Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully will not meet a West Papuan freedom fighter who was refused a public forum at Parliament.

"Is NZ's relationship with Indonesia so lacking that it could not tolerate a West Papuan independence activist speaking at a lunch-hour meeting?" asks John Armstrong.

A leading human rights lawyer yesterday hit out at a decision banning a West Papua independence activist from speaking at Parliament.

Opponents of a law change to allow same-sex marriage are stepping up their campaign, targeting MPs they feel may change their vote at the bill's next hurdle.

There is, if you'll pardon the expression, something rather queer about the gay marriage controversy.

Beneficiaries have overtaken Asians as the group New Zealanders consider to be the most discriminated against.

Justice Minister Judith Collins has backtracked on a law change that would have ensured compensation for ill-treatment of prisoners by the state was used to benefit victims rather than being given to the inmates.

Some parents tell their high-achieving children to not even consider university because there was no way they can afford to attend.

While promoting tolerance and anti-discrimination is always a positive move, sports culture has to be - and should always remain - all about performance, not sexual preference.

Members of the Defence Force will march in uniform in the Auckland Pride Parade next month.

Pensioners are holding out in a dwindling minority opposing gay marriage - as 2013 looks possibly to be the year for it to become reality.

I was surprised to read in Deborah Coddington's recent Herald column that the Treaty of Waitangi is New Zealand's founding document. Of course some New Zealanders mistakenly believe that is the case.

The first Sikh guardsman to be given permission to wear a turban instead of a bearskin while on duty outside Buckingham Palace is under pressure not to break tradition.

New Zealand may be in breach of its human rights obligations to significantly disabled people who are being treated as second-class citizens, according to new research.

TV reporter Matty McLean has made a personal plea to Parliament to legalise gay marriage so he can fulfil his father's wish to attend his wedding.

If that change really is needed, then so be it, writes Andrew Geddis. "But I think the Law Society is wrong and the bill as it stands would not require anything new of any religious group."

Over 100 journalists have been killed so far this year - the highest number since the International Press Institute (IPI) began keeping count of journalists' deaths in 1997.

As John Key wraps up an important Burma visit, he talks to Herald Political Editor Audrey Young about what he's learned and seen.

A bill to legalise same-sex marriage is likely to be amended to explicitly state that churches would not be forced to marry same-sex couples.