Next week everyone of voting age will receive an official envelope inviting us to select a new flag. The sight of a voting form can be sobering.

How hard would it be for the Prime Minister to apologise?

Investigations into six tertiary institutions, from Southland to the Bay of Plenty, have identified more than $25 million in misappropriation. One of them, we reported this week, has been stripped of its registration.

Labour MP Kelvin Davis is right. It is disingenuous of John Key to say Australia's detainees at Christmas Island are free to leave if they want.

Seldom has New Zealand seen, at any level of politics, a rise and fall as rapid as that of Len Brown.

Auckland house prices have been driven by speculative demand as much as - or probably more than - a shortage of supply.

Ron Mark's attack on Melissa Lee's right to criticise her adopted country would have been poor in public but is appalling in Parliament.

A war of words preceding the cricket test under way in Brisbane may partly explain the first two days' action in the middle.

New Zealanders and Australians have much in common, but not everything. Our respective attitude to knighthoods is one area we, in general, differ.

News media in other free countries would be amazed at the restrictions on reporting deaths in New Zealand by suicide.

When the All Blacks won the World Cup in New Zealand four years ago, it was hard to imagine any victory could be sweeter.

We have always wondered whether the very words All Blacks put terror into the hearts of other rugby nations. Now we know.

Migrants' choice to wear burqas may be alien to West but respect gives them space to adjust to new ways in their own time.

Both claim to be journalists, Cameron Slater and Nicky Hage have found their work subject to the scrutiny of the High Court.

Editorial: While it is in our interests to provide all reasonable assistance to enable them to establish a new life here, we should not sympathise with their predicament too much.

Sometimes historical mistakes are so monumental it is pointless to wonder what might have been.

The Auckland Council intends to hold a debate and a vote on whether to oppose exploratory oil drilling in an area of seabed off the west coast.

With revelations holding us up to ridicule, Key should treat his position with more respect.

The current All Blacks' culture of comradeship and sportsmanship is a credit to the team and their leaders.

Our series this week on the diversity of today's NZ contained an interesting comment from sociologist Professor Paul Spoonley on our national identity.

Eliminated hosts deserve high praise for stunning standard of event so far.

After the smiles and the high-fives, minister must resist pressure to spend extra cash on tax cuts or bolstering social programmes.

Turnbull's and Key's burning issue on their agenda is the detention and deportation of non-Australian citizens who have been convicted of crime.

Labour's leader, Andrew Little, faces a dilemma over what sort of deputy he needs.

The death of Reporoa boy Connor Phillips as a hunting party was unloading firearms in Kaingaroa Forest on Sunday is the fifth fatal accident with firearms in New Zealand this year.

A conference of property investors in Auckland this weekend is liable to hear some tough talking about rental houses.

At the beginning of this month, New Zealand acquired an effective capital gains tax.

All Blacks' sluggish form is a Rugby World Cup worry ... and so is the sad slump in the fortunes of South Pacific teams.

Obama's possible successor picks up the challenge of US love-affair with weapons.