Parliament

As an MP Sir Geoffrey Palmer had a huge impact on the interlocking shapes of government and parliament. The great reformer is still brimming with ideas for improvement.

Something of a throwback to when most National MPs staunchly represented farming interests, Ian McKelvie is however ending his career as an MP not defined by the tribal lines of party politics. 

This week, RNZ’s Parliament show, The House, focused on the processes and outcomes of Parliament’s Select Committees. The Sunday show is a collation of this content.

The Therapeutic Products Bill is one of those pieces of legislation that requires a fair bit of panel-beating in a select committee, and even then not everyone's happy with its shape. 

When things threaten to go awry it can help us learn how they work. So, how do Select Committees decide to amend bills, who helps them; and how do they track amendments and communicate with the legal…

An Imprest Supply Bill is Parliament’s way of saying to the government 'yes you can have that money, but also if you find you need to use more money on it, you don't need to come back and ask again'.

Parliament has hit the time of year it turns into a combination of Glastonbury and the Inquisition - the multi-pronged miniterial grilling called Estimates Hearings.

The ACT Party has this month latched on to a Question Time tactic of using consecutive supplementary questions on a repetitive theme as a pile-on against the government.

Legislation tackling a power imbalance in the grocery industry is among several bills that wound their way through the committee stage in Parliament this week.

Jan Logie admits she had “zero faith in our political system” before entering Parliament, but remains hopeful of what can be achieved here, as she prepares to retire as MP.