Stories by Phil Pennington

Fire engineers are accusing councils of making illegal demands on them that are inflating building costs by thousands of dollars.

A second round of tests for firefighting foam contamination in Marlborough has found only one sample that exceeds the guidelines for drinking water.

A blanket ban on more than 800 heavy vehicle towbars could be "devastating" for owner-drivers of trucks with them, says the Road Transport Association.

Vehicle owners have been told not to use the towbars of more than 800 heavy vehicles because of serious safety concerns

Airports face big bills to get rid of banned firefighting foam but officials are promising tight monitoring to make sure no one dumps any to avoid the costs.

The government now admits it's "essential" to use a new, wide-ranging test to assess the health impacts of firefighting foam contamination, but the test is not being used.

A contract to fix the rotting Scott building at Middlemore Hospital, signed with the original builder, intends to use a recladding method the DHB called "both testing and risky".

A Manawatū farmer says his community wants easier access to a blood test for toxic chemicals from firefighting foam, but the Health Ministry is telling them not to bother.

The Building Minister has defended her ministry's lack of action over aluminium composite panel cladding on high rise buildings.

A central North Island regional council is asking questions about the type of testing being done to detect firefighting foam contamination. Audio

The Health Minister is questioning the position of the chair of the troubled Counties Manukau District Health Board, who has only been in the job for three months.

Blood testing for people in firefighting foam contamination zones is going ahead, despite the Ministry of Health downplaying that it's necessary.

Middlemore Hospital is blighted by rot and mould, earthquake weaknesses and asbestos that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to fix.

A large-scale contamination investigation in New Zealand is relying on a test that fails to detect a whole host of firefighting foam chemicals.

The former Health Minister says documents show he was not warned about rotting buildings at Middlemore Hospital in South Auckland.

An Australian company is hitting back over the major safety questions raised in New Zealand about aluminium panels used to clad the outside of high-rises.

Nine months on from the Grenfell Tower inferno, the system used in New Zealand to approve aluminium composite panels for high-rises has failed a critical safety audit. Audio

Circuit breakers that need upgrading and a generator at the KidzFirst children's hospital that didn't kick in when it should have have contributed to Middlemore Hospital's power supply problems.

It's been revealed that Middlemore Hospital was forced to use emergency generators for weeks at its busy Manukau Superclinic after a major power failure.

Counties Manukau District Health Board has linked raw sewage leaking out of pipes to a bad bacteria outbreak at Middlemore Hospital in 2014.

Authorities were kept fully informed of the issues and risks with Middlemore Hospital's buildings, the former DHB boss who led the hospital until last year says.

Counties-Manukau District Health Board has been unable to take legal action to get money back in the case of three out of four of its rotting buildings.

Analysis - New Zealand firefighters are using foams most of Australia ditched years ago over environmental and health fears, while outdated testing here also fails to pick up nasty chemicals, Phil…

In an unpleasant surprise for firefighting foam investigators, the toxic chemicals have now been found in the drinking water of a Rangitikei town.