Stories by Kate Newton

The mysterious foundation bankrolling the New Zealand First Party has been receiving donations just under the threshold at which the donors' names would normally be made public.

Money flowed into the New Zealand First Foundation and money flowed out - but did any of it need to be declared?

Somewhere in Auckland - maybe galumphing down a beach, maybe lazing on a porch, maybe gnawing on a chew toy - is a Choppy McChopsalot Choppalopagus.

Our dogs are diversifying as rapidly as we are, and greyhounds, schnauzers and shih tzus are all on the rise. But clinging on stubbornly at the top is a labrador called Bella.

Plans to collect data by putting sensors in thousands of state houses could result in the information being used to cut benefit payments or even evict tenants, a charity familiar with the project…

Shane Jones' office received official documents about a New Zealand First-linked forestry company's bid for public money five times before the minister declared a conflict of interest.

A forestry company with close links to New Zealand First has revealed it applied for a $15 million loan from the Provincial Growth Fund, which is overseen by NZ First minister Shane Jones.

A forestry company with close links to New Zealand First planned to apply for nearly $100 million under the One Billion Trees programme, which is overseen by the Forestry Minister Shane Jones.

A powerful New Zealand First figure helped establish a forestry company that then pushed for money from two key funding streams controlled by a New Zealand First Minister.

Now We Are Five (Million) - As New Zealand's population nears five million, our demographics have changed - but what about our perceptions of who the 'average' Kiwi is? Kate Newton reports. Video

Wealthy European buyers have snapped up four more sheep and beef farms to convert to forestry, as rural concerns over the sales ramp up.

Green Rush - Rich-listers, established farming families and a former All Black are among New Zealand's top 50 landowners.

Green Rush - The countess breached overseas investment rules while buying an iconic farm station, but was allowed to keep the property and was fined just a fraction of the purchase price. Video

The four largest private landowners in New Zealand are all foreign-owned forestry companies, an RNZ investigation has found.

Vast new pine forests are being hailed as a solution to NZ's carbon emissions deficit - but not all environmentalists see them as a silver bullet and farmers say they could gut rural communities.

Green Rush - Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in conversions of farmland to forestry after a rural backlash. Video

An old law that gives owners of multiple properties extra voting rights in local elections is unfair, archaic and should be ditched, election researchers say.

Seven years on from his arrest, the extradition battle between Kim Dotcom and the US reached NZ's Supreme Court this week. Kate Newton went to court to find out whether anyone seems to be winning. Video

Megaupload's claims it could not always delete illegal files were just an excuse to avoid properly complying with requests form copyright owners, the US says.

One of the men facing extradition alongside Kim Dotcom has finally gained a lawyer - who suggested to the Supreme Court that his client had been unfairly swept up in the case.

Kim Dotcom's Megaupload website was never intended to encourage copyright breaches, lawyers for Mr Dotcom and his fellow accused have told the Supreme Court. Audio

A district court decision that Kim Dotcom and three other men should be extradited to the United States was so flawed that it never should have been upheld, the men's lawyers have told the Supreme… Audio

The percussive boom of a bass speaker, then the crawling sensation of being covered in ants. Kate Newton meets a man who survived a lightning strike to tell the tale.

Researchers say an 'immunity gap' affecting an entire generation is what's allowing the disease to flourish. Kate Newton reports.

An elite group of business and iwi leaders, union officials and lobbyists are frequently bending the ear of the Labour-led government, ministerial diaries released this week show.