Keep Our Assets protesters at the National Party's Mainland Region conference say their mock toll booth was so well-received it may be used again.

Former National MP Paul Quinn has ruled out a return to Parliament to replace Jackie Blue.

History will regard the Key Government as having been responsible for a further and possibly decisive relapse in a long-term economic decline, writes Bryan Gould.

Labour and the unions have cried foul over the appointment of MP Jackie Blue as the new Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner.

A private investigator has been cleared of alleged misconduct for secretly filming National Party president Peter Goodfellow and his estranged wife Libby Black in their former matrimonial home.

Prime Minster John Key is continuing to deny wrongdoing in the appointment process of New Zealand's top spy.

The brother of the man controversially appointed to New Zealand's top spy job after a nod by John Key is a former schoolmate and debating team member of the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister John Key was pushing his childhood friend Ian Fletcher as a good candidate for a top-level government job as early as 2009, says Ian Rennie.

Were senior Cabinet ministers asleep at the wheel? Did they fail to step in soon enough when problems at Solid Energy were apparent? John Armstrong investigates.

Why has National remained so incredibly popular for so long despite suffering continuing calamities, embarrassments and unwanted distractions, asks John Armstrong.

John Key was touted as a dinner companion in a lucky dip contest fronted by a National Party minister - but never knew he was the prize used to lure entrants.

Since the 1980s, too, successive Governments have become increasingly high-handed, and ideologically driven, writes Anne Salmond.

Nine months in the political wilderness awaiting Lyn Provost's painstaking report may well have done the trick, writes John Armstrong.

Dame Sian Elias and fellow judges of the Supreme Court made a remarkable declaration of confidence in you and me and our adherence to a constitution this week.

Although it takes some swallowing, the Prime Minister's insistence that there was no plan B had the Supreme Court blocked the part-sale of Mighty River Power has to be taken at face value.

All manner of people, policies and practices are being blamed for the near-collapse of Solid Energy, the state-owned coal company that is burdened with $389 million in debt.

A Parliamentary committee has recommended a starting wage for youth be passed into law.

Hekia Parata or no Hekia Parata in the job, Cabinet ministers had few illusions from the start.

The Herald met Nikki Kaye in 2013, she was a fresh-faced Cabinet Minister.

Longstanding National MP and former Speaker Lockwood Smith has used his final speech in Parliament to tell of his regret at voting against homosexual law reform.

As you'll know by breathless media reports, the old battle-axe Titewhai Harawira took the country to the brink of disaster just as the Prime Minister and other dignitaries were about to arrive at the lower Waitangi marae.

So coos the sugar-encrusted, but hollow-sounding real estate-speak intent on seducing would-be home buyers and hard-headed investors into succumbing to the charms of life at Hobsonville Pt.

The lawyer hand-picked by Minister of Justice Judith Collins for a top state service job is an old friend of her husband, says a private investigator who used to work for both men.

In between overseas trips, Murray McCully talks to political editor Audrey Young about his hectic year ahead.

Carter takes over as Speaker of the House despite Labour move to install Mallard

Times are very tough in manufacturing. The global recession has merely contributed an additional woe to a sector whose share of economic activity has been declining for more than two decades.

Police allege an illegal immigrant living here on a false Australian passport was also able to obtain three other false passports - including two from New Zealand.