Stories by Phil Pennington

Chinese surveillance cameras remain in wide use in New Zealand despite renewed controversy about them overseas.

The government has yet to decide how to address a dire shortage of radiation oncologists, despite more than a decade of health workforce planning.

Cancer specialists are warning the country is at a "point of no return" for investing in more workers and better treatment.

A marine scientist says the impact of helicopter noise at Te Matuku marine reserve at Waiheke Island should be looked into.

A new report says that New Zealand needs to look harder at how its data is being handled offshore and regain some local control of cloud services.

A forum has heard about stark risks of governments over-reaching to create national identity databases that control who gets public services.

The clean car discount scheme has had only 80 cases where rebates or fees had to be corrected, Minister of Transport Michael Wood says. Audio

The Vehicle Industry Association is pulling its support for the Clean Car Discount Scheme.

More helipads have been approved for Aotea Great Barrier and Waiheke islands in the face of community opposition.

The specialists are accusing the government of ignoring them while going ahead and expanding the reach of facial recognition technology.

Specialists on statistics warn a proposed law change poses the threat of official data being corrupted by political meddling and unregulated sharing.

A raft of legal opinions has cleared the way for greater use of facial recognition technology to prove who you are online, as the government moves towards setting up a common identity verification…

Analysis - Documents show multiple government ministries and agencies have been batting about the idea of using controversial facial recognition technology.

Health officials are defending their funding of nurse training, but fears remain the budget will not get enough trainees over the line.

Drivers' licence photos will not be run through the One Time Identity facial recognition system unless a person chooses it, the Transport Agency says.

Government agencies have a facial recognition system set up to share drivers' licence photos with the Covid-19 vaccine passport scheme.

A nursing educator says now is the time to boost the number of Māori nurse practitioners - currently, they make up just nine percent of the 612-strong practitioner workforce.

Despite the health workforce crisis, government health officials have given short shrift to an unprecedented proposal to double the numbers of specialised nurses who can cover for a shortfall of GPs.

The government is persisting with a way of buying hugely expensive medical devices that has been proven ineffective.

Health New Zealand is tackling a major rejig of Wellington Hospital as one of its first big new infrastructure jobs, amid huge pressures of time, money and construction labour.

"Stark" findings about the poor state of the Wellington region's hospitals have triggered a rush to get a $2 billion fixit plan underway.

The Transport Agency plans to spend more than $50 million tackling risks to its outdated technology that have been rated "critical" for years.

Used car dealers say some customers expecting a clean car rebate are getting hit with a fee instead, because official data is changing even as the vehicle is being sold.

Rusting bolts, failed asphalt tests and Covid-19 are all contributing to rising costs on major highway projects, but savings have been made.

Legal action is possible over the Ministry of Education vacating its Wellington head office due to earthquake risks.