Stories by Kate Newton

Only two houses have been given a rental warrant of fitness in the first six months of a voluntary Wellington City Council scheme.

Analysis - Hands up who thought we'd all be living through a nuclear winter by now? Kate Newton takes a non-exhaustive look at an exhausting year.

The arrival of a new, cheaper medicinal cannabis product in New Zealand is good news for patients but will still be prohibitively expensive for many, advocates say.

Neighbours heard a 'boom' and saw injured victims lying in the road after a car fleeing police crashed into a tree, killing two passengers.

Winston-watch is enough to make even the most ardent political junkie's eyes glaze over. While you wait, Kate Newton has what you might have missed since Election Day.

What happens if you vote but die before election day? Advance polling has opened and Kate Newton has all your strangest questions covered.

Gareth Morgan leads the way among New Zealand rich-listers spending up large on the election campaign - donating $1.4m to his own political party.

Building on flood plains should be banned until councils better understand the risk, a flooding researcher says.

Kim Dotcom says he is taking new court action against the government after discovering agents may have spied on him for two months longer than it previously admitted.

Letting fees charged to tens of thousands of renters are unfair, onerous and should be borne by the landlord, tenant advocates say.

Edgecumbe is best-known for being struck, in 1987, by a damaging earthquake - which also increased its flood risk, Kate Newton reports.

More than two dozen people have been prosecuted for defaulting on their student loans since the government began chasing down overseas borrowers.

It is impossible the Defence Force carried out a simultaneous raid on a separate Afghan village the night that civilians were killed, the authors say. Video, Audio

Thieves have stolen more than a dozen donated bikes from a south Auckland primary school - the second time bikes from the school's fleet have been taken. Audio

US billionaire Peter Thiel's decision to invest $15m in a Crown-owned venture fund had nothing to do with him gaining New Zealand citizenship, the fund says.

Starting five-year-olds at school in groups rather than on their birthdays would be less disruptive for children and their teachers, parents say.

After nearly five years in political asylum, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange could agree to extradition to the US, comments from his lawyer and Wikileaks suggest.

First Person - One is a small-town Southerner, the other a self-styled Westie. Kate Newton was there for the promotion of Bill English and Paula Bennett.

Bill English says his active Catholicism has shaped his morals, but will not define him as Prime Minister. Video

Parents in Kaikōura desperate to be reunited with their children have been offered hope with new public convoys.

Fishers in Kaikōura have begun surveying crayfish stocks in the wake of this month's earthquake, under the supervision of primary industry officials.

Controlled public convoys are to be allowed on the inland road in and out of Kaikōura from tomorrow morning.

Five years ago Chris Diack set up a community radio station for quake-affected residents of New Brighton - now the self-proclaimed radio nutter is doing the same for the shaken locals of Kaikōura.

The first primary school in Kaikōura to re-open after the earthquake is missing a fifth of its roll after pupils left town in the quake's aftermath.

The closed section of State Highway 1 between Kaikōura and Cheviot could be cleared for essential traffic within a fortnight. Video