Senior Government ministers Bill English and Steven Joyce say National Party members will be asked for policy ideas at the party conference in Nelson this weekend to take into next year's election.

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.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman has all but shut the door on working with National after the next election.

A political strategist who has trained National Party MPs says the Ports of Auckland colluded with right wing bloggers to undermine industrial action against the Ports of Auckland.

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.

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.

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.

Property developers who "sit and wait" for land values to increase have been sent a clear signal that the Government will act to bring more housing into the market.

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.