If he knows what's good for him, the modern gentleman will prefer brains, not blondes, according to a study of marriage.

When you are feeling in the depths of despair it does not help at all to be told to count your blessings, writes Deborah Hill Cone.

Politicians hate targets. The risk associated with them is all too apparent.

Helping close achievement gaps in our classrooms will be a priority for a leading academic appointed to a major new science education role.

Kiwi donors are sponsoring three African children - in Mt Roskill. The trio came here as refugees in '08 need the sponsorship because the family can't make ends meet.

New Zealand has retained its rank as one of the world's most developed countries.

Life-long street activist Sue Bradford has turned to the academic world in a bid to overcome the "mindless activism" of much of New Zealand's protest movement.

Is poverty for life? A Treasury report suggests not, writes Brian Fallow. Only 24 per cent of those at the bottom decile in 2002 were there seven years later.

In his Dialogue piece last week Professor Warren Brookbanks questioned whether a specific new offence relating to strangulation would deter domestic violence.

Today, Pita Sharples will carry out the first reading of the new Maori Language Bill 2014 in Parliament.

The former director of Sir Owen Glenn's family violence inquiry has produced her own solution without waiting for the inquiry to finish its work.

Children's "vulnerability" is more like a revolving door than a fixed state, a new report has found.

The curriculum in New Zealand schools is "compulsory" and nobody minds - until it is suggested that all New Zealand children should be given a grounding in te reo Maori.

He went inside the minds of our most dangerous prisoners, told us how to bring up our kids, and now Nigel Latta turns moral guardian in search of answers to society’s biggest problems.

'Let's go and have a look around," is how my Dad announces a trip to a town whose main draws are a supermarket and an obese pigeon.

The Labour leader apologised for being a man and the lid came off a sizeable can of worms, writes Patricia Greig.

When Lilly McDonald first heard about an online group offering stuff for nothing, she didn't believe it.

Actress Angelina Jolie will visit the asylum seeker detention centre on Nauru in a move likely to put further international pressure on the Australian Government's harsh policies.

Jake Miller was head prefect of his school with a $40,000 scholarship to study law waiting for him.

Derryn Hinch wants to be able to turn on his mobile phone and see the names of all sex offenders in the neighbourhood.

Mother of two Jenny Daniell-Wiig used to rely on a foodbank to feed her family on a regular basis. But with help, she's made changes.

Tracing my whakapapa or family tree is something I'm looking forward to and there are some awesome people who are going to help me do it.

Jonathan Boston and Simon Chapple, authors of Child Poverty in New Zealand, rightly fume at the nonchalant political response to the finding of serious errors in measured child poverty.

Would-be immigrants with higher-level English language skills may be given higher priority after an international review of New Zealand's migration policy.

Those on paid parental leave will be able to work occasionally on "keeping in touch days" without losing their entitlement under moves to increase the scheme's flexibility.

Power companies are offering some of their best deals door-to-door as competition intensifies for electricity customers.

Dequan Wright, a cocky, charming former high school football player from Richmond, California, was only 14 when he was sentenced to a year in jail.

I don't smack my kids but I don't have a problem with people who smack theirs. If that's what you're into, go for your life, writes Matt Heath.

Pregnant women are being reminded to heed dietary guidelines because not doing so can result in the death of unborn children.