Mike Houlahan

In a six-part series, Mike Houlahan looks back at how the Otago Daily Times covered burning issues of yesteryear. Today he looks at how the newspaper reacted to a major event in the Boer War.

Regular readers of this column may feel like much of it this year has been about Dunedin Labour MP Rachel Brooking and her National counterparts, especially RMA Minister Chris Bishop.

To the surprise of absolutely no-one, Parliament once more adopted urgency this week as the government pressed to get a plethora of Bills progressed before Christmas.

This past week has been Scrutiny Week at Parliament, where the actions of ministers and ministries are put under under the spotlight during a series of committee hearings.

For many MPs this recess week has offered the chance for a much-needed rest following an exhausting week of overtime sitting under urgency.

Rocklands Station has plenty of places a possum can run to, but if a new trial proves successful the pests will have nowhere they can hide.

The hurly-burly of politics seldom intrudes on the quiet halls of Bupa Windsor Park Care Home in Gore.

Yes, it has been a big few days at Parliament, what with MPs being expelled and a major corruption scandal at New Zealand Police.

As you would expect on most pieces of legislation which Parliament considers, the government and the Opposition take diametrically contrary viewpoints.

As a trained lawyer, Joseph Mooney will be well familiar with the legal adage "hard cases make bad law".

As the calendar moves into mid-October, more than a few people are ticking off the days until January 1.

Parliament is on holiday now, but that does not mean politics has stopped.

For this week only Southern Say is venturing over the border from the South — but not so very far away — for an inspiring tale

It is the nature of Parliament that sometimes things which matter not one jot, and which everyone pretty much actually agrees on, take up an enormous amount of the House’s time.

For most of this week the House has been occupied with the Estimates Debate, the annual run through with ministers about their various portfolios.

At the end of a long recess with no Parliament what is one to do when there is no House of Representatives to watch but to go to the ‘‘Clayton’s’’ Parliament - the Parliament you have when you are...