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Checkpoint FOR MONDAY 27 MAY 2013
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The case of a convicted rapist who moved in next door to his victim in Invercargill is about to get its sequel in Parliament. The Government will this week introduce a bill to try to prevent such a thing happening again. The case involved Craig Crofts, who was jailed for rape in 2004, and moved in next door to his victim when he was released from prison. Police at the time had no power to force him to leave. The Prime Minister, John Key, has also today announced that the Government will also legislate to crackdown on child sex offending online.
CUT
Our political reporter, Tim Graham, is with us now.
LIVE
Northland primary school principals say they're having to beg for teacher-aids and specialist help, to deal with an escalating number of violent new-entrants. They say funding for specialist support staff is being rationed and is nowhere near enough to cope with the severity of the problems children are bringing to school. Lois Williams reports.
PKG
The police in Nelson have described a weekend of horrific driving by teenagers who've put their own lives as well as others at risk. Yesterday officers chased a 19 year old woman who sped through the central city at 150 kilometres an hour before crashing her car. She's been charged with reckless driving, failing to stop, assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, driving while forbidden, drink driving and possession of cannabis. Also yesterday they pulled over a driver doing 170 kilometres on a narrow country road and on Friday stopped two car loads of teenagers racing at a 150 and 179 ks an hour on the expressway between Nelson and Richmond. The cars were impounded and the drivers' licences suspended for 28 days. They're yet to be charged. Senior Sergeant Phil Wooding says an officer was starting to pull over one of the vehicles when the following car overtook at almost 180 ks.
PREREC
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS WITH Kate Gudsell
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Syria's opposition is in disarray over whether it should participate in a United States-Russian peace summit, as efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the war in Syria gain momentum. President Bashar al Assad's regime has already indicated it will take part in the Geneva conference. At the same time, a rocket attack on Hezbollah's heartland in Beirut has renewed fears the conflict in Syria will draw in the region's key neighbouring powers. Now there are questions as to whether Hezbollah's official involvement in the fighting is a major miscalculation. The ABC's Barney Porter reports.
PKG
A sexually graphic lesbian love story, Blue is the Warmest Colour, has clinched the top prize at the Cannes [CAN] Film Festival in a pivotal year for gay rights. Jury president Hollywood director Steven Spielberg says the tender coming-of-age tale about a 15-year-old French girl's first love was a unanimous choice. Here's the BBC's arts correspondent Vincent Dowd.
PKG
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17. 30 HEADLINES
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More now on the Government introducing a new law to target violent or sexual offenders who try to live or work near their victims. It's been prompted by the case of a convicted rapist, Craig Crofts - he was jailed in 2004, and after his release moved in next door to his victim in Invercargill. Police at the time had no power to force him to move away. The Justice minister, Judith Collins, is with us now.
LIVE
Treasury has confirmed the so-called mum and dad investors in Mighty River Power included companies, trusts and New Zealand investment institutions. However, it's unable to say just how many of these there were, alongside the individual, small-time investors who bought into the General offer in the power company. This comes as the Prime Minister John Key has signalled the Government could sell a 49 percent stake in Meridian Energy in two chunks to ensure majority New Zealand ownership.
CUT
The Government is marketing the partial privatisations as a chance for ordinary New Zealanders to get into the stock market. But the Green Party says it's a myth - the Green's co-leader Russel Norman is with us now.
LIVE
Fonterra has been swamped with the response from farmers wanting to sell the economic rights to some of their shares. Farmers could deposit up to a quarter of the shares they hold to match their milk supply into the Shareholders Fund, set up as part of Trading Among Farmers, or TAF. In return for the cash value, set at seven dollars 92 a share, they give up the dividend rights, which are sold to outside investors who buy units in the fund. About 20-percent of farmer shareholders want to sell 75-million shares, for a total value of almost 600-million dollars. The high demand means Fonterra will scale back the offer to about 80-percent of what each farmer was seeking. The response is a stark contrast to the limited interest when the fund was launched late last year. So why the change? Here's the board chair John Wilson.
PREREC
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17. 45 MANU KORIHI
Kia ora mai, good evening,
A Ngāti Manawa action group is planning to occupy land in protest at the failure of eight iwi to share forestry among themselves.
Te Kokoti Moeroa-ā-Tangiharuru won't reveal where the camp will be, but says it will be in a highly-visible location on the edge of the Kaingaroa forest.
The tribes have failed to reach an agreement to divide the Crown-returned land between them according to mana whenua or territorial rights.
The group's leader - Pem Bird - says some tribes are demanding more of the land than they're entitled to - which is
not in line with the guidelines that all eight iwi have agreed to follow.
He says big iwi aren't willing to play by the rules they signed up to, and instead want to cut a deal based on equal shares.
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The Green Party's candidate for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti says she wants to speak up for the people shut out of decision-making.
Mārama Davidson is representing the Greens in next month's by-election in the eastern Māori electorate.
The mother of six children is currently working on the Owen Glenn Inquiry into family violence and child abuse, and is also a blogger and political commentator.
She says she will fight to protect the land and the sea.
IKAROA-SPEAK-TP
IN: THEY'RE UNDER REAL. . .
OUT: . . . THE FIRST PLACE.
DUR: 22"
Marama Davidson, who's contesting the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti electorate for the Green party.
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The leader of a lower North Island iwi which has settled its treaty claim says reaching settlement can be challenging - especially due to Crown staff turnover.
Ngāti Toa signed its deed of settlement in December.
The package includes an apology, cultural redress and a payment of 70-million dollars.
The Crown will also introduce unique legislation to acknowledge the significance of the haka as a taonga to Ngāti Toa Rangatira and an integral part of the tribe's history, culture and identity.
The chair of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Taku Pārai, says negotiating a treaty settlement can be difficult.
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IN: GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS COME. . .
OUT: . . . IT CAN BE FRUSTRATING.
DUR: 24"
Despite the difficulties, Taku Pārai says the tribe has a good relationship with the Crown.
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A Ngāruahine doctoral student says there is a lot of concern amongst young Māori females and their parents about the way they portray themselves on social networking sites, such as Facebook.
Acushla Dee O'Carroll who also affiliates with Te Ātiawa, is a PhD candidate at Massey University, who is about to submit her thesis about the way rangatahi or young Māori people are using Facebook.
She says young wahine Māori are cautious about what kind of photos they are tagged in.
Acushla Dee O'Carroll says young women told her they were very critical about the photos that were posted of themselves, and wanted to ensure the images portrayed them in a positive light.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a further bulletin in an hour.
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70 ANZ call centre jobs are being shifted to Wellington from Melbourne in the next 3 months, as the bank tries to cut costs. It says there will be no redundancies. No one from ANZ would speak on Checkpoint. But Robert Reid, the general secretary of the FIRST union, which represents call centre banking workers, is with us now.
LIVE
The top Roman Catholic cleric in Australia is currently appearing before an official inquiry into child sex abuse by priests. Cardinal George Pell is the final witness at the parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse in Victoria. There have been calls for him to apologise and face up to the crimes committed by church members. For many victims and their families Cardinal Pell's testimony today will be their last chance to get any answers from the church about the way it dealt with abuse cases. The BBC's Phil Mercer has more.
AUDIO
Three men arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder following the killing of the British soldier Drummer Lee Rigby have been released on bail. The trio, aged 21, 24 and 28, were arrested on Saturday, three days after the 25-year old soldier was hacked to death on a London street. And as the BBC's Louise Stewart reports the latest events have reopened debate about how to tackle extremism in Britain.
PKG
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Presenter: Mary Wilson
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Rachel Askew, Susie Ferguson