Stories by Anneke Smith

The New Zealand Muslim Association is "baffled" the LynnMall terrorist was put up in a small Islamic centre after Corrections turned down its offer to help rehabilitate him.

Experts predict the entire country will remain at alert level 4 until health officials can rule out community transmission beyond Auckland's borders.

New modelling shows the number of people infected in the community might reach 120 - as large as initially feared, Covid-19 modeller Professor Shaun Hendy says.

Professor Shaun Hendy says the number of people infected in the community at the time the outbreak was first detected may now be "several dozen".

The government is warning it may take just one community case of Covid-19 for the country to move into another alert level 4 lockdown. Audio

A Wellington woman has had her life disrupted by mistakes by police and courts over an urgent order.

Support for the Labour Party has taken a hit while the ACT Party, and its leader, is growing in popularity, a new political poll shows.

The Police Association is urging the government to unlock money set aside for more police recruits as dozens of officers leave the force.

In today's Focus on Politics podcast, Political Reporter Anneke Smith explores how the conversation on hate speech shifted - from an effort to curb terrorism to a political bunfight - and what the…

Minority groups say the government has confused the debate around its proposed hate speech laws and allowed discord to spread.

Exporters are hoping China and New Zealand can keep politics out of their long-standing trade relationship.

The National Party says the government should share any information its intelligence agencies have on the treatment of Uyghur people in China.

As the country prepares to debate proposed hate speech reforms, Al Noor Mosque is being targeted with fresh threats of violence.

Health experts say they are mystified over the government's reluctance to enforce mandatory mask wearing and QR code scanning under alert level 2.

Four prominent politicians have been enshrined in surprisingly-flattering puppet caricatures at Wellington's Backbencher pub.

The Minister of Trade and Export Growth Damien O'Connor says he hopes to make solid progress on free trade agreements on his visit to the UK and EU next week.

The man who murdered the British backpacker has been named as Jesse Kempson, and it can now be revealed he has been convicted of a raft of sexual violation offences.

Grace Millane's killer has lost an appeal against his conviction and sentence but still cannot be named after a bid to the Supreme Court to keep his identity secret.

A man who raped a woman in an Auckland motel has been jailed for three and a half years.

Jarome Fonua, 26, was among a dozen people arrested after a series of gang raids last April that seized $4 million worth of assets.

A man has been jailed for seven and a half years for subjecting his ex-girlfriend to months of physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse.

Substantive arguments on an application for continued name suppression were heard by Judge Deidre Orchard in the North Shore District Court this morning.

Four men charged over the death of a man in Manurewa's Jellicoe Park will go to trial next year.

The sportsman named in a criminal drug syndicate trial will have continued name suppression after the application was filed, and a decision could take some months.

The top District Court judge has announced a fresh approach to the way the country's busiest jurisdiction operates.