This week, two primetime documentary specials put New Zealand women in the spotlight, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

One of NZ's most famous Maori tribes, Tuhoe, is negotiating to take over social services for its people in an ambitious bid to end welfare "dependency".

Welfare, says Tuhoe leader Tamati Kruger, is a "disease" that has sapped the motivation of his people.

At least one family every three days is now seeking housing help across Auckland because their only place to live is a car.

Tough allocation criteria make it near-impossible for most people to even get on the state house waiting lists. The private rental market is a tough place to enter when you're down and out, writes Sue Bradford.

This advertising campaign will just add to the growing concerns that children already have about their appearance, weight, eating, exercise and health, writes Dr Darren Powell.

As research discovers Facebook can increase feelings of sadness, Rachel Halliwell explains how she found the social media sweet spot.

Complaining publicly about the Hollywood gender pay gap is "a bit vulgar", Kate Winslet says.

A stocktake on women's place in New Zealand says many women are still treated as "second-class citizens".

Young people from an Indian caste long regarded as privileged have been staging violent protests as they clamour for a downgrade to "backward" status.

Carl Ewen knows how to grow a good mo. He says it also helps that he's from a "follicly advanced family".

Among young offenders, the rate of reconviction within five years after release is 91 per cent, much of which happens within the first 12 to 24 months, writes Jarrod Gilbert.

A dismissed addiction counsellor says her case has exposed unsafe understaffing at the prison unit where she worked.

Emma Watson and Mark Ruffalo are among stars backing Jennifer Lawrence for addressing the Hollywood gender pay gap in a hard-hitting article.

The CYF review panel recommends a child-centred system, "where the voices and needs of children and young people are at the forefront of everything the agency does".

State house tenants from around New Zealand plan to march on Parliament against Government plans to sell 1600 houses in Tauranga and Invercargill.

They don't deserve to be swept off the streets like just another pile of rubbish, writes Kerre McIvor.

After the American incident, John Key went on to lament the difficulties of gun control in the US but forgot about the same problem in New Zealand, writes Alexander Gillespie.

"Why doesn't she leave?" That is the wrong question to ask. It places responsibility for the situation on the victim, rather than the perpetrator, writes Catriona MacLennan.

A former Immigration Minister says he would let Chris Brown into the country because it would cause no obvious harm.

'Like living in Club Med" or "siloing a generation". Retirement villages attract strong feelings for and against.

Rather than placing children in foster care the state should be helping to strengthen their family unit.

South Africa's murder rate has increased for the third year running, with opposition groups saying the figures mirror "a country at war".

It is a grim glimpse of the front line of social work - an 1100-page dossier of abuse and misery cataloguing the life of Benjamin*.

Severely disabled child used by his alcoholic mother and her boyfriend to access up to $80,000 in benefits.

It is extraordinary that a West Auckland teenager was held in police station cells for four days because CYFs could not find a bed for her, Labour says.

Some Kiwis have been living on $2.25 of food and drink a day this week to experience Third World poverty. Andrew Laxon decided to join them.

Women looking to get a head-start in business will have the chance to learn from some of the best who have gone before them.

An inquest into the horrific deaths of seven tourists has heard an appeal to Kiwis to stop blaming foreign drivers for the carnage on our roads.

24 per cent of New Zealanders have reported feeling tired on a daily basis in a Southern Cross Healthcare Group survey.