A police officer denies allegations she racially abused a taxi driver in Queenstown last year while affected by a cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol.

Dr Harold Williams has long been featured by Guinness World Records as the world's greatest linguist. He spoke 58 languages.

New Zealand's expanding building industry has signed up its 9000th apprentice - but says it is running out of young people to fill the demand for more.

A transgender refugee from Colombia who was knocked back by other countries says she has "found paradise" in New Zealand after being officially recognised as a woman.

As his hard-hitting TV series about New Zealand’s biggest challenges draws to a close, Nigel Latta reflects on what he knows now

Labour wants drivers' licences and passports in New Zealand to offer three gender options.

Lydia Sosene writes: A full-strength alcohol outlet would be a recipe for disaster and the social cost on our struggling community will continue to triple.

The Government’s proposal for get-ahead loans is okay, but it won't help New zealanders who are still in serious financial trouble, writes Peter Calder.

Voters comparing social policies at this election have a clear choice: "Unrelenting focus on work" with National, or a softer line if Labour wins.

Most New Zealanders take their rights for granted, but they're rights often not realised by disabled people, writes Paul Gibson.

The Auckland Council was an early supporter of Te Ururoa Flavell's Gambling Harm Reduction Bill and it saw the legislation as a toolkit.

When I was in Christchurch recently to interview the two main candidates in the Christchurch Central electorate, I was shocked to see that people on the street seemed even more weary than ever.

David and Wendy Farnell blundered their way through a 60 Minutes television interview about their disabled son, Gammy, born to a surrogate mother in Thailand.

A new war on "loan sharks' should help bankrupt Auckland mum Farrah Matthews, who ended up paying $29k for a $12k car - borrowing money at 29 per cent interest.

Almost 1 million families will be eligible for low- and no-interest loans under a new Government-backed scheme aimed at saving low-income families from "loan sharks".

Peter Calder writes: Waikowhai Primary School in Mt Roskill is one of 15 schools where the seven-week course called Kiwi Kids has been run over the past eight years.

Mountaineer Graeme Dingle's youth charity is branching out from its original outdoors focus to try to connect school-leavers with employers and jobs.

A further 3500 young people on welfare could have their spending tightly controlled by an adult supervisor if National is re-elected.

For the first time, US public schools are projected this northern autumn to have more minority students than non-Hispanic whites.

I tuned into an annoying discussion on the radio this week. It was a bunch of baby boomers claiming young people who haven't seen war have no right to complain.

Let's not get sidetracked over whether or not Housing New Zealand's dog ban failed.

New Zealand's first sex offender register has been signed off by Cabinet, but will only be available to agencies and not the general public.

I look in the mirror and wonder how I managed to survive the torture and humiliation I faced when I was a teenager, writes Jesse Greenslade.

Pinepine Savage holds proof in her own life that it is possible to turn around a town that everyone had written off.

An Auckland Congolese family whose children are sponsored by NZ donors have been overwhelmed by readers' generosity since their story featured in the Herald.

Even while "the monstrous anger of the guns" was hauling millions to their death, the blame game was already well under way.

Wheelchair users who can't get into a new bank branch in downtown Auckland say its inaccessible design makes New Zealand look like a "Third World" country.

Picture your son or daughter watching an event at the Commonwealth Games, then turning to you and saying: "I want to do that."