More than 500 young people and their families helped develop a new website that aims to inspire Maori to take on tertiary studies and industry training.

Taupo Mayor Rick Cooper and Council Chief Executive Rob Williams will be at Sierra Cafe Wednesday 20 February from 7.30am for their regular monthly coffee morning.

Contact Energy’s decision to cut 100 employees because the electricity market is flat shows the Government’s push to sell two state-owned electricity companies this year is just plain stupid, says Labour’s SOEs spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove.

The Green Party is calling on the Government to follow the lead of conservative politicians like London Mayor Boris Johnson and adopt a living wage for all Government employees and contractors.

Labour Leader David Shearer says he supports the campaign for a Living Wage to lift the incomes of hard-working New Zealanders so they can better support their families.

Today, Aotearoa joins women and men around the globe in demanding an end to poverty and violence against women. In Auckland, the Wise Women Collective leads a noon-time dance gathering atTakaparawhau Bastion Point to join the movement of 1 billion people rising.

The Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Amendment Bill, which extends commissioner governance of Environment Canterbury until the 2016 local government elections, has passed its second reading in Parliament.

"Not good enough," said MANA Leader and Tai Tokerau MP, Hone Harawira, following the Minister of Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment’s inability to offer any realistic commitment to ending the appalling rate of Maori and Pacific unemployment.

"The Sallies have highlighted the importance of facing up to rising poverty" said MANA Leader and MP for Te Tai Tokerau Hone Harawira following the release today of their state of the nation report The Growing Divide, "and I commend them for it."

Minister of Maori Affairs, Hon Dr Pita Sharples has welcomed the news that today Australia’s House of Representatives unanimously passed an Act of Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as first peoples of Australia, which also commits the next Parliament to hold a referendum wit

National’s economic failure has been laid bare for all to see in the Salvation Army’s report 'She'll Be Right,’ says Labour's Employment Spokesperson, Su'a William Sio.

Statement from Hone Harawira.

Auckland Council’s first full Youth Advisory Panel will meet on 18 February when Mayor Len Brown formally inducts its final 11 members.

The Government’s Pollyanna approach to the restructure of Housing New Zealand might read well, but New Zealanders are interested in the facts, not fiction, says Labour’s Housing spokesperson Annette King.

Taxpayers have Hekia Parata to thank for today’s $5-million bill to try to fix Novopay, says Chris Hipkins, Labour’s acting Education spokesperson.

Education Minister Hekia Parata says provisional NCEA results show more students are achieving, particularly Pasifika students.

The Office of the Ombudsman has confirmed that Chief Ombudsman Dame Beverley Wakem will investigate a complaint made by Auckland Councillor Cameron Brewer over the council’s refusal to disclose what it has paid its different legal providers over the past two years.

Finance Minister Bill English will present Budget 2013 on Thursday 16 May, he announced today.

"This will be the National-led Government’s fifth Budget in what have been extremely challenging global economic times," he says.

The Green Party is promising to integrate Charter Schools into the public education system as it outlines a caucus reshuffle focussed on defending the public education system and eradicating child poverty.

By Aaron Lim

Mao Zedong referred to nuclear weapons as “paper tigers” which would never bite, a description which is still relevant 60 years later in light of North Korea’s recent nuclear test.