Alcohol-poisoning victim James Webster's father says his son's death would have been avoided if he'd known the risk he was taking.

After his son admitted encouraging James Webster to drink, a tearful John Banks accepted responsibility for the boy's actions 'because that's what a father should do'.

Allowing brothels to operate near playgrounds, schools or churches in central Otago resort towns is "unacceptable", a lobby group says.

A teen who drank himself to death at a party earlier this year regularly passed out after drinking, an inquest into his death was told.

A mother has told a court she knew teenager James Webster was dead as soon as she walked into the room where he had been put to bed.

Progress is being made in the war against drug addiction and its links with crime.

TVNZ has received a record number of complaints about Paul Henry's remarks on Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand, and many staff within TVNZ were also angered by the comments.

A man was tasered 13 times in a Perth police station as nine officers stood by, says a corruption watchdog.

John Key says he supports TVNZ's two-week suspension of Breakfast host Paul Henry, but has denied putting any pressure on the state broadcaster to take action.

Keisha Castle-Hughes is producing a film about a subject painfully close to her heart - NZ's 'epidemic' of P abuse.

Two Mongrel Mob leaders are being paid by the taxpayers to try to turn the country's gangs away from drugs and crime.

Second-generation Mongrel Mobster Layton Te Nahu is off the drug P and back with his family, thanks to a remarkable New Zealand story that involves the Prime Minister, the Salvation Army and a retired surgeon.

There was less crime and more of it was solved in the year ended June 30, police say.