Children's Commissioner Dr Russell Wills wants Kiwis to shift support from older, middle-income families to give more to our youngest and poorest children.

In the eyes of the law, he is a criminal. But to many he is a hero, dubbed the "Robin Hood" of their struggling community.

Extended paid parental leave and a mandatory rental housing "warrant of fitness" are close to winning majority backing, a survey of MPs has found.

The United Nations children's fund Unicef says children should have a say when they are adopted and when their parents separate.

Our latest batch of citizens are embracing the multicultural nature of the country they now call home.

An empty holiday season can hold painful memories of partners lost and families gone, writes Russell Hoban.

Dogs which provide vital assistance to people with disabilities will be fitted with identification tags so they can easily be reunited with their owners in emergencies.

The Human Rights Commission is calling for a star-rating system that would expose poorly performing rest homes to help families avoid them.

Here are a sample of readers' emails in response to our series on rest homes.

A former rest home manager is calling for better care for the elderly after her father was "starved of food and fluid" in a Whakatane centre.

A rest home company which was overcharging some residents is about to have its district health board contract terminated.

At 92 this year, Connie Bythell has had a full life. She grew up in Blenheim, worked as a teacher, went to India as a missionary, then worked in her home church until retiring at 70.

Editorial: Documents for public consumption should be written succinctly and in plain English. Their value is much reduced if this is not done.

You've got to look, listen - and sniff - when choosing a rest home for yourself or your elderly mother or father, experts advise.

If people feel they are being treated as disposable units of labour then outcomes will suffer, writes Peter Lyons. This may help explain why the growth in labour productivity in NZ over the past few decades has been less than spectacular.

Moving in with nine flatmates takes a bit of getting used to when you're 73, says Alison Glen.

Caregivers do tasks few could stomach, often for minimal wages, report Simon Collins and Martin Johnston.

For years, Allan Titford and his many supporters fashioned a dystopian and blatantly racist vision of New Zealand's future, writes Paul Moon.

This is Part 1 of a series of four articles on the role of business and how it may be changing as companies consider social and environmental concerns in the post-global financial crisis world.

A group of us went up to Kerikeri last weekend to run the Kerikeri Half Marathon.

NZ's child abuse rates are higher than anyone ever realised, officials admit, after bureaucrats bungled the numbers for more than two years.

The house on the corner site in Taniwha St, Glen Innes, is a case study of everything Housing NZ says is wrong with its state housing stock.

Most teen girls who are sexually abused blame themselves because they have ignored their parents' warnings, researchers have found.

Cross-party inquiry comes up with strong message for change from emphasis on caring for people late in life.

Strong warning labels should be placed on all beer, wine and spirits as part of a plan to stop pregnant mothers from drinking, MPs say.

Making sure pregnant mums see a doctor within 10 weeks of conception should be a national priority, say MPs working to improve children's health.

It's been one of the mildest flu seasons in 20 years, but the young, elderly and Pacific Island and Maori people are still at serious risk from the flu.