Commentary

National will soon have some finance numbers to get its teeth into. So will Labour, writes Colin James.

It has been a month for centenaries of revolutions: Vladimir Lenin's Russian coup and Martin Luther's challenge to Catholic authorities. Their legacies are very different.

Here's a number to make the new Government’s day: 48% more people are positive than are negative about where the country is now going.

Senior ministers have been abroad on national business: trade and climate change.

Bill English's mission is to stop the new Government "frittering away'' his government's fiscal and economic gains.

Jacinda Ardern's intricately-interlocked ministry is in place. The BIMs have been delivered. One will likely open a door to a wide new space Ardern will want to drive into.

Yesterday was Labour Day. Actually, it was Labour day last Thursday, courtesy of Winston Peters.

Usually, domestic matters are top of mind for a prime minister. But whoever is prime minister - still unknown at the time of writing - will face what may be the biggest foreign policy challenge in...

There has been much ''grumping'' that Winston Peters and New Zealand First, with a 7.2% vote, decide who leads the government. That's MMP.

To borrow the formula for English monarchs: the Maori Party is dead; long live the Maori Party. But who will the successor be?

There is one certainty in this election of upsets, diversions and career endings: Parliament will be younger. The under-40s will swell in number. So will the lower-40s.

The good news for Labour at its campaign launch on Sunday was Jacinda Ardern: sure-footed, traditional-and-modern and an overflow crowd ranging from fired-up to goggle-eyed.

Economies don't work quite the way they used to. Will Labour convincingly address that at its official campaign launch on Sunday?

The chief guardian of freedom in the ``land of the free'' will give a speech tomorrow evening. But it will not be free. Welcome to today's wobbly ``Western'' world.

Tomorrow, with the weekend's mid-ranked parties' conferences over, Labour will have another go at getting traction.

The third- and fourth-ranked parties will hold their pre-election conferences this weekend in Auckland.

Expect to be assailed day-in-day-out in the election campaign with "social investment''.

Here's an imaginary Bill Labour and National could usefully join forces to pass after the election: tighter gun laws to stop people shooting themselves in the foot.