Rt Hon Winston Peters has accused a number of media outlets of trivialising general election coverage to the point of mindless banality.

This follows a request from a Sunday newspaper for Mr Peters to discuss whether he owns an iPod and the type of music he likes to listen to on it.

The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand welcomes the announcement today by Associate Minister of Commerce, Judith Tizard that recent amendments to copyright legislation will soon come into force.

National Party Leader John Key is more convinced than ever that his plans to give under-performing youths a fresh start will work, after visiting a course that is having success with young people.

National Party Immigration spokesman Lockwood Smith says the first of four reports into scandalous decisions and behaviour at the Immigration Service has shed more light on how events unfolded.

Labour's commitment to starting the Newmarket Viaduct project as early as next month is too little, too late, says National's Transport spokesman, Maurice Williamson.

New Zealanders will be disturbed to learn that China has been conducting a massive spying operation on the online phone service Skype, and that one of the trigger phrases is 'milk powder', Green Party Human Rights Spokesperson Keith Locke says.

3 October 2008 - The leaders of three MMP parties have written a joint letter to the TV3's head of news and current affairs Mark Jennings condemning the decision to cancel the All Parties Leaders debate and asking for it to be reconsidered.

3 October 2008 - National Party Finance spokesman Bill English says figures released today purportedly showing a narrowing of the wage gap between New Zealand and Australia are a political jack-up.

New Zealand's burgeoning methamphetamine problem could worsen as more precursor ingredients enter the country because of our preferential trade deal with China, says the Green Party.

The Green Party have challenged Labour to redirect the billions of dollars earmarked for New Zealand's largest ever roading programme into public transport, following Dr Cullen's admission yesterday that people will choose public transport if it is provided and that Peak Oil is real.