When Rodney Hide complained last year that the Government "wasn't doing anything" the point he was trying to make was that it hadn't set a course for the sort of economic reform it had talked about before the election.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

So who said John Key was a populist prime minister? No one, actually, but the suspicion had been there that he might be prepared to compromise policy to stay on the right side of public opinion.

John Key's political skills will be tested on two fronts this week.

The first, and the most difficult, is whether there should be reserved seats for Maori on Auckland's new super city council.

If bets could be laid on New Zealand's chances of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent on 1990 levels by 2020, the odds would be extremely high.

One sure thing that will come from the uproar over MPs expenses is that none of them are likely to criticise beneficiaries in the foreseeable future.

When National was in opposition, one of its favourite topics was that Helen Clark said in 1999 her aim was to raise New Zealand's living standards into the top half of the OECD.

She failed to do this, and was frequently reminded of that in the run-up to the last election.

It was all so depressingly familiar. Winston Peters tells New Zealand First members it is time for "a new beginning" and urges them to start preparing for the 2011 general election.

If Winston Peters really wants to get back into politics, now would be a good time. Halfway through its first full year in office, the Government has issues in front of it which are tailor-made for New Zealand First -- the foreshore and seabed, and bank interest rates.

It was always going to be only a matter of time before any semblance of a bi-partisan approach to dealing with the recession disappeared.

Federated Farmers isn't an organisation that usually voices opinions on issues that don't have a direct impact on its members. It did last week, and it hit on something worthy of wide consideration -- the $9 million it is costing to run what has become known as the smacking referendum.

Labour was always going to win Mt Albert and National had everything going against it, but David Shearer's runaway win on Saturday was still a big boost for Phil Goff and his opposition MPs.

When a new government takes office and decides remedial economic action is needed, strategy usually focuses on getting it out of the way as quickly as possible.

The Mt Albert by-election and Melissa Lee's serial blunders will soon be forgotten, so will Christine Rankin if she does as she's been told and keeps her head down.