The House
Legislation, issues and insights from Parliament.
Episodes
One of Parliament’s quiet, powerful committees is opposition-led and cross-partisan. A new law from ACT may undermine that, ceding parliamentary oversight to the Executive. We chat with the leaders of the Regulations Review Committee: Arena Williams and Nancy Lu.
The Sunday edition of The House includes one fresh story, and a replay from Thursday. The new story covers the first debate on the bill to change the electoral law – including the requirement to enrol to vote earlier. The replay from Thursday's House looks at Private and Local Bills.
The big laws debated by Parliament get a lot of attention, but others are so small as to be barely noticed.
After the rare occurrence of a recommittal, the Crown Minerals Bill found itself back in committee where the Opposition tried their best to extract answers from the Minister.
Parliament’s Speaker, Gerry Brownlee, is considering a major rewrite of the rules for Question Time, potentially the first major reworking since the 1980s. Specifically the Speaker indicated he may ask the Standing Orders Committee (which proposes changes to Parliament’s own rules), to consider balancing the playing field by allowing questioners to contextualise their questions.
This week on The House, we chat with a visiting MP from the European Parliament, and hear some of the highlights from Parliament's newest MP, David Wilson
This week Parliament hosted MPs from the EU Parliament in Brussels. We chat with Ireland's Seán Kelly who lead the visiting delegation.
Parliament this week is all-House, with extra debates and an interesting array of topics including space, espionage, and stalking.
The sitting week this week began with a Ministerial Statement from Foreign Minister Winston Peters. The House looks at the subsequent Q and A that followed.
To mark the launch of the Ministry for Women's Free to Lead campaign, MPs discussed online harm and the safety of public figures in a panel this week at Parliament.
A parliamentary committee tasked with keeping a check on the Executive has heard how the Regulatory Standards Board would duplicate its role, but without its powers.
Albeit a month late, Speaker Gerry Brownlee sat down this week with the Governance and Administration Committee for a chat about Parliament.
Parliament kicked off a three week sitting block today, and the first legislative business was initial debates and votes on three brand new bills.
Last week, MPs were replaced by their younger counterparts during Youth Parliament 2025, and just like real Parliament, there was plenty of drama.
Before laws are finalised, MPs get a last chance to argue for changes. Pav Sharma—whose office manages them—explains the purpose, rules, and process for the many amendments.
Parliament spent most of the week debating legislation under urgency, finalising eight separate government bills, initiating four others. Despite that effort, the week's most telling events may have been its bookends – the international tragedy that opening it, the very local tragedy at its close.
It was a sad day at Parliament on Thursday, with the news of the sudden death of Te Pāti Māori MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp. Before adjourning, The House paid tribute to her in a number of speeches.
Parliament's focus this week is debating numerous bills under urgency. Across recent parliaments the use of urgency and extra sittings has become so regular as to be almost normal. But it remains important to know what laws are being debated and agreed – at whatever speed.
The first item of business at Parliament this week was not Question Time, but a Ministerial Statement on the Middle East situation.
On the Sunday Edition of the House you can hear an interview with Lawrence Xu-Nan about Scrutiny Week and the preparation necessary. You can also listen to a description of a few of the Q&A tactics observed in the scrutiny hearings.
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