Wellington, June 22 NZPA - Controversial Families Commissioner Christine Rankin has assured Social Development Minister Paula Bennett she will not appear at tomorrow's launch of the "vote no" campaign for the smacking referendum.

Federated Farmers isn't an organisation that usually voices opinions on issues that don't have a direct impact on its members. It did last week, and it hit on something worthy of wide consideration -- the $9 million it is costing to run what has become known as the smacking referendum.

NZPA political reporters Wellington, June 18 NZPA - Prime Minister John Key has been dragged into the centre of the resurgent smacking debate.

By Maggie Tait of NZPA Wellington, June 15 NZPA - Families Commissioner Christine Rankin is refusing to comment on a referendum on whether parents should be allowed to smack children because the media had "ripped her to shreds".

Wellington, June 8 NZPA - A Korean woman will be kicked out of New Zealand after being refused a student visa because she is pregnant -- despite being willing to pay for her maternity care. Sung Won Kim, 31, and her partner arrived on visitors' permits in March.

Wellington, June 2 NZPA - Preventing a senior member of Fiji's interim regime who already has New Zealand residency coming here would require a law change and is unlikely, Prime Minister John Key says.

Wellington, June 2 NZPA - The Government is powerless to stop a senior member of Fiji's interim regime coming and going from New Zealand.

Wellington, May 31 NZPA - Lobby group Family First has placed ads in Sunday newspapers calling for the reinstatement of reasonable force as a defence in child abuse cases. The group says the law change isn't working and Prime Minister John Key should change it.

This week's Commerce Commission report into power company price fixing arrangements simply verified something that we knew all about as consumers but which the power companies have been denying to us all along - that they have been fleecing us to the tune of $4.3 billion over the last seven years (a

Wellington, May 12 NZPA - Christine Rankin is the wrong person to be appointed to the Families Commission, as she is divisive, has a troubled record and is unrepresentative, Labour leader Phil Goff said today.