Taxpayers are increasingly covering the legal costs when MPs are sued - but MPs can keep the use of public money for their defence secret.

A new generation of conservatives has wrested our biggest city from the left, and they're just as likely to wear black jeans as business suits.

Phil Heatley says he will be more careful in future after being told he was back in the Cabinet.

Phil Heatley will return to Cabinet on Thursday after the Auditor-General found no intentional wrongdoing on his part.

Former PM Jim Bolger is to be removed as KiwiRail chairman, SOE Minister Simon Power has confirmed.

Gerry Brownlee had to control himself in Parliament yesterday if only to avoid Labour making him even more of a laughing stock than he had already become.

National MP Nikki Kaye has criticised Government plans to open Great Barrier Island to mining, as have mayors John Banks and Len Brown.

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples says working with the Nats in govt is proving to be "very difficult and stressful", writes John Armstrong.

Joyce is easily the third most powerful man in Cabinet - a remarkable achievement after just 16 months, writes Audrey Young.

Becoming a father once more at the age of 45 is forcing former All Black Michael Jones to think again about a possible jump into politics.

Don Brash says he appreciates police efforts to find who was behind his emails being given to a journalist, but accepts the culprit will probably never be found.

John Key says that Phil Heatley's misuse of his credit card was stupid and silly - but not dishonest.

Suggestions Phil Heatley's resignation over a relatively trivial sum sets a new benchmark for ministerial standards are misplaced.

Changes to the Govt's three strikes justice policy risk breaching NZ's Bill of Rights, the Justice Ministry warns.