New Zealand Food Safety assessments found health risks associated with a pesticide on food, despite telling the public there were none, documents obtained under the Official Information Act reveal.

A year long battle for information has revealed NZ Food Safety knew there were high levels of toxic pesticides on food samples, despite saying there was no risk to the public. Internal documents released to Greenpeace under the Official Information Act said New Zealand Food Safety couldn't exclude health risks from the pesticide breach. Reporter Keiller MacDuff has been investigating and joins Lisa Owen.

Keiller has the latest on suspicious deaths in Christchurch, including the homicide of two men in Phillipstown over the weekend and the discovery of missing man, Braydon Hepworth's body. She also has more details about the copper thieves hitting pivot irrigators and the city's hiphop summit comes to an end.

Cheaper, more readily available cocaine, and increased social acceptance has lead to a steep increase in use in less than a decade, new research shows, with New Zealanders getting through nearly 7 kilograms of cocaine a week in the second quarter of 2026.

Canterbury regional councillors will vote on Wednesday on a proposal to declare the region's controversial nitrate emergency over.

Christchurch's financially troubled Orana Wildlife Park looks set to receive more than $1 million of ratepayer money.

Almost a year on from the previous Canterbury Regional Council declaring a nitrate emergency, a new report pointing to high nitrate levels across the region has been presented to councillors.

Almost a year on from the previous Canterbury Regional Council declaring a 'nitrate emergency', a new report pointing to high nitrate levels across the region has been presented to councillors. The council also heard from Greenpeace, Health New Zealand and the water regulator, Taumata Arowai, who have proposed an additional limit on nitrate to protect people from possible long-term health effects. Keiller MacDuff reports.

A unlicensed driver high on methamphetamine and speeding with her baby in the car crashed into another motorist, killing herself and the other driver, a coroner has found.

A North Canterbury holiday camp that was at the centre of a serious E coli outbreak has hooked up to the council water supply.

The Employment Relations case brought in Christchurch by Gloriavale leavers,  celebrating a reduction in gravel truck numbers, the Big Sing  and concerns about Air BnB's in Methven.

Twenty-four choirs from around the country will perform, whittled down from more than 260 who took part in the regional competitions.

The final of the national secondary school choir competition, The Big Sing, gets underway at the Christchurch Town Hall today with winners announced on Saturday night. Keiller MacDuff went along to rehearsals.

* This story has been updated to correct a hospital capacity figure.

New figures from Health NZ show the full scale of wait times at one of the country's busiest emergency departments. Last year on average Auckland Hospital ED breached its own thresholds for some patient wait-times 77 per cent of the time. Keiller MacDuff reports.

The National Emergency Management Agency will investigate why the Civil Defence website crashed following last night's magnitude 5.9 earthquake in Southland. The site was down for several hours after the quake, which prompted a brief tsunami evacuation order for parts of the south-west of the South Island. Keiller MacDuff reports.

The study compared birth records with the home address of the mother and historic nitrate levels in the area.

A massive new study of more than 750,000 births nationwide has found an average of 120 premature births each year could be attributed to nitrate in drinking water.

Damage caused by the latest heavy rain is continuing this afternoon. Several properties in Oamaru have been evacuated after a landslide, and a number of properties in Dunedin are being evacuated because of slips. Keiller MacDuff reports.

A state of emergency remains for the Kaikōura district after the Kowhai River breached its banks, with the evacuation area extended and evacuation centres heaving. More rain is forecast overnight. Locals have told RNZ the current flood feels ominously similar to the 1993 flood which devastated the region. Keiller MacDuff reports from Kaikōura.