Stories by Phil Pennington
News
Whānau 'gutted' after WorkSafe declines to investigate young men's deaths
Jake Ginders and Floyd Harris died during an illegal commute. Now their families' five-year fight for accountability has hit a brick wall.
'Really valuable" forestry safety programme cut in WorkSafe shake-up
WorkSafe is cutting funding to safety programmes worth almost $15 million a year, skittling a "really valuable" one in the high-risk forestry industry.
Fire and Emergency warns 12.8% levy rise won't be enough
The levy on vehicle, house and other property insurance is set to rise by 12.8 percent in July - the first rise in seven years.
Broken promises: Ministry apologises to Kaipara College for scrapping new build
An apology to a school from the Secretary of Education says the ministry was too slow to flag rising costs.
U-turn in key private health provider's take on shareholder models
The country's largest medical imaging business is looking at adding a shareholder model that it up till recently was deploring as bad for patients.
Emails reveal concerns within Waka Kotahi about name change
The agency's head ordered the only line about a partnership with Māori removed from a message about relegating the name.
Te Whatu Ora disputes reports of mistakes in paying back nurses
The nurse's union says mistakes robbing nurses of tens of thousands of dollars are being made by the health systems pay back system.
KiwiRail asks who will pay for ferry terminal upgrade
KiwiRail says it is now looking at buying second-hand ships for the Cook Strait ferry service, and is asking what to do about the terminals.
Train track foundations in Auckland not strong enough - KiwiRail
MPs have questioned KiwiRail executives and the board chair about why it had got this bad.
Flawed 111 system causing deaths - police documents
In one example, a woman was stabbed to death by a partner who overheard her making a 111 call.
AUKUS a China containment strategy - Labour
The Labour Opposition is walking back its openness to joining one wing of the AUKUS military pact. Video
South Auckland to get new PET scanner
A provider of advanced medical scanning says it is now becoming viable commercially to put in more of the multimillion-dollar machines.
Cost of medical imaging scans increases
ACC funds about 40 percent of privately-done scans in the country and has been trying to rein in costs.
Plan to build more cost-effective classrooms coming soon - education minister
The government says it is in the final stages of a plan to build more school classrooms more efficiently. Audio
Cost-cutting halts 100 new classroom builds
More than 100 new classroom builds are in doubt in a cost-cutting exercise that's already forced the Secretary of Education to apologise, following the Minister's intervention.
Cancer patient has to go to Australia for urgent test
A man was forced to go to Australia for an urgent scan, because NZ's only producer of radioactive medical material had shut down for two weeks.
Transmission Gully: Environmental impact reports had no input from DOC
The Department of Conservation has not had any input into reports on Transmission Gully motorway's environmental impacts or what to do about them.
'Tight' electricity supply situations may become more frequent, govt warned
The government is being warned 'tight' electricity supply situations could become more frequent, especially on cold winter mornings and evenings.
PM Christopher Luxon warned New Zealand is a 'target' for foreign interference
Officials have stressed the importance of protecting critical infrastructure, in their overarching briefing to the Minister for National Security and Intelligence.
New seismic hazard model could cause building standard changes
The impacts of a new model of seismic hazards on the design of buildings nationwide is about to become clearer.
Officials suggest hubs of consultants inside agencies to cut costs in public sector
Officials are looking at cutting costs in the public service by creating hubs of consultants inside agencies, instead of relying on external ones.
Officials have pitched benefits of AUKUS for months
As the Defence Minister meets her counterpart in Melbourne to raise the prospect of joining the alliance, documents show officials have talked it up.
Forged fire safety certificates exposed in Christchurch
Building control officers in Christchurch have caught a private company's compliance manager forging fire safety certificates, including for a school.
Government births, deaths and marriages IT project halted
The Department of Internal Affairs has stopped the $150m plan that aimed to take key data into cloud storage.
Speed ticket numbers soar
Officers issued almost 290,000 tickets in the first nine months of the year - up by about 60,000, police say.