Maori are living longer and their infant mortality rate will soon be the same as Pakeha - but they're still over-represented in poverty statistics.

New Zealand is still wasting its "demographic dividend" of young Maori and Pacific people reaching working age.

Gaps between New Zealand's main ethnic groups are closing for our youngest citizens - but remain deeply entrenched on many indicators for older children and adults.

Yvonne Costar is used to seeing Maori families around her battling on struggle street.

The woman who had an affair with Auckland Mayor Len Brown has spoken in support of cyber-bullying laws and that she was being stalked on social media.

Schools are under pressure to cope with the catch-up needed for the estimated 73,500 children who miss school each day.

The mother of tortured Rotorua three-year-old Nia Glassie has had her parole revoked by the Parole Board.

Some parents have become obsessed about giving their offspring the added edge, writes Peter Lyons. Choice of school often dominates dinner party conversations.

Two of the Cunliffe donors have had their money refunded to preserve their anonymity - and who could blame them, writes Brian Rudman. For the small amounts, who needs the hassle.

Architecture students have imagined how Auckland will look sporting a new super-brothel, and Wellington's future if sea levels rise.

Respectful attitudes to sex would become a core part of sex education in schools under an overhaul recommended to the Govt.

If the issue of inequality and poverty is to loom large in this election year there are a couple of cherished beliefs on both sides of politics that need to surrender to evidence, writes Brian Fallow.

Never has the downside of social media been more apparent than over the past week, after TV presenter Charlotte Dawson was found dead in her apartment.

Once a luxury for the rich and famous, having a nanny is becoming an affordable childcare option for NZ families.

Families are all but certain to get more paid parental leave in this year's Budget, but not 26 weeks as proposed in a Labour bill.

Statisticians have discovered thousands more children and the elderly living in poverty than have been reported previously.

Online abuse can range from one-off racist, sexist or otherwise distasteful comments to threats of rape and violence and sustained campaigns of harassment, writes Troy McEwan.

A specialist scheme to identify high-risk violent spouses needs a consistent national approach, says a report into fatal domestic abuse.

The family of an Asperger's child who was excluded from his high school after a dispute with a teacher hope he will be able to return to the school.

In the second of our three-part education series we investigate what's gone wrong - and how more time with better-trained teachers could help our kids lead the world again.

The brief of this column is to write about events that have been in the news during the week.

We may not have beaten the Cowboys when it mattered but our economy is in a stronger position than that of our Aussie mates, writes Eric Watson.

Big business is buzzing about New Zealand's economic prospects. Confidence is at a 20-year high and only China is more bullish than our captains of industry.

Homeless families like first-time mum Lydia Mataiti and her newborn baby will find it harder to find shelter after the closure of one of Auckland's handful of emergency houses.

North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, was warned that he could face prosecution for crimes against humanity after a United Nations inquiry accused him of human rights abuses.

Treating gambling addicts who commit crimes would be much cheaper than jailing them, and would reduce reoffending, says a New York judge.

Eleven employers have been accredited as the country's first living wage employers - among them, former Cabinet minister turned restaurateur, Laila Harre.

The controversial Neknomination craze has reportedly led to the death of another young British man, after a rugby player mixed two pints of gin with teabags and said to the camera: "This is how you drink."

Twenty-two families who have mostly been doubling up with relatives in overcrowded homes finally have room to breathe in a new housing project opened by a Tongan princess in Mangere.

The mother of tortured Rotorua three-year-old Nia Glassie will be released from prison after being granted parole.