Charities say more and more people are struggling to pay their power bills and the winter energy payment and cost of living payment are falling short.

A woman whisked to Waikato Hospital for urgent surgery on her broken leg has endured an 11-day wait in the wrong ward.

A company has lodged consents to expand its gold and silver mining operations, including under conservation land in Waikato, but an environmental group is pledging court action.

The centre will make a big difference to how quickly the National Emergency Management Agency can respond to rapidly escalating events, minister Kieran McAnulty says.

The auditor-general says the governance of Auckland's underground rail project is working well but expects costs to blow out significantly.

A Kiwi 501 deportee will be allowed to return to Australia to visit his young daughter after winning a four-year battle through an appeals tribunal.

The engineering firm whose report spurred workers to leave a Wellington multi-storey building warns that designing for earthquakes may get harder.

The chief executive of the New Plymouth District Council is on leave following a secret emergency meeting held last week.

With ferry prices rising, the transport minister is refusing to wait on negotiations, kicking off the process to bring Waiheke's ferry into the public transport network.

A leading commercial lawyer says recommendations to reform class action and litigation funding laws strikes the right balance.

Transpower says it is not expecting there will be power cuts this evening because of high demand.

A criminologist says authorities must increase supply of a drug used to reverse the effects of opioids, after a dozen people were hospitalised by fentanyl overdoses over the weekend.

Local agreements around the controversial practice of state agencies uplifting babies are being developed across the country.

An interpreter has pleaded not guilty to involvement in what immigration officials believe was an organised scheme involving more than 150 false claims for asylum.

Supreme Court judges noted Family First's research reports lacked required balance and its purposes were discriminatory, and ruled it did not qualify for charitable status.

A post-mortem has confirmed that the death of a woman found at Kau Bay in Wellington yesterday was not suspicious.

A 26-year-old man has been arrested following a homicide investigation in the Auckland suburb of Rosehill.

The West Coast Regional Council has approved a $54.4 million flood resilience proposal for Westport today.