Focus on Politics

The night New Zealand First formed a government with Labour and the Greens, its leader Winston Peters quoted the song You Can't Always Get What You Want. Almost two years later all three parties still… Read more Audio

Legislation reforming abortion laws has comfortably passed its first hurdle but there was plenty of controversy along the way. Audio

The Green Party will be taking stock this weekend at its Annual General Meeting in Dunedin. Political reporter Charlie Dreaver looks at the ups and downs of the Greens' second year in Government and… Read more Audio

It's that time of year when political parties venture out of the Capital for their annual conference. It's a chance for party members to come together to celebrate, or commiserate, the state of their… Read more Audio

This week the Government announced it had reached an historic consensus with the agriculture sector on the need to implement farm-level pricing on emissions from 2025. It launched a discussion on two… Read more Audio

A solution looks like it could be on the way for Lumsden, where there have been calls for its primary birthing unit to be reinstated. Key stakeholders met on Thursday to discuss solutions for offering… Read more Audio

The pressure is on New Zealand's agricultural sector to come up with ways to meet climate change targets, that will be legally binding by the end of the year. Farmers will have to make significant… Read more Audio

The latest parliamentary vote on voluntary euthanasia featured emotional and thoughtful speeches from MPs as they grappled with fundamental questions about the right to choose life or death, and the… Read more Audio

An investigation by Newsroom catapulted the practice of removing babies from their parents into public awareness, and created a political debate about how it was being carried out by the agency… Read more Audio

It's been a big week for defence, with the release of the long term plan including the billion dollar price tag for the new 'Super Hercules" and confirmation of an end date for the Iraq deployment. Audio

Young people are often criticised for not participating in politics, but as was seen in the recent strike for climate action, they also face criticism when they do. Political Reporter Yvette… Read more Audio

Focus on Politics for 31 May 2019 Audio