The House

Legislation, issues and insights from Parliament.

Hosted by Phil Smith & Louis Collins

Podcast Title 'The House' set in a bold font on an outside wall, with a image of the parliament house seen through a window

Follow this podcast

RSS
Follow onApple Podcasts Follow onSpotify Follow onIHeartRadio

Get this podcast straight from the source in the free RNZ app: Apple App Store or Google Play

All episodes:

The parliamentary background to the 'missing submissions' story

Parliament has voted to allow the Justice Committee to continue processing submissions on the Treaty principles bill, even after the committee's work on the bill is finished. This will allow them to be collected along with the submissions that were considered by the committee as part of its report. We chat with the Clerk of the House of Representatives, David Wilson for background on the parliamentary rules and processes behind this move.
New episode

Gene Technology Bill: The public have their say

Nearly 25 years after the “corngate” saga of the early 2000s, the debate on Genetic Modification is back in New Zealand’s political consciousness thanks to the Gene Technology Bill, which is currently going through the select committee process.
Submitter during hearing on Gene Technology Bill

Threats without consequences: Parliament’s “school-yard stupidity” classroom

Gerry Brownlee was a teacher when ‘the cane’ ruled the classroom. As Parliament’s Speaker, he is reluctant to reach beyond threats and pleas.
Speaker Gerry Brownlee in the House.

Parliament Bill arrives back in the House

After a select committee process that presented MPs with lots of constitutional questions, the Parliament Bill is back in the House.
Ricardo Menendez March in Select Committee.

Do we need a Parliamentary Budget Office?

The House chats with two MPs from the Parliament Bill Committee about some interesting suggestions from submitters - namely a Parliamentary Budget Office.
No caption

Urgency giveth, and urgency taketh away

Parliament spent much of this week debating bills under urgency. The Government can get more done in the House that way, but there is a trade-off in committees.
Road sign at speed

A week of urgent plod sprinkled with chaos

MPs were welcomed back to this three week sitting block by more urgency, and a boisterous question time.
Parliament House and the Beehive wreathed in heavy mist during winter 2019

Climate change adaptation: Parliament asks the small questions

Parliament’s recent inquiry and debate on climate change adaptation asked small questions, looked short term and inched towards reactive solutions.
Episode image

Budget debate lite: MPs debate Budget Policy Statement

This Week, Parliament had the debate on the Budget Policy Statement, which gave us a few hints as to what we can expect come Budget Day on 22 May.
Cameron Brewer during the debate on the Budget Policy Statement

Fictional fiscal cliffs – misinterpreting budgets for political gain

The Prime Minister’s much repeated claim that he “saved school lunches” because Labour "failed to fund them" is nonsense, and relies on us not understanding how budgets actually work. We analyse the claim, the reality, and the budget approach that allows the misinterpretation.
A school lunch example at Otahuhu College

First dose of urgency for the year fixes legal issue

The first dose of Parliamentary urgency was dished out this week, to address a law that has fallen behind common practice.
No caption

Four more years? MPs get first chance to debate parliamentary term length bill

This week, MPs got their first chance to debate on a new bill that would extend the three year parliamentary term to four years.
The executive wing at Parliament

New bill gives green light to congestion charging

This week's legislative agenda began with the first reading of a bill that enables congestion charging in our cities.
Traffic in Auckland.

Urgent debate on Bayly resignation

Before MPs got down to debating legislation this week, they spent time debating the resignation last week of National Party minister, Andrew Bayly. Responses ranged from nothing-to-see-here to what-aren't-they-telling-us.
Andrew Bayly speaks to media as he resigns from all ministerial portfolios

The Changing Sound of Politics: The voices of past PMs

Political voices have become very familiar since the beginning of radio, but they haven’t always sounded the same. Listen to 14 former Prime Ministers (and one Speaker) from 1912 to 1990.
Former Prime Minister Keith Holyoake sworn in as Governor General

Other podcasts
like this one

More podcasts with similar themes or ideas that you might enjoy.

  • Test reads "The detail" where the dot on the "I" is highlighted.

    The Detail

    Get the skinny on the big news with the country’s best journalists & experts.

  • An illustrated motif representing people from the Pacific gathered around a sun sits behind a photographic portrait of Susana Suisuiki.

    Pacific Waves

    Delving deeper into the major Pacific stories each week

  • An abstract heart constructed from shapes similar to rural fields seen in aerial photography sits behind the text 'Country Life'.

    Country Life

    Head out to the farms & back roads to hear the stories of rural New Zealand.

  • A grey and blue hypnotising illustration on the background with a large title saying "Mediawatch" and words "weekly since 2001" above the title.

    Mediawatch

    A critical look at the New Zealand media.

  • A stylised photograph of a paua shell mimicking the image of 'earth' with the podcast title 'our changing world' on top.

    Our Changing World

    Stories of NZ science and nature from out in the field and inside the labs.