The Green Party has welcomed the Government's bill to add to the Sentencing Act guidance on legal consequences for offending against children.

The Education Minister Anne Tolley has released the Briefing to the Incoming Minister (BIM) from the Ministry of Education and other education organisations.

Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee today tabled in Parliament a Bill to repeal the obligation placed on oil companies to sell a certain proportion of biofuel.

The New Zealand Food Safety Authority has capitalised on the change of government and a new Minister with no background in food issues to quietly ditch all pretence of assisting consumers to make informed purchasing decisions about food, the Green Party says.

The independent report into the Ministry for the Environment's handling of the Mapua contaminated site clean up confirms bad decisions were made and the community has been exposed to the risk of further contamination, says Green Party MP Catherine Delahunty.

Ramming through employment legislation that removes the right of employees to take personal grievance claims if they dismissed within 90 days will markedly increase worker insecurity at a time when the economic situation already makes them vulnerable, says labour spokesperson Trevor Mallard.

New Zealand is committing $1.5 million to supporting the democratic reform process in Tonga, Foreign Minister Murray McCully announced today.

Education Minister Anne Tolley must explain to the education sector how she could get it so wrong when she told delegates at the NZEI conference during the election campaign that schools would be exempt from National's plans to erode workers' rights, Labour education spokesperson Chris Carter sai

11 December 2008 - Nationals' reported back down on a state housing cap is nothing more than an attempt to cover-up a publicly unpopular stance, Labour Party Housing spokesperson George Hawkins said

11 December 2008 - Finance Minister Bill English has today released the Briefing to the Incoming Minister of Finance from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.