Justice Minister Judith Collins has defended requiring councils to wait for a year before they can use new powers over liquor licensing, saying smaller councils could not handle it.

Whangarei police are praising the actions of family members who pulled a 10-year-old boy out of a car moments before his intoxicated mother drove off in the vehicle and crashed.

Police are threatening to post phoney messages about fictitious breath testing check points on Facebook pages set up to help drunk drivers avoid being caught.

The brother of All Black Zac Guildford has avoided a jail sentence for repeated drink-driving.

The Labour Party will make a last-ditch attempt to introduce strict limits on the sale of sweetened alcoholic drinks after the Government backed down on its plan to ban high-strength alcopops.