It will be like the first day of school when 29 new MPs, 15 of them from the National Party, turn up to various caucus meetings at Parliament today.

John Key says education reform, National's Home Start housing programme and the continuation of welfare reform are the three key areas to focus on.

Jason Ede, a former Beehive staffer in the PM's office who was widely quoted in the Dirty Politics book, has quit his position with the National Party.

If loyalty to the leader is highly valued, it's not hard to see why new New Zealand First MP Fletcher Tabueau rocketed his way up the party list.

Mike Hosking writes: National had the best case. The best project to present. The best story to tell. The best numbers to back them.

The election success of National has weakened the bargaining power of their support parties.

John Key's achievement on Saturday is historically remarkable.

The election turned out like it did because the attack politics described in Dirty Politics work, says its author Nicky Hager.

The Herald-DigiPoll survey came closest to predicting the final election result, an analysis of the four major polls shows.

John Key yesterday began his third term as Prime Minister with a strict warning to National MPs and ministers: don't get arrogant.

This is a horrible column to write. (Gets up to make a cup of coffee. Instant coffee! De-activates Facebook page.

New Zealand financial markets are expected to firm when they open today after the National Party secured the first ever outright win.

Winston Peters yesterday appeared dead-set on taking a leading role in opposition against John Key's new Government but some of his MPs won't shut the door on National.

Former minister Judith Collins is returning to Parliament but appears to have been punished by voters in Papakura, with her majority halved.

What the public wanted to hear from him was a large measure of mea culpa. What it got was Cunliffe blaming everyone but himself.

The blue tide that has ruled over Northland for the past 40 years swept over the region again with National Party retaining the Whangarei and Northland seats.

As National began to slide in the polls last week, one senior Beehive staffer was puzzled as to why.

Labour leader David Cunliffe says he will not stand down despite a heavy defeat in election 2014.

Three more years they chanted at the National Party headquarters as the scale of their resounding victory in Election 2014 became clear.

An indisputable triumph for one man; a total and unmitigated disaster for his many enemies.

'Getting stuck on a benefit is like crack cocaine,' deputy Prime Minister Bill English told a Tauranga crowd yesterday - and beneficiary advocates aren't impressed.

The PM has accused Glenn Greenwald of acting against NZ's interest after the US journalist said he'd release details of NZ's spying activities on its allies ahead of UN vote.

PM John Key can't rule out US spy agency NSA having NZers' electronic communications under surveillance, even if this country's GCSB doesn't.

Mana leader Hone Harawira claims the National, Labour and Maori parties are all out to unseat him by throwing their weight behind Labour's Kelvin Davis.

Labour leader David Cunliffe says he has sought reassurance from former Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark about the party's role in recent spying revelations.

John Key has struck directly at a specific detail in the spying claims, saying new laws passed last year had nothing to do with the alleged mass surveillance project.

The head of the Southern Cross Cable Network has disputed Prime Minister John Key's claim that a cable had been tapped into as part of a proposition to collect metadata.

Dear John and David. Please forgive the first-name familiarity. I'm older than you are so it doesn't feel terribly out of order.