As a gang member held a knife to his throat, Jarrod Gilbert wondered if he was about to die.

COMMENT: To reduce inequality, politicians need to ensure Maori views are not frozen out by mono-cultural agencies and majority decisions.

COMMENT: Set up support networks and make sure that local addiction recovery services are available. If not, agitate for them.

COMMENT: If you're looking for the best writerly word to sum up the times in which we live, you really can't go past Dickensian.

Top female chess players reacted with horror yesterday after being told they must compete at next year's world championship wearing a hijab.

COMMENT: There are important questions to ask about the type of society we want to be, writes Lizzie Marvelly.

COMMENT: The challenge is how do we improve employment opportunities for our intellectually disabled people?

We went to various communities to ask them what they want from a new mayor - here is what they said.

Vulnerable children will be placed in foster care more quickly, and their foster parents will get more flexible pay, under law changes outlined today.

COMMENT: The rewrite of the Social Security Act is a good time to abolish the sanctions altogether.

The latest steps proposed by the Govt to try to curb this country's high rate of domestic violence do not appear likely to make much difference.

COMMENT: As we read yet again of huge gains by property speculators, are we not obliged to ask a serious question?

Androgynous YouTube star Kris Fox reveals how he received regular attacks and death threats online.

COMMENT: Of all the reactions arising from the investigation into the Chiefs' stripper scandal, the most apt was issued by the woman involved.

COMMENT: Spend any length of time in the US and you realise that the Star-Spangled Banner is not an anthem to be dishonoured lightly.

The gap between rich and poor continues to grow in NZ.

Kiwi mum said she had no idea how affected her daughter was by a classmate's taunts until it was almost too late.

Contrary to public perception, few overseas-born elderly Asians own a house and many are living in poorly maintained dwellings.

Green MP Marama Davidson heads the cross-party Inquiry into Homelessness. She says homelessness has affected her own friends and family members.

COMMENT: There are two NZs on display and each is as un-Kiwi as the other.

COMMENT: Never mind arguing about whether child poverty exists: what are we going to do?

Disney-themed burkinis are making a splash in New Zealand, spurred by a woman's desire to help Muslim girls and women lead more active lives.

Refugees and migrants who have not eaten for a day or more bed down on blankets and scraps of cardboard in a small park near Lake Como in Italy.

Erin Gough responds to a column that expressed sympathy for a range of people whose worries were worse than a latte or the valuation of their house.

The pay gap between men and women directors on New Zealand boards is closing.

COMMENT: Down here at the southern end of the Earth, human rights abuses very often seem like the stuff of faraway lands.

A new study says Work and Income is pushing many beneficiaries into jobs that don't last - and even told a pregnant woman to start

Although there are well over 40 openly gay and lesbian athletes competing in the Summer Games, neither of the two reported trans athletes have come out publicly.

COMMENT: Many cultures across the world have suffered horrible cruelties but haven't all become killers and thieves.

COMMENT: There's been a lot discussed about all the problems P smoking brings, but what about the real cost to the owners of these properties?