Focus on Politics

Record immigration levels have reignited debate in Parliament over whether it's time to put a cap on numbers. The new arrivals put stresses on the nation, and that can cause dangerous resentments. It's being felt mostly in Auckland, not just with housing but other infrastructure like transport. Here's our political reporter, Demelza Leslie.

While National is the main governing party, it could not do so without support arrangements with other, much smaller, political parties. Since being elected in 2008 National has had agreements with United Future, the Maori Party and ACT. While the individual deals are renegotiated at each election, National still has confidence and supply agreements with those three parties. Our political editor Jane Patterson talked to each of the support parties about working with National, and the challenges of making their agreements work.