About the Author

Phil Pennington is a senior reporter for RNZ. He has worked for RNZ for a decade, mostly producing the news programmes Checkpoint and Morning Report. He helped cover the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, and in 2008 went to Washington DC to produce RNZ Morning Report's coverage of the US presidential election won by Barack Obama. Phil has received a national media award for feature writing. He has also worked in newsrooms in Britain and Asia. He and his family live in Wellington.