Commitment and some sacrifices only way to fix growing social and economic problems.

Welfare agencies alarmed at extreme lengths some people go to just to eat. One desperate case of a Bay of Plenty child and his three siblings has been offered as a stark example of the degree of poverty in our communities.

The Government won't consider reductions to main benefit levels including the sickness, invalid's, unemployment and domestic purposes benefits as part of any welfare overhaul recommended by the Welfare Working Group tomorrow.

About 300,000 welfare beneficiaries who are judged capable of work will face a day of reckoning tomorrow with the release of a report.

Maverick Maori Party MP Hone Harawira says he is "hugely disappointed" by the decision to suspend him from caucus, saying it showed "complete disregard" for the complaint process two days out from a disciplinary committee meeting.

Rogue MP Hone Harawira has been suspended from the Maori Party for what its leadership describes as a five year legacy of ill discipline.

A pub tenant is being sought for Auckland's historic Birdcage Tavern near Victoria Park.

A New Zealander gives a harrowing account of how Haiti's nightmare is continuing.

The Salvation Army says it is seeing an increase in the number of people unable to put food on the table, having spent all their money during Christmas.

Nobody wins unless everybody wins. It's a phrase on a post it that's been stuck to my computer monitor for weeks.

The disease has begun to infect residents of the capital's densely populated tent cities, where more than a million people are still living.

Following reports of Australian charities paying for homeless Kiwis to fly home, a down-on-her-luck NZer in Melbourne tells her story.

An Auckland agency for the homeless has offered to help destitute Kiwis who are being sent home after falling on hard times in Australia.