Crisis meetings and investigations are continuing after Middlemore ED's long wait times appear to have cost a life on Wednesday.

Auckland motorists could have a slow commute home tonight after a person fatally fell from the Hopetoun Bridge in the central city.

Politics this week was like a jigsaw puzzle with two pieces - National ramped up its law and order campaign, the PM responded and the casualty was the police minister. Here's what the big picture looked like.

A lifetime beneficiary who stole almost $250,000 from New Zealand taxpayers has been sentenced to home detention.

Middlemore Hospital says the demand for its services is "abnormally high", far beyond pre-Covid levels and the hospital is "under extreme pressure".

New Zealand has refused to grant asylum to a dissident law academic who spoke out about election fixing in Russia.

Another 16 people have died with Covid-19 - including a person in their 40s - and there are 4869 new community cases, the Ministry of Health says.

Border workers will no longer be required to undergo Covid-19 testing from the start of next month.

Access to Westport remains limited after large slips closed two of the main highways into the coastal town.

Families and midwives plan to march past Hutt Hospital tomorrow to demand maternity services be prioritised and uncertainty over the closure of Heretaunga Building be addressed.

Radiologists are describing a crisis across the country of short staffing, old scanning machines and millions spent on outsourcing.

A 14.5 hectare block of farmland is set to house hundreds of people, who will own their own homes and have a common house for shared meals and communal land for gardens.

June is international Pride month, but organisations in New Zealand are continuing the fight to address the darker side of life faced by the rainbow community.

A person has died in a house fire on the Chatham Islands.

The warning comes as Middlemore Hospital investigates the death of a patient who left the emergency department because of long waiting times.

Figures show teachers have claimed more than 183,000 sick days so far this year, nearly twice as many as at the same time in 2019 - at some schools it is breaking the bank.

A reported truce between the Killer Beez and Tribesmen is considered an "incredibly tricky" achievement, a gang expert says.

About 2500 riders hit the slopes on Coronet Peak today and relatively calm weather made for the perfect opening day to Queenstown's ski season.