#WillSheVote? Lifelong Local Body election non-voter Hinekia Fitzgerald hears from candidates on her journey to the polls.

Hinekia Fitzgerald has never voted in a local body election. Will this election be different?

A homeless solo mother of three who was given a voucher for a motel room had to give one child to her parents because there was no space for all of them in the motel.

Police are warning motorists to avoid roads in South Auckland following a significant oil spill.

Papakura residents were awoken about 5am today to the sounds of explosions from a car ablaze in a Red Hill parking lot.

Housing NZ has bought a motel to help meet the area's housing shortage - but the existing residents will have to move out to make room for the homeless.

Sprucing up tired town centres, public safety and managing ongoing residential growth are the biggest concerns for Manurewa-Papakura ward voters.

Developers who pushed for fast-track development rights in some of Auckland's special housing areas are now walking away from the process.

Looming lapse of the affordability rule in up to half of special housing areas sparks land-banking accusations.

A woman with stab wounds ran onto the road carrying a baby and screaming for help this afternoon, a witness has described.

One of the more basic properties in Papakura is probably now also one of the cheapest.

A prefab-style house in Papakura is for sale with a price tag of more than half a million dollars.

Police say the death of a woman found in a South Auckland park this morning is not thought to be suspicious.

Police have released a photo of a man wanted in connection with a shooting in South Auckland.

The northbound lanes of Auckland's Southern Motorway just before the Papakura on ramp are now open following a serious crash involving multiple vehicles.

Thomas Shortcliffe allegedly cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet in the latest among a series of incidents involving offenders tampering with GPS anklets.

Dozens of graves - for mostly children and stillborn babies - were trashed in Auckland cemetery.

The fifth seal in two weeks has come to shore in South Auckland - this time in Manurewa.

It is not the infamous seal that took over a car wash in the area earlier this week... this time, it's a baby!

A struck-off doctor turned scrap-metal dealer has had convictions for receiving stolen vehicles upheld after a six-year legal battle.

There were 14 seal-related injury claims last year. One person was even bitten on the bum.

Watch: DOC officers finally capture loose seal that caused chaos in South Auckland and "freaked out" morning commuters.

The man responsible for the desecration of about 30 infant graves at Auckland's Papakura Cemetery remains uncaught.

A police spokeswoman today said police had spoken with a couple of other potential witnesses, but not the person in the video footage.

After the desecration of children’s graves at a cemetery, several members of the public have approached police to help with the investigation.

A mother whose baby's grave was destroyed in an act of vandalism has welcomed news that police are narrowing in on the offender.

A South Auckland community is rallying around the families of children whose graves were vandalised, with donations and offers of help pouring in.