Latest from Social Issues

School says bienvenidos to a growing change

For the first time, US public schools are projected this northern autumn to have more minority students than non-Hispanic whites.

Matt Heath: No matter how good, it can be even better

I tuned into an annoying discussion on the radio this week. It was a bunch of baby boomers claiming young people who haven't seen war have no right to complain.

Brian Rudman: Time to cull the human-attacking dog breeds

Let's not get sidetracked over whether or not Housing New Zealand's dog ban failed.

Sex offenders register signed off

New Zealand's first sex offender register has been signed off by Cabinet, but will only be available to agencies and not the general public.

Anyone can overcome bullies

I look in the mirror and wonder how I managed to survive the torture and humiliation I faced when I was a teenager, writes Jesse Greenslade.

Town that turned its prospects around

Pinepine Savage holds proof in her own life that it is possible to turn around a town that everyone had written off.

Family overwhelmed by generosity

An Auckland Congolese family whose children are sponsored by NZ donors have been overwhelmed by readers' generosity since their story featured in the Herald.

Paul Moon: Look closer to home for cause of WW1

Even while "the monstrous anger of the guns" was hauling millions to their death, the blame game was already well under way.

Brian Fallow: Poverty Street not a lifetime address

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.

Catriona MacLennan: Strangling law will help tackle domestic violence

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

Govt lags on some targets

The Government is falling short of key targets it set itself for reducing child abuse and rheumatic fever.

Being a mum 'all worth it'

Georgia Hageman was in bed at 4.30am when her waters broke and less than four hours later the 15-year-old Aucklander was holding her baby son.

Pita Sharples: A te reo strategy for, by and of the people

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

Rebel's report pre-empts Glenn inquiry

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.

'Vulnerability' like revolving door

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

Editorial: Protecting te reo

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.