn't simply designed to steal a march on his Labour opponents.

I guess Maggie Barry's thoughts have turned to composing her bucket list, writes Brian Rudman. And leaving messages on her boss' phone, pleading for another u-turn.

It's been said you were a Labour Party supporter and campaigned for them. So why the switch?

Leaked documents written by a political strategist who has trained National MPs set out a vision for taking the party to the right of the political spectrum.

One of National MP Maurice Williamson's supporters says he dropped his ambition to run as Auckland's mayor partly because the National Party refused to let him stand under the party's banner.

New National MP Claudette Hauiti gives every indication she has had a crash course in how not to be controversial.

The Government is again accused of interfering to appoint a 'mate' to a top public sector job.

National is facing the "notoriously difficult" task of winning a third term against an Opposition increasingly dragged to the "far left" by the Greens, says Key

National Party members are pushing for a new "waka-jumping" law to force rogue list MPs out of Parliament.

The Accident Compensation Corporation's Earners and Work Accounts are now fully funded ACC Minister Judith Collins has told National Party members at their Northern Regional Conference today.

Over the next 18 months, expect to see Key, and David Shearer, too, hovering outside Peters' office, bottle of Scotch in hand, writes Toby Manhire.

John Armstrong writes: "One of the reasons why Governments slowly decay and die is that the longer they are in office the more prone they become to ugly pragmatism and compromise of principle."

John Key says it is possible the Government could get close to a surplus in the coming financial year - one year earlier than officially predicted in yesterday's Budget.

John Key is under absolutely no illusions about the difficulty he faces in securing a third victory at next year's election, writes John Armstrong.

Editorial: It was the Government's idea to put MMP to a referendum at the last election and it was the Government's idea to load the odds in favour of retention.

Aaron Gilmore has given a personal statement to Parliament, and said the media scrutiny he has been placed under prevented him from functioning properly as an MP.

Labour Party leader David Shearer says the party will bring their "popcorn and coke'' to National MP Aaron Gilmore's hugely anticipated valedictory speech later today.

Feel some pity for hitherto obscure MP Aaron Gilmore whose hopes and dreams lie in ashes, albeit through self-immolation, writes Sir Bob Jones.

Outgoing National MP Aaron Gilmore has apparently sent threatening text messages to a number of people after he decided to resign from Parliament.