Labour's $60-a-week child payment scheme may produce less work and more babies, economists say.

David Cunliffe's "baby bonus" is a nifty Trojan horse that will do more for Labour's chances than the usual politically inspired and euphemistically labelled "kissing babies" exercise, writes Fran O'Sullivan.

Understandably, there has been much comment in the media concerning the tragedy in Dunedin involving the killing of two children by their father.

This election year there will be claim and counter-claim from National and Labour about whether the recovering economy is a rising tide that will lift all boats.

Chinese businessman who arrived as a boy in 1939 can look back on 75 years of fruitful life in NZ as a proud Kiwi.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett is naturally happy to attribute a big reduction in the state's welfare liability to the Government's efforts.

Padded bikini tops for pre-teen girls are being taken off the shelves after a furious child welfare advocate intervened.

The combined wealth of the 85 richest people in the world is the same as the combined wealth of the world's poorest 3.5 billion, writes Toby Manhire.

Otara teenager Sipa Deidoe had never been inside a theatre until he came into the Aotea Centre for a first meeting about a new arts project late last year.

Speakers from around the world will be welcomed at Parliament today in a huge powhiri - but there won't be any women in the front row,

I'm at the library. I haven't been at the library in years. But I'm told libraries are quiet places and I need a bit of quiet , writes Danielle Murray.

New Zealanders are proud of their landscape and people but acknowledge the Kiwi lifestyle comes at a cost, research shows.

Friendliness and a can-do attitude top a list of traits that New Zealanders think reflect our national identity.

Sir Colin Meads is the ultimate reflection of how many Kiwis view themselves.

Many family factors can be triggers for youth offending. Chief among these are criminal or anti-social parents.

Almost 5 per cent of all marriages of NZ residents were between same-sex couples in the first four months after gay marriage became legal.

First-home buyers have snapped up a quarter of the vacant state houses put up for sale by the Govt, some for under $100,000.

Monogamy is suddenly becoming popular in the gay community now same-sex couples can get married, an Auckland couple says.

Bill in works to make domestic violence a factor at sentencing - but first, the beach.

We are a conservative society. Minority groups with abnormal inclinations are often frowned upon, writes Peter Lyons.

A drinking game played through social media which has caught on in NZ has been labelled "incredibly foolish" and "very, very harmful" by an alcohol-harm advocacy group.

Three people have been charged with giving alcohol to a 9-year-old who was filmed, apparently drunk, at a Hamilton skatepark.

It is an unlikely setting from which to launch a fightback against Egypt's new military rulers.

Mandy and Clair Cordo share the hard lessons they have learned on their journeys in this third story on love in the 21st century.

A video of a drunk boy stumbling and slurring at a Hamilton skate park has been reposted to YouTube despite an earlier attempt by police to have Google remove it.

Words can hardly express the harm inflicted on a 9-year-old boy in Hamilton this week by someone who gave him enough alcohol to get very drunk.

Oh the shame of reading the Daily Mail online and seeing two stories from New Zealand featuring prominently.

Of 8,001 beneficiaries sent for jobs requiring drug testing, only 22 tested positive or refused to take tests, a result that has been greeted as a victory by the Social Development Minister.

Three people have been charged with giving alcohol to a 9-year-old who was filmed, apparently drunk, at a Hamilton skatepark.