MPs have had a torrid time in recent weeks.

Climate change policy can create endangered species, as Kevin Rudd found out.

Governments worldwide have grappled with various responses to greenhouse gas emissions and Australia's version of an emissions trading scheme (ETS) wasn't much different to ours.

One good thing will come from the ministerial spending fiasco, and that is they aren't likely to break the rules again.

On Friday, June 4, in the electorate of Helensville, Prime Minister John Key was asked whether he could rule out the sale of Kiwibank at any time in the future and he replied: "Under my leadership, yes." Thanks John. That will save a lot of trouble between now and the next election.

When politicians throw mud, does some of it stick? Or is it counter-productive and do voters treat it with contempt?

From the evidence of past mud-slinging, it doesn't pay and it usually ends up all over the throwers.

Post-budget best case scenario for the Government: Most people react responsibly, saving or investing their tax cuts. Inflation rises but far less than Treasury's forecast.

So the Brits have landed themselves with a hung parliament. Excellent. Maybe those commentators who heaped derision on New Zealand in 1996 will remember their words. The probably won't, but it's gratifying all the same.

The Law Commission's report on the sale and supply of liquor is still new in the minds of politicians but so far the response hasn't been encouraging -- apart from a few exceptions, there doesn't seem to be the determination or the will to seriously tackle New Zealand's drinking problem.

Surprising misconceptions and startling contradictions surround the Government's affirmation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

We've probably got about as much chance of prising open the United States dairy market as selling apples to Australia. And for the same reason -- brute force politics.

It was never going to be easy. Mining in conservation land is highly sensitive, there are lobby groups totally committed to opposing it and at least one of them has a mole embedded in the decision-making machinery.

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.