The Detail

Trevor Mallard, the arbiter of Parliament's house rules, is ironically not one to follow the rule book. Read more Audio

The decision over fluoridation of the country's water supplies has been handed over to the Director-General of Health. Why is this issue so divisive that it's been taken out of the hands of councils? 

Under the surface of public discourse lurk a bunch of mysterious organisations who are major players in shaping public policy.  Read more Audio

With more than a thousand conservation stories under her waterproof parka, science journalist Alison Ballance is retiring from RNZ's Our Changing World programme.  Read more Audio

NFTs - non-fungible tokens -are the latest crypto wonder. It seems unfathomable but people are willing to spend huge amounts acquiring them.  Read more Audio

Has the government managed to remove stumbling blocks for first home owners with its policy announcements yesterday? Or is the basic problem that houses are just too expensive?  Read more Audio

The New Zealand technology sector is booming - but there are rocky shoals ahead. Among them, getting caught in a US-China tech war; and unwittingly contributing to human rights abuses.  Read more Audio

When the Chinese were told to drink milk to stay healthy and recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, New Zealand's dairy farmers celebrated. The Global Dairy Trade, explained.  Read more Audio

The champagne's been mopped up, the sailors are recovering from their victory celebrations - what's the next step for the America's Cup?  Read more Audio

After the Markle Debacle and Andrew's murky associations, you couldn't blame Aotearoa for saying goodbye to the Crown. But what would a queen-free country look like constitutionally?  Read more Audio

Pharmac's generic drug swap for epilepsy treatment saved $30 million over five years. But for some patients, the consequences were nightmarish.   Read more Audio

What's the point in learning a dead language like Latin? It's been struck off the NCEA list, but its loss will be mourned by many who say it lives on in everyday English, and it's vital to some… Read more Audio

Fallen politician Jami-Lee Ross has turned his hand to selling "health" supplements with dubious benefits. It's an industry that's thinly regulated and barely policed.  Read more Audio

Mike Hosking's made the most of Jacinda Ardern's decision to ditch him - spinning it as her running for the hills. But what gave him unfettered access in the first place, and did he abuse the… Read more Audio

Our wood processing industry is in distress, largely run over by China's demand for raw logs to provide work for its own people and factories. Why isn't there more support for the few sawmills we have… Read more Audio

Is the move to stop publishing six Dr Seuss books another example of cancel culture - or an acknowledgement that we've moved on from a more insensitive past?  Read more Audio

The subject of Māori wards on local bodies brings out both passionate support and angry opposition.  Read more Audio

No one expected the level of intensity and brazenness used by a blogger, a former politician and a PR man in the saga that became known as "dirty politics".  Read more Audio

Someone broke the rules to put Auckland in Level 3 and there has been a clamour for punishment. But the situation isn't black and white. Is our covid messaging still appropriate?  Read more Audio

Being locked down also means for many people being locked out of meaningful face to face interactions - for them, Level 3 is a tense and frustrating time.  Read more Audio

Elon Musk's Starlink satellites are a wondrous sight - and also a slightly disturbing one. How many foreign objects can we fit into the night sky before they start crashing into each other?   Read more Audio

New Zealand's plummeting birth rate means we have some serious planning to do.  Read more Audio

The My Food Bag IPO this week looks like a mouth watering offer - but the proof of the pudding is in the eating.  Read more Audio

The story of young West Coast entrepreneur Jake Millar is an extraordinary one of tragedy, success, money, the high life, and now, a disappearance. Read more Audio

The Pacific Islands Forum is facing unprecedented disruption at a time when it's arguably needed the most, to present a united front on issues such as Covid and climate change.  Read more Audio

For those kiwis with rare disorders, it's a battle against the health system to get treatment.   Read more Audio

After 30 years the Resource Management Act - the unwieldy, development-stopping, strangely inadequate environmental legislation - is being reformed.  Read more Audio

Why would a massive international investment firm want a stake in New Zealand's national game? And what could change if a deal with Silver Lake goes ahead?  Read more Audio

Australia and New Zealand are supposedly cultural cousins, but this latest rift - over the return of a woman labelled a terrorist - shows we are drifting further and further apart.  Read more Audio

Reviews, resignations, recriminations - New Zealand sport is rife with bullying accusations, particularly against women and girls. What's being done to change the landscape?  Read more Audio