Stories by Phil Pennington

An electrician had to be "coached through" fixing a gas leak on a Cook Strait ferry, found an investigation which discovered a trail of systemic training and emergency planning failures.

The aluminium smelter at Bluff has stockpiled more than 100,000 tonnes of cyanide-laced hazardous waste less than 100 metres from a fast-eroding Southland beach.

Eighteen trucking companies are being investigated after a police crackdown uncovered mass safety breaches on the highway north of Auckland late last year.

Critics of WorkSafe are questioning its ability to investigate bad road crashes, while the workplace safety regulator has told the government it's "unable to meet public expectations".

A Muslim women's group is calling for action and not just consultation over the Christchurch mosque shootings.

An interfaith advocate is asking for an apology from officials as the hui into the Christchurch mosque shootings continues.

Young people setting up the country's first national network for Muslim youth are looking to nationwide community meetings on the mosque attacks as a litmus test for the government.

A Muslim leader has held a hurried meeting with top officials about the government's nationwide series of hui on the mosque attacks.

Satellites spotted part of the crater of Whakaari / White Island collapsing in the days before the deadly December 2019 eruption, it has emerged.

Thousands of workers in managed isolation hotels now have representatives to address health concerns and make their workplaces safer.

Brief clinical appointments are making it impossible for women with breast cancer to get vital information about issues like mastectomies, a researcher says. Audio

The son of a woman who died aged 100 in a troubled Lower Hutt resthome claims its systemic problems accelerated her decline.

A health board is instigating management changes at a Lower Hutt rest home being investigated over allegations of abuse and neglect.

An Auckland woman is furious her gynaecological operation went ahead in a theatre crowded with people she had not given permission to be there.

International priorities dictated a gaping hole in the collection of far-right intelligence reports, according to the lead communications spy agency.

The rules around how hospitals get permission to operate on patients have been slightly strengthened, but women's health advocates say there are still concerns.

Transport officials planned to ask residents living near the Auckland Harbour Bridge if their properties could be tested for heavy metals, without telling them contamination had already been found…

Public transport advocates are taking legal action over what they say is road building that encourages too much travel by car.

Several key security and intelligence agencies failed to do their counter-terrorism job well, or at all, but there remains no way of holding them to account.

A security expert warns that creating a new counter-terrorism agency might just add to the confusion.

High-tech investigative tools being imported by the police are attracting controversy overseas.

The government now has the infrastructure for mass or targeted surveillance using facial recognition technology, a study says, and a law professor warns of a "regulation gap".

Workplace safety investigators looking into a Desert Road double-fatality smash failed to record months later that a baby boy died alongside his preschool brother, even as they reactivated an inquiry…

A big user of industrial-size plastic bags has found a way to re-use them, helping stem the dumping of thousands of bags each year into landfills.