No-one saw it coming and the aftershocks may reverberate for some time. And that is just the upheaval in the wake of rising National Party star Simon Power's abrupt decision to stand down at the next election.
Cabinet Minister Simon Power is retiring from politics in November to return to the private sector.
The Government has backtracked on previous statements that it knew nothing about a decision to replace its three-year-old BMWs with new ones.
Unemployment would have peaked at well over 7% without the Government's multibillion investment in big construction projects, Finance Minister Bill English says.
The ACC system is being clogged up with surgery claims that have no hope of succeeding because of private insurance company requirements, ACC Minister Nick Smith says, as he dismissed the idea of an independent review into claims.
The joke doing the rounds of the military has it that there seems to be no spare cash for anything other than hiring expensive consultants to squeeze more money out of the Defence Force's budget to hire even more expensive consultants ...
Brittle, uncertain, and full of surprises. No, that is not an assessment of former Labour Party MP Chris Carter's current state of mind.
Damned if he does; dog tucker if he doesn't. Phil Goff's promise to remove GST from fresh fruit and vegetables might be interpreted as a sign Labour has gone completely gaga.
This is a climate which does not look kindly at penny-pinching by the state. The Prime Minister would be less than human if he wasn't disappointed at having to cancel his weekend engagement as the Queen's guest at Balmoral Castle, the royal family's residence in Scotland.
The Government plans to make progress on its "private-public partnerships" proposals, having previously said it will use the system to construct a prison at Wiri, Auckland, and may do so when new schools are considered.
Shame on National. That party's behaviour in Parliament over the past couple of weeks has on occasion veered close to being a disgrace, both to itself and the institution.
The left-wing activists who stormed the Sky City Hotel last Sunday in an inevitably futile attempt to force their way into the National Party conference should take a good hard look at themselves.
Southern union leaders have cried foul over the National Government's far-reaching changes to employment law, calling some aspects an attack on fundamental human rights.
You be the judge. Imagine for a few moments that you are an official in the Overseas Investment Office with the power to say yes or no to applications from foreign interests wanting to buy parcels of New Zealand land.
Many people are starting to believe that the National-led Government is preparing to partially privatise several state-owned enterprises, with Finance Minister Bill English indicating there would be strong demand for Kiwibank shares. Business editor Dene Mackenzie investigates what is on offer.
Gut instinct would have prodded John Key to cut short his Middle East trip immediately he was told of the Anzac Day helicopter crash.
You would be hard pressed to find another Government-commissioned report containing as much mind-numbing mumbo-jumbo or indigestible twaddle as the one produced by the Whanau Ora task force.
Parliament, as it so often does, tried to design a horse with its legislative provisions controlling private enterprise during Easter, and instead produced a camel.
