When Jenny Shipley was appointed health minister in the previous National government, she confidently told Parliament she would be judged on hospital waiting lists.

This was unwise, because the waiting lists didn't improve and she was indeed judged, loudly and often, by the Labour Party.

After just over a year in partnership with National, ACT is feeling the effect of living in the shadow of a major party.

During its first year in office, the Government managed to run its agenda without suffering any noticeable damage. When difficulties did arise, Prime Minister John Key found remedies and shrugged them off in that way he has of making problems appear insignificant.

On Tuesday in Parliament John Key will make the most important speech of his political career.

The prime minister's address, a set-piece event at the beginning of each parliamentary year, will outline the National-led government's agenda for 2010 and define its economic recovery programme.

For the many, not the few. Labour's new slogan has potential and it would be a good idea to keep it going. It gives party leader Phil Goff a wide range of opportunities, and he needs to take anything on offer during a crucial second year in opposition.

This year is the Government's second since taking office, and its actions over the next 12 months will influence the outcome of the 2011 election.

Well, there were some goodies under the Government's Christmas tree after all. Wellington got a $2 billion highway and some tunnels, for which Transport Minister Steven Joyce has been duly thanked.

Governments like to send us off to Christmas and summer breaks feeling good about life and the economy, with nothing much to gripe or worry about during the parliamentary recess which lasts through to early February.

Phil Goff has been around a long time. In Parliament for 28 years, a senior minister in the last two Labour governments and a caucus mover and shaker.

On Tuesday this week, if the Government gets what it wants, the bill that sets up a modified emissions trading scheme (ETS) will be back in Parliament under urgency.

If a white MP had described Maori as "black motherf...kers" he would have been expelled from caucus, whichever party he belonged to, and a tide of revulsion would almost certainly have made it impossible for him to remain in Parliament.

What is it with small parties? On an MP for MP basis they get into a hugely disproportionate amount of trouble.

Look at the figures. National 58 seats, Labour 43, ACT five and the Maori Party five.

If the impact of the international recession on New Zealand's economy was more severe now than a year ago, or even if it was the same, the Government would have a problem.

It isn't, and in terms of public perception the Government clearly doesn't have a problem.

Here we go again. Tribal warfare over ACC. Labour does it better than National. Rouse the masses under the banner of "fight privatisation" and warn of dire consequences.

Wellington, Oct 18 NZPA - A minority government, as Prime Minister John Key pointed out last week, has to talk to its partners to get legislation through Parliament.

Few things annoy MPs more than the media poking its nose into their expenses, and there are few issues with so many grey areas to poke into.

John Key's pledge to wage war on gangs and in particular the very addictive drug known as 'P' (pure methametaphine) is fraught with difficulty.

Last week Meteria Turei was quizzed on TV One's Q and A about two Green MP's claiming the same parliamentary accomodation perk that has gotten Bill English (or the 'Double Dipper from Dipton' as Winston Peters has labelled him) into heaps of trouble.

The tragedy of last week's tsunami in Samoa and this week's earthquake in the Solomon Islands/Vanuatu region shows that Civil Defence needs to lift it's game.

Electoral law is on Parliament's agenda and the search for consensus on legislation to replace the Electoral Finance Act has started.

The Act, arguably the last government's worst blunder, was repealed in one of the first bills passed after National won last year's election.

The expenses row which has embroiled Bill English these past few weeks has raised one pertinent question - is he really from Dipton? Or is he a good ol' country boy who merely has settled in Wellington but yet claims to be from Dipton for official purposes?

This week John Key introduced himself to the American people by appearing on the popular NBC TV 'The Late Show With David Letterman.'

Sue Bradford's resignation bombshell has shocked many members of not only the Green Party but all those who wish for a better and more socially just society too.

Well, so much for a grand coalition on the emissions trading scheme.

Grand shambles, more like, although there's more to this than meets the eye.

About two weeks ago, I blogged about Michael Laws and his insulting words to a kura kaupapa Maori immersion class at Otaki Primary School who wrote to him regarding the use of the 'h' word in Whanganui's name.

Yesterday, Larry Baldock presented his latest citizens initiated referendum petition wording for approval by the Clerk of the House of Representatives.

Last week I was not able to blog due to the fact that I have had a problem in changing over to a new internet service provider and consequently I missed the September 11th anniversary and the chance to blog about my views surrounding it on that very date.

Last week John Key said that New Zealanders could now kick the tyres of MMP at the upcoming referendum on the system to be held in conjunction with the 2011 election.

As a mature student at the University of Otago, I just have to make comment on the events which transpired around the Undie 500 at the weekend.

Labour has managed itself surprisingly well since losing last year's election. For a party driving uphill against a popular government, its weekend conference in Rotorua was as good as it gets.