Stories by Craig McCulloch

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has had a private audience with the Queen, who has called on Commonwealth leaders to appoint Prince Charles their next head.

After her private audience with the Queen, Jacinda Ardern has been selected to toast the Commonwealth at a banquet of leaders at Buckingham Palace.

London mayor Sadiq Khan says it "absolutely" bothers him Britain has made it harder for Kiwis to live and work in the United Kingdom.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says "we cannot allow the use of chemical weapons", following a meeting with four of the Five Eyes security nations.

The Prime Minister says there has been a deepening in the relationship between New Zealand and Germany.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has received a red-carpet welcome with full military honours as she arrived to meet the German chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hopes any roadblocks to starting negotiations for a New Zealand-EU trade deal have been removed. Video

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has arrived in Paris and will kick off her week-long trip to Europe with a formal meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Power Play - After a month of putting out political fires, the Prime Minister's surely been counting the days till her escape, writes RNZ's Craig McCulloch.

Formal negotiations for a trade deal between New Zealand and the EU are set to get the green-light in just over a month, National MP Todd McClay says.

New Zealand's justice system is broken and building new prisons is not the answer, a report from the Prime Minister's chief science advisor says.

The National Party is demanding someone take responsibility after its MP Mark Mitchell said a New Zealand First MP was sent to scare him out of supporting a local project.

New Zealand First MP Jenny Marcroft was instructed to apologise to National MP Mark Mitchell, after being accused of threatening to use taxpayer cash for political gain.

The Electoral Commission is stressing Māori can vote for whatever party they want regardless of whether they shift between the general and Māori rolls. Video

Westpac is worried the government's attempted crackdown on multinational tax avoidance will act as a "sledgehammer" when an "ice pick" would do.

Justice Minister Andrew Little has introduced legislation to scrap the decades-old blasphemy law.

The review into how Labour handled complaints of sexual assault is expected to take up to three months and every party member will be contacted.

Defence Minister Ron Mark is denying any inappropriate use of military aircraft after revelations he has used them to fly to and from home. Audio

Treasury overstated how many children would be lifted out of poverty by the government's families package by 24,000.

New Zealand has joined condemnation of a nerve agent attack in the United Kingdom and is calling for an urgent international investigation.

The environment watchdog wants Parliament to follow the United Kingdom's example and set up a climate commission.

New Zealand is committing an initial half a million dollars to help the emergency response in Papua New Guinea after last week's devastating earthquake.

Roughly 150 new state houses are to be built in the regions over the next few months, Housing Minister Phil Twyford has announced.

Homeowners could become "unwittingly embroiled" by the proposed foreign buyer ban and end up being left "high and dry", the Law Society says.

While DJ Jacinda Ardern has been immortalised in puppet form at the Backbencher pub, the owner was hesitant to give new National Party leader Simon Bridges his own caricature.