Stories by Phil Pennington

The government is banking on an online system for checking people's identity despite persistent gaps around its implications for humans rights, ethics and Māori.

An undercount of Māori by almost 50,000 in the census has raised questions if they should already have another seat in Parliament.

Mounting difficulties getting hold of important historical documents are sparking government infighting and threats of legal action.

The amount the country's hospitals owe to more than a quarter of a million people has exploded to almost $2 billion.

The national archive has been hit by an apparent security breach and has shut down the online search tool the public uses.

The Transport Agency is in a $600 million hole and cutting spending targets on work including improving local roads and public transport infrastructure.

Technologists in charge of doing CT and other scans at hospitals are exasperated at being paid $10,000 less than hospital clerical workers.

Police have not delivered on their promise to radically speed up protecting shops from ram raids, but the raids are dropping off anyway. Audio

Four hospital projects in the south of the South Island are in limbo.

Briefings by Stats NZ to ministers show it is engaged in a $100,000 "national trust and confidence marketing campaign".

Costs are rising and time is slipping on a new system to enable tolls to be charged on more roads.

The police are in limbo over what to do about their stun-gun tasers.

Qualified practitioners keen to work in the under-pressure radiology sector have told RNZ they are finding the registration paperwork hurdles prohibitive.

Google says it is supporting efforts between countries to fix a lack of "legal stability" around the flow of people's data and privacy.

RNZ can reveal which other hospital radiology departments are at high risk of failing to meet international standards.

The government says there is strong demand for its new Identity Check system - even though half the cornerstone ministries are not interested. Audio

Eighteen months after a Wellington roadworker was ploughed down from behind by a runaway truck in Ngauranga Gorge, the highway contractor was still petitioning the regulator to do more.

A slew of bad risk ratings for a number of New Zealand's public hospital radiology departments has come to light in a new one-page summary released to RNZ.

Imagine if you had to pledge loyalty to the Chinese state just to use a bathroom mirror or a lightbulb. There is a chance you already have but did not know it.

The radiology departments at two public hospitals are so understaffed they have lost accreditation - but are carrying on scanning regardless.

The government is partnering with an American transport and military contractor that promotes its weapons-training systems by showing the targeting of men dressed in robes.

A US transport and defence contractor that has won a big public deal to supply a national transport ticketing system in New Zealand says it takes privacy very seriously.

The price of paper is rising at its fastest rate in a decade, ramping up the pressure on publishers.

A defence lawyer says police's private American-provided evidence storing system is derailing criminal trials and letting in the wrong people.

An MBIE report on one of the dozens of data centres being set up in New Zealand says it will create a number of well-paid ongoing jobs but its impact on the region's transition will be "limited".