The House

Before each budget comes a political vanguard of announcements and trailers. Parliament has its own, less political signs that a budget is about to arrive. It is hard not to notice when governments get close to revealing a new budget. As they near, there is always a vanguard of political announcements and policy trailers. Alongside this political crescendo walks a quieter parliamentary parade. Ann...

The Annual Review Debate allows Parliament to grill government ministers on performance in their areas, unless someone runs out of time first. They did. For the past two weeks the main event in Parliament's debating chamber has been the Annual Review Debate. This ten-hour-long debate happens every year in the run-up to a new budget. Formally, it is the Committee of the Whole House stage for t...

Members of the public give some last-minute advice to the Government about its budget plans, via committee hearings into the Budget Policy Statement. There have always been a lot of rules that guide the way that governments plan and report their proposed and actual spending. The current approach possibly dates back to 1989, with the instigation of Labour's Public Finance Act (PFA), and then e...

In the lead-up to the Budget, Parliament goes over the head of the Government, asking the Governor General to add in some cash for Parliament's three watch-dogs. The Government's budget is decided by cabinet, after many months of work from the Minister of Finance, Treasury and individual ministries and agencies. But they don't get to make all the decisions. Before the budget gets present...

James Shaw's valedictory statement included thanks, humour, yarns, surprising allies, warnings and advice for MPs on avoiding the endless policy tug-of-war. In the last year or so Parliament has heard some unusually good valedictory speeches from a variety of outgoing MPs. Just a few weeks ago from Labour's Grant Robertson for example, or late last year from National's Todd Muller. This...

This week Parliament hosted both American and Ukrainian delegations. We chat with Galyna Mykhailiuk, who lead the visiting Ukrainian MPs. It's always news when the Prime Minister heads overseas, or a foreign leader arrives here. But prime ministers are comparative home-bodies. It's much more common for other ministers to travel. Collectively, even backbench MPs travel more than Prime Min...

MPs listen to hundreds of Select Committee submissions. But occasionally, like Camilla Belich today, they get to sit on the other side of the table themselves. MPs listen to hundreds, even thousands of submissions from the public on bills and petitions, even on Parliament's own rules. It would not be surprising if backbench MPs' dreams featured an endless parade of proffered opinions. Ve...

The Annual Review Debate begins this week, when Parliament quizzes ministers about past performance. Kieran McAnulty explains... One of Parliament's big piece debates begins this week. The Annual Review Debate happens every year as the penultimate stage of a long review of prior government spending and performance (for the financial year ended almost a year previously). It will stretch across...

Over the last six years, parliament's clerks have had to vet about 40,000 written questions each year. So how are written questions used and what are the democratic benefits? Over the last six years, Parliament's clerks have had to vet about 40,000 written questions each year. A written question - from an opposition MP to a minister - is a commonly used tool in Parliament, but not well-known...

The latest from the House Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

MPs have some of the highest pressure jobs in New Zealand, and the stressors aren't always what you might think. So does anyone help them carry the load, and how do they personally cope? We all know that Members of Parliament have a job that comes with a great deal of pressure. Mentally, it can be tough going, and sometimes this results in MPs making mistakes that can unravel not just their career...