RNZ: The House

With a slew of policy announcements, there also comes fresh calls for a Parliamentary Budget Office. But what should the remit of such an institution be? The House chats to Economist Dr Eric Crampton about the proposal.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Louise Upston gives her take on her new part-time full-time job: managing the Government's entire legislative programme as Leader of the House.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

We ask whether ministers can evade questions by claiming operational independence, and note some key bills from a huge week. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

As Parliament stretches into the weekend in a debating marathon, we note four bills being completed and four others just beginning their legislative journey. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

With ten third readings during Parliament's urgency week, a suite of bills are now on the cusp of becoming law, pending the largely ceremonial box-tick of Royal Assent.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Can a minister, asked how his agency achieves its targets, use the 'not my circus, not my monkey' tactic? Tama Potaka did. What are the rules?Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Before Parliament got down into the trenches for urgency, it debated a declaration from the Supreme Court that particular legislation was inconsistent with NZBORAGo to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Allegations that officials kept ministers and MPs in the dark, and MPs as bad examples. Plus, the Speaker quashes Question Time electioneering.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Immigration officials are under investigation for allegedly misleading a Parliament committee. Are MPs bad role models? Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Remember the biblical parable of the Good Samaritan? Well this week, Parliament's Health Select Committee has been hearing oral submissions on a member's bill that some have dubbed the "Good Samaritan Bill". Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

MPs as well as ministers may have been kept in the dark over immigration IT project. One omission gets more outrage, but both are equally bad. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The House reviews the last estimates scrutiny week for the 54th ParliamentGo to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

As one of the few departments that received a generous funding boost in the recent budget, Minister for Defence Chris Penk had to convince MPs this week that it deserved that cash. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Scrutiny of ministers for ACC and Worksafe raises a disconnect between work safety law change and its cost. No modelling, no discussion, no budget, no problem.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The Arts, Culture and Heritage (& broadcasting) scrutiny has a surprising Return on Investment for arts funding, and an interesting take on post-BSA journalism.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

June's scrutiny week will be the last chance select committees get to do detailed financial scrutiny in the current 54th Parliament, to learn more The House chats to David Wilson and James Picker. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

On any given sitting day, the Parliamentary precinct hums with activity, teeming with MPs, journalists, staffers, officials, and also weaving their way through the hallways of democracy: school students.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Budget Day is a Broadway production with dance numbers (emphasis on numbers), undue laughter and applause, and everyone's a critic. Then comes the legislating.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

After a three-hour long fusillade of sound and fury you might think budget week was over, but that's when the urgency begins.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

From sales pitches to opposition counter-branding, on Budget Day the performance matters nearly as much the numbers. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

With the House hogging the sitting week, Committees squeeze crucial work into the margins. Phil visits an early session on modern slavery and terminated school subjects.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The Government's agenda-setting going into this week was firmly focused on Thursday's Budget Day, but the emergence of a story about the 9th floor of the Beehive's handling of a briefing document tugged Parliament's attention away from the government's books. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

On The House, Louis Collins considers the motivations that may lie behind governing-side members' bills; and Phil Smith considers the political version of Newton's Third law of Motion – chamber blowback.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Members business this week was dominated by bills from government backbenchers. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

In the interplay between Government and Parliament actions spark reactions, like a political version of Newton's third law of motion. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

While Judith Collins farewell speech was probably the most notable event in the House this week, a relatively low key motion on Parliament funding was more than notable constitutionally. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A seemingly dry procedural motion in Parliament this week quietly marked one of the more significant constitutional changes of recent years: how Parliament is funded.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Labour and National have put aside their usual party divisions this week to reach broad agreement on the issue of online harm faced by young New Zealanders.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The Government says it's cutting conservation red (or rather green) tape. The Opposition say it's redefining what conservation even means.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

When an MP becomes a government minister or changes portfolios, how do they transition to the new role? We ask a recently elevated minister, Chris Penk.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

In a historic first, Parliament used a new rule to debate slavery legislation that has wide support in the House, but that government coalition partners don't agree on. Plus other stories from a week of unlikely allies and surprising foes. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

MPs have questioned the Broadcasting Standards Authority's role in the digital era during a select committee briefing, as the regulator signals a need for reform. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A proposed new law would allow more prisoner segregation, but also mandate basic rights. MPs agree prison should ‘reflect our shared view of humanity', even for those who ‘deserve the least sympathy'. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Parliament began this week with a question time in which the Government was being pressed by...another member of Government?Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

With distracting party politics going on outside the House, MPs were brought back on task by the Speaker on more than one occasion this week. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Parliament's weekly free debate can give a surprising insight into the mood and politics of both MPs and parties. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

While political attention was fixed on what was said in Tuesday morning's National Party caucus, MPs still had parliamentary work to do. And this week, that was mostly the Annual Review Debate.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

This week's political intrigue bled into Question Time and illustrated Parliament's rules about ministerial responsibility and lying or, as Parliament terms it, 'misleading the House'.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Step into the past to picture the early days of Wellington's Parliament and the 1890s Victorian neighbourhood it sat in, with help from historian Elizabeth Cox, author of Mr Ward's Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

What if a group of randomly selected people were put in a room and asked to hammer out national policy? it sounds a bit like a social experiment, but at last month's democracy forum at Parliament, it was sincerely proposed. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The House saw a dichotomy of tempos this week, from a heated debate about fisheries one day, to a lighthearted, and at times even funny debate on parody and satire law. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

This week, MPs debated a bill to protect parody and satire, the right to take the mickey under New Zealand's copyright law, something they themselves may well be the target of.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details