Latest fromThe Insider

Trying to be friends to all people at all times can be a tricky diplomatic juggling game.

It's rumoured that BMW has all but sewn up the Government's VIP limousine fleet contract once again, although Lexus is said to be still in the frame.

The Greens may have changed leaders - and dropped their chief of staff - but sometimes the message takes a while to get through.

While NZ can rightly claim a transtasman leadership on many tax matters, it doesn't seem the same can be said about the erosion of the tax base.

The Energy and Resources Minister has been talking the talk about electric cars and how they might not only help the environment, but also use all that renewable energy New Zealand has.

The flag meetings might as well be accompanied by tumbleweeds blowing through the near-empty halls.

The Air Force’s long-serving Iroquois helicopters are to retire at the end of the month and there are mutterings that the replacements are not up to scratch.

The Rules Reduction Taskforce is starting to hold meetings to hear complaints about loopy rules and excessive red tape.

Statistics show there were 1.8 million new claims to ACC in 2013-14, a 4.7 per cent increase on 2012-13.

About 30 per cent of new homeowners in Canterbury would speak critically of their builder, compared with the New Zealand-wide figure of 17 per cent.

Digital enthusiasts pushing for a move to online voting are getting short shrift from ministers.

If you're chasing a property bargain, you could do worse than nip over to Sydney, where Chinese billionaire Hui Ka Yan is in a rush to get rid of his Point Piper place.

Steven Joyce's mega merger to create the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Enterprise was an audacious - and successful - bid to put his hands on the levers controlling a vast bureaucracy.

The Taxpayers' Union's trenchant criticism of the NZ Superannuation Fund, over its poor investment in Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo, shows the dangers of viewing problems through ideological goggles.

A Maori businessman and former Ernst & Young partner in Toronto, Kingi Smiler, is the latest to try cutting through the tangled web that is reform of the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993.

As January's sunshine gives way to February showers, most people shrug it off as just the vagaries of the weather.

While many businesspeople are cheering on National's plan for wide-ranging Resource Management Act reform, others are urging caution.

While the rest of us are returning to work after the Christmas break, most MPs continue to enjoy a long summer holiday.