Stories by Andrew McRae

A climate scientist says the developing El Niño weather-pattern is likely to have a better effect on this country than in many others.

A support group for victims of church-based abuse says NZ's Catholic Church is denying natural justice by keeping some of its redress process secret.

A Waikato hapuu is calling on the Hamilton City Council to immediately abandon any plans to develop what Māori say is an historic paa site.

Businesses in the Gisborne region are pleased with the initial cyclone support package as a solid start, but are keen for more detail and longer-term solutions.

One farmer says his farm got "smoked" but it will be a chance to build back in a more environmentally sustainable way.

As it faces reinventing itself to attract younger veterans, the Returned and Services Association president Sir Wayne Shelford says the organisation is also facing financial struggles.

The Royal Commission's Abuse in Care inquiry has recognised torture was carried out in the adolescent unit at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital in the 1970s.

Torture, sexual, physical, emotional and psychological abuse has been spelled out in the nearly 500-page report.

It is crunch time for the two front-runners in the Hamilton West by-election with voting set to end at 7pm tomorrow.

About 1000 competitors have gathered in Hamilton for the opening of the Special Olympics National Summer Games today.

The stories of abuse inflicted on disabled and neurodiverse people have been released today in a study by the Abuse in Care inquiry highlighting repeated failures by carers to protect them.

A child advocacy group is demanding the government immediately start the implementation of mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse.

The hard slog for candidates hoping to become the new MP for Hamilton West has begun, with just four weeks before the by-election.

A survivor of abuse says churches have missed a golden opportunity to really reflect on how Aotearoa-New Zealand came to have such an appalling record of abuse of people in care.

A survivor of abuse in care has warned organisations, which housed abusers in the past, times have changed and it will not be allowed to happen again.

A former member of the Gloriavale Christian Community says she is not holding her breath for any meaningful change to take place there.

Dilworth School abuse survivors have presented a petition calling for mandatory reporting of abuse at the royal commission inquiry today.

A former headmaster of Dilworth School says there was absolutely no cover-up by the school of allegations of sexual abuse while he was in charge.

The Methodist Church has acknowledged survivors of historical abuse at Wesley College, telling the Abuse in Care inquiry it recognises their pain and suffering.

The former Catholic Bishop of Auckland has come under intense questioning at the abuse in care inquiry over recommending a priest, who had three allegations of abuse made against him, for a teaching…

The 82-year-old told the Royal Commission when matters of abuse were raised, there was a policy to follow for the victim and offender.

The Christian group's representatives will appear for the first time at the inquiry as care systems of Church and faith-based organisations come under scrutiny.

The Royal Commission opens a public hearing today focusing on state institutions which provided disabled, deaf and people who suffered mental distress for these people between 1950 and 1999.

Home was like Once Were Warriors for Kath Coster - who is the third generation of her family to have been in state care.

A woman, who moved between numerous foster care placements during her state care, says the then Social Welfare Department was a faceless agency that did not take responsibility for those in its care.