Guilt-ridden working parents who worry they don't spend enough quality time with their kids should relax, according to experts.

Budgeting services are facing cuts and New Zealand's only hostel for asylum seekers may have to close because of the ending of a government scheme.

As a conference this weekend looks at how racism affects Auckland, Susan Edmunds examines the progress we have made and the work left to do.

Kiwis are more polite about their racism than people in other parts of the world, says university lecturer Camille Nakhid.

Martin Luther King she is not, but the new Race Relations Commissioner adopted some of the American civil rights legend's soaring rhetoric yesterday.

The pay divide between men and women has widened by another 80c an hour since the turn of the millennium.

A state house with 19 people living in it has been identified as one of the homes receiving more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded benefits each year.

New Zealand communities are battling to rid themselves of synthetic cannabis - with the Government's promised solution months away.

Courts can make mistakes. The High Court at Auckland has surely made an egregious one in a case we have reported today.

It has all the hallmarks of an acrimonious divorce battle.

Celebrants already have marriage bookings for gay couples who were confident it would become legal.

A bill to legalise same-sex marriage has become law tonight after months of emotional debate.

The sponsor of a bill to make gay marriage legal thanked her "darling" partner before a historic vote on the last step towards marriage equality.

Parliament has passed a law legalising gay marriage, 77 votes to 44, amid loud shows of jubilation from the floor and gallery.

The Government says there are 29,000 fewer Kiwis receiving benefits since the last quarter - including hundreds who had theirs cut after being caught claiming them unfairly.

A subsidy that has helped to insulate about one in every six low-income homes looks likely to be cut back in next month's Budget to a more targeted scheme.

The Government has been urged to introduce facial-recognition technology for poker machines to restrict problem gamblers as part of an overhaul of gambling laws.

New Zealand's infant mortality rate has fallen to 4.2 in the latest Statistics NZ figures for 2012.

New welfare reforms will address the "major" issue of beneficiaries being unable to pass drug tests to get a job, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett says.

With four children, solo father Jamie le Bas has the odds stacked against him.

The number of beneficiaries who have had their income cut after failing to meet work-testing requirements has doubled under National and is set to rise further.

Buskers, beggars, bucket-shakers - and a saintly young man called John simply wanting to tell his fellow Aucklanders they are "perfect" - Queen St has them all.

Paula Bennett ate her pets - and she's taken a similar hardline stance on her changes to the welfare system under which only the most disadvantaged will be left alone.

A family with three autistic children have been told they need to manage their children's behaviour if they want to get a state house.

I am constantly surprised that modern women are still under the misapprehension that they're going to find their identity in marriage, writes Deborah Hill Cone.

Editorial: Any curb on freedom of speech is a serious step that should never be taken without good reason.