MPs climb off the benches and onto the campaign trail

With the valedictory speeches spoken and the last niggles niggled, parliament wrapped up its business today. Enjoy a quiet weekend, because it'll be all-out campaigning from next week.

Perhaps the most interesting point was Winston Peters' suggestion that he could pick up the party votes of  "tens of thousands" of Maori voters. It could be Peters' last shot at survival,and given that he was harping on Radio Waatea earlier this week about how the Maori Party betrayed him, it does give some hint as to the voters he's targeting to get New Zealand First back up over 5%. But Labour and the Maori Party will have something to say about that.

One question: The newspaper websites are all carrying the same NZPA story of the final session. Does that mean the papers' own journos all headed to the pub early today?