Stories by Phil Pennington

Large government departments have reported increased spending on consultants and contractors, a year after the government promised to reduce it.

Building plans accepted by Christchurch City Council show one of its own structural engineers designed a new multi-storey office block that is unstable, but the council says the document are wrong.

Newly released documents show major ructions at the country's most high-powered building products quality approval scheme, CodeMark.

Motorists are being warned to expect a "huge amount" of roadworks this summer, as the Transport Agency plans to do double its usual road maintenance and renewal.

A building developer is asking the Christchurch City Council to cordon off his defective multi-storey block in the main shopping zone after earthquake risk concerns.

A man who narrowly avoided the CTV building collapse in the 2011 earthquake says a new case of poor seismic design shows building consent failings.

A property developer says he rejected the developers who went on to build a substandard multistorey in Christchurch's central mall.

The Waitematā District Health Board admits it's dealt with several cases of inadequate patient consent for gynaecological procedures last year, but none in the past six months.

Christchurch City Council is refusing to sign off on a new and unoccupied central city multi-storey building after a final ruling faulted its design.

North Shore Hospital is being accused of breaching patients' rights by allowing vaginal and uterine examinations without their knowledge or consent.

Councils estimate they have yet to identify 10,000 buildings nationwide that are earthquake-prone and need upgrading or demolition.

Central Auckland's tallest apartment block is yet to get out of the ground because of flawed concrete in its foundations.

Structural engineers are looking into a whistleblowing scheme encouraging alarms to be raised about dodgy work.

Repairs and monitoring of water damage to parts of the near-new Waikato Expressway are expected to cost almost $60 million, even before a long-term fix is found.

A union has expressed "grave concern" after the Ministry of Education rebuffed its concerns over school bus safety, saying it was disappointed parents had been "unduly alarmed".

The Ministry of Education had previously said single routes - like one run by a community at Rere on the East Coast - would no longer be available.

A national system of paying for public transport tickets virtually anywhere - using cellphones, credit card or paywave - is beset by delays and uncertainty

The government has delayed the awarding of tenders to run school buses that carry 40 million passengers a year after First Union raised safety concerns.

A survivor of the disgraced theologian says the remarks to her by a newly-appointed member of the Church's royal commission liaison group are minimising and she should be removed.

A newly-released WorkSafe report into a 2016 bus crash that killed three people showed investigators found weaknesses in the bus firm's maintenance systems.

Two abuse survivors have quit a Royal Commission advisory group after being unknowingly exposed to a convicted paedophile.

Checks have been made on the quality of the earthquake design of several buildings in Christchurch, but Wellington has been unable to follow suit.

The expensive Transmission Gully project has concerns about technology for cameras and speed signs, but won't say what's going wrong.

A highly paid Transport Agency senior manager's team has tripled in size in a year, with most of the spots taken by contractors, documents show. Audio

The Catholic Church has yet to bring in external audits for child safety practices, two years after promising it would.