Phil Pennington

Firefighters have been struggling with equipment failures that are putting them at risk.

Fire and Emergency has an ageing fleet of big ladder trucks ladder hoses, pumps or controls leaked, and has… Audio

A change to a key part of the housing intensification bill has been enough to alarm supporters, but too little to placate critics.

The bill is up for debate at its second reading in Parliament on… Audio

Vital hospital building projects in Auckland are being delayed for months by questions over fire designs - and especially the safe evacuation of smoke-filled rooms.

Stroke, rehabilitation and baby… Audio

A review of firefighting at a big south Auckland warehouse blaze says asbestos floated up to 1km away.

It also shows 22 fire trucks were not decontaminated and may have carried hazardous asbestos… Audio

Developers have told MPs they do not want a housing density bill that gives them open slather across swathes of suburbia.

An iwi says the proposed legislation is a "disgrace".

Phil Pennington… Audio

Householders face losing over a billion dollars worth of sunlight and views under radical housing intensification law changes.

A government cost-benefit analysis puts these price tags on the plans to… Audio

A river of new demolition waste is expected to flow from a law change to allow at least three houses be built on one section.

The government is in the dark about just how much and is under fire over… Audio

A law change to allow three homes up to three storeys high on one existing section is stirring controversy as it is rushed through Parliament.

Some detractors are calling it ad hoc but others vital… Audio

More stories are emerging of new house buyers losing out to developers using sunset clauses or other devices against them.

This comes as the escalating price of land and cost of building materials… Audio

A 50 metre high tower with 70 tonnes of bells in it that presents a high earthquake risk in central Wellington, has been allowed to stay that way for up to six more years.

The long running project to… Audio

House buyers are at increasing risk of developers using sunset clauses to bail out of contracts.

That's prompted lawyers to begin work on a safer contract in a market plagued by the pandemic.

Phil… Audio

Officials are pulling back from bold new standards to make houses warmer, because of the stresses on the supply chain.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment will announce new insulation… Audio

A man accused of killing a toddler in Southland in 2015, changed his story from saying he did not know what happened to saying he tripped on a skateboard and fell on the boy.

The man was charged with… Audio

A commercial airline pilot accused of being at risk of killing all his passengers has won a scathing court judgement against Civil Aviation.

The judge says the agency may have been primed to… Video, Audio

Air quality experts are looking to the government's pandemic school plan due out today to do more to protect students in classrooms.

They have just met with the Ministries of education and health to… Audio

Auckland firefighters who say they are being exposed to cancer-causing asbestos have issued a safety notice against their employer.

Fire and Emergency or FENZ admits it has failed to meet health and… Audio

Church lawyers are pressuring the Royal Commission of inquiry into abuse to narrow the scope of its investigation.

In response, the commission has asked for submissions about its scope, infuriating a… Audio

Skiers were unknowingly a "knife edge" away from catastrophe on bus trips down Mt Ruapehu, but the risk was only revealed after a crash that killed 11-year-old Hannah Francis.

The details are in a… Audio

Crucial upgrade or expensive lemon? That's the debate over a shiny new road upgrade now under way for central Tauranga.

Cameron Road will add space for buses and bikes but won't reduce the number of… Audio

More Aucklanders are dying or being  maimed on the roads because police are doing only half what they said they would to tackle speeding and booze.

The police themselves accept the criticism… Audio