Stories by Phil Pennington
News
Police to buy new tasers but monitoring and cost still unclear
Police are replacing their tasers but will not say exactly what the new weapons are or how they will be monitored for public safety.
Tech project between US giant and govt agency founders
A confidential government project with a big US tech firm was aimed at sparking "government system-wide change" - but went nowhere.
Critical risks highlighted in report on Hawke's Bay hospital
Doctors are grappling with mistrust around information entered into the IT systems at Hawke's Bay hospital, including what it tells them about patients and critical scan results.
Lower Hutt infrastructure project rejects claim of billion dollar price-tag
Lower Hutt's biggest transport project in decades denies it has been newly costed at over a billion dollars.
Why Te Whatu Ora looked overseas for its 'transformational' plans
Health New Zealand says it chose big US tech firms to deliver a landmark data project because they have better size, security and robustness than local bidders.
New Zealand faces dilemma over AUKUS 'replicator' drone swarm plans
New Zealand is hedging over a new US strategy to unleash thousands of battlefield drones to counter China, dubbed 'hellscape' and 'replicator'.
School building projects face delays and cost blowouts
An Auckland high school where leaks have been falling on students' heads for years is among those that have undergone a review into building project problems. Audio
Revealed: Amazon's efforts to work its way into the NZ healthcare system
US tech giant Amazon has worked its way into a prime position in a massive digital overhaul of stressed IT systems by Te Whatu Ora.
Govt IT upgrades locked in ahead of pledged contractor spending cuts
The big winners so far are giant American corporations, cashing in on a push towards cloud computing coming from the government.
'Got to find $3m'- WorkSafe making broad cuts
WorkSafe, under fire already for not doing enough to enforce workplace safety, is cutting back on what it does to save money.
The startling revelations made on large projects' business cases
Analysis - A couple of extraordinary reports out recently show that figuring out what you are building on can be trickier than you'd think.
New Zealand embassy in Moscow not evacuated during June's Wagner rebellion
Officials considered the risks as Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner group marched on Moscow were not sufficient, but have since reviewed what events would trigger an evacuation.
Company failed two young men killed in a crash on their way to work, coroner finds
An $80m-a-year company relied on a young worker-for-hire in ways it should not have. Two people died. What went wrong?
No warnings of IT outage that cancelled treatments at Wellington, Wairarapa hospitals
The public health system is in the middle of assessing a plethora of old, unreliable and insecure IT systems that need billions of dollars to upgrade.
US tech innovation group's advances to the NZ govt
An offshoot of Google has lobbied the government hard over electricity projects and had multiple meetings with Minister of Energy Megan Woods.
Clutch of radiology departments deemed 'high risk'
Five radiology departments at public hospitals have lurched into high-risk territory in the last few months.
Half of low-cost Auckland accommodation have fire safety deficiencies, council finds
Auckland Council has found two Loafers Lodge-type boarding houses bad enough to trigger a dangerous building notice.
Auckland, Wellington and Queenstown told to improve building WOF systems
Three major councils with the most boarding houses like Loafers Lodge in their area have all been told recently to improve their building warrant of fitness systems.
Optional 'light touch' standards for emergency housing introduced
The government has imposed the first-ever standards specific to emergency housing providers.
Problems expected in getting EV drivers to pay road user charges, documents show
Documents show the government expects problems ahead over putting road user charges on electric vehicles.
Growing government reliance on offshore cloud services has security experts worried
A China-linked hack of US government cloud email accounts is raising questions about our government's growing reliance on American data firms. Audio
Years of hospital services hamstrung by poor tech caused suffering - report
Medical imaging services at Hawke's Bay Hospital were so fraught doctors had to take stopgap measures while an investigation was ongoing.
Te Whatu Ora releases damning report it previously used whistleblowing laws to keep secret
A damning report Te Whatu Ora kept hidden for months using whistleblowing laws has finally been released.
FENZ had decade-old Swedish manual on slip risks before Muriwai tragedy
The only substantial document firefighters had about landslide risks prior to the fatal Muriwai slip in February was a 10-year-old manual from Sweden.
Sample reveals half of beneficiaries paid wrongly - 'What happens next?'
The Ministry of Social Development has discovered it is failing to pay almost half of beneficiaries the right amount. Audio