Government Minister Gerry Brownlee isn't impressed by parliamentary security staff doing a sniff test on white powder that arrived in his office at Parliament last week.

The number of fast-food outlets on Queen St has grown to at least 42, which critics say is not helping Kiwis' growing waistline or an $80 million facelift and the efforts of city planners to make it NZ's premier retail and business district.

The number of abortions performed has fallen to its lowest rate in almost 20 years,

Damien Grant writes about how caring for a disabled relative must be a great burden on a family.

University of Otago researchers poring over blood samples uncovered a trend in adult New Zealanders that rattled health officials.

The Government's plan of attack for reducing obesity begins before a child is born, or even conceived.

The Law Society has raised serious concerns about controversial new legislation which would prevent carers of disabled family members from taking legal action.

A pharmacist who was selling unapproved prescription medicines for male erectile dysfunction has been sentenced to four-and-a-half months in prison.

The Government has been accused of undemocratic law-making after a controversial bill was passed without public input and with official advice heavily censored.

A bill which allows people who cared for disabled family members to get paid by the Govt has passed into law a day after being introduced amid protest about its narrow scope, lack of consultation, and possible discrimination.

A legal high lobbyist says synthetic cannabis is a low-risk psychoactive substance that had not caused any death and was statistically safer than alcohol.

When little Lewis Railton was nearly killed by a rare and deadly stroke, his parents knew the road to recovery wouldn't be smooth.

New Zealand communities are battling to rid themselves of synthetic cannabis - with the Government's promised solution months away.

A million-dollar nationwide steroid dealing ring that involved banned medicines being posted around New Zealand has been smashed by police.

A champion bodybuilder has today admitted running a nationwide steroid dealing operation, pleading guilty to 156 charges.

Citizens of Auckland and Wellington will be surprised to learn that water fluoridation is still an issue for the rest of the country.

The mood is sombre in the South Taranaki District council chambers. Their decision-making is under scrutiny by concerned locals just a couple of metres away in the public gallery.

"How many die in New Zealand hospitals from bugs they pick up within the health care facilities they've come to to get cured of something else?" asks Brian Rudman.

Four health workers involved in the care of a medical student who died at Auckland City Hospital in 2009 after a wrongful diagnosis can now be named.

Schoolboys as young as 12 could soon be offered protection against sexually transmitted diseases through free vaccine shots.

Kiwi babies look likely to get free vaccinations against chickenpox and rotavirus later this year - up to six years after Australia.

A champion bodybuilder accused of running a nationwide steroid dealing operation has been continuing his crimes while on bail, according to police.

At a secret location just north of Auckland, an experiment has started which might alter the face of New Zealand's $12 billion dairy industry.