Does a country of 4.4m really need 28 ministers - 20 in Cabinet and eight outside?

Christchurch council has come under fire for hiring an investigator to gather evidence about people living in at-risk houses in the Port Hills.

The High Court knocked back a bid by the statutory managers of Allan Hubbard's affairs to use his personal funds to meet their fees just two days before Hubbard's death in a car crash.

It is in the natural order of things for every generation of parents to lament that their children behave more badly than they did when they were growing up.