The Latest Breaking News from Chris Hipkins

New Zealand announces relief package worth $186m, says cost of storm could rise above $8bn.

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says the recovery will come with a big price tag, and the government will have to refocus and reprioritise.

Grave fears held for about 10 people while almost 5,000 listed as out of contact as military helps deliver aid to affected communities

Vulnerable New Zealand communities are taught to prepare for natural disasters, but national messaging says you may need to survive three days without assistance. The situation for cut-off communities may now be urgent.

The death toll from New Zealand’s cyclone has reached eight with more than 4,500 people still unaccounted for four days after the nation’s most destructive weather event in decades brought widespread flooding, landslides and power outages

Political parties are “universally agreed” new criteria is needed for virtual Parliament sittings, political editor Jo Moir reports

Five people are dead and 100 missing after the storm battered the North Island, home to most of the population.

National has missed so many opportunities to set the year's political agenda. The only policy proposals from the centre-right are from its coalition partner-in-waiting, ACT, says Peter Dunne

New Zealand is dealing with the devastating impacts of ex-tropical cyclone Gabrielle, the country's "most destructive weather event in decades", and now an earthquake has added to the emergency facing residents in different parts of the country.