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Checkpoint is a drive-time news and current affairs programme on Radio New Zealand National. It broadcasts nationwide every weekday evening for two hours and covers the day’s major national and international stories, as well as business, sport and Māori news. This recording covers the first hour. The following rundown is supplied from the broadcaster’s news system:
Checkpoint FOR TUESDAY 3 DECEMBER 2013
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The Auditor General has stopped sending any new jobs to Audit New Zealand because of failings in how it kept a check on a Northland sewerage scheme that blew out by millions of dollars. In the meantime, Lyn Provost has sent two independent advisers in to fix things at Audit NZ. It's allowed to continue audits it's already started but is banned from taking on new work. Lyn Provost has been in Mangawhai today to deliver her report from an eighteen month inquiry into the 60 million-plus waste-water debacle which has pushed up rates bill and brought down the Kaipara District Council. She says the Council, which has now been replaced by Commissioners, was incompetent and effectively lost control of a major infrastructure programme. She's apologised to locals for Audit NZ's failings but says she still has confidence in the organisation.
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An independent inquiry says the Rena oil spill stretched Maritime New Zealand to the point it buckled, exposing its lack of training, of experienced people and the right gear. The report was released today into the response to New Zealand's worst maritime environmental disaster. It shows an agency poorly prepared to cope with what became a Tier Three disaster, the most serious category, once the Rena hit the Astrolabe reef off Tauranga in 2011. It lacked booms that could work in the open sea, a bunker vessel to pump oil on to, and GPS trackers to stick on containers as they fell off. The Government has responded by saying it will put in two million dollars over three years to improve training, buy GPS trackers and a wide variety of other things. The director of Maritime New Zealand is Keith Manch (man-ch).
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Parliament's Privileges Committee has released a highly critical report on why email, phone and swipe card records were handed over to the David Henry inquiry, calling it unacceptable and a problem that must be fixed. The information was given to Mr Henry's inquiry into the leak to the media of a report on the Government Communications Security Bureau, by Parliamentary Service. In particular it included records of communication from the United Future leader and former Minister, Peter Dunne, and the Fairfax journalist, Andrea Vance. Here's our political reporter, Clare Pasley.
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS with Sharon Brettkelly
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For the first time the United Nations has directly implicated the Syrian President, Bashar Al Assad, in war crimes committed during the Syrian conflict which has already lasted more than two years. The UN's top human rights official, Navi Pillay, says all sides have committed human rights abuses, but the government was the worst. The BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Robbins reports on the UN inquiry :
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Act Party leader John Banks will be tried in the Auckland District Court on electoral fraud charges in an election year. In a decision released at 5pm today, Justice Heath has said the case will go ahead. Our reporter Edward Gay has been following the case
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17. 30 HEADLINES
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Parliament's Privileges Committee has released a report strongly criticising how email, phone and swipe card records were handed over to an inquiry into a leaked spy report, calling it unacceptable and a problem that must be fixed. It says Parliamentary Service's handing over of the information to the David Henry inquiry into the GCSB report leak was unacceptable. But the Attorney General Chris Finlayson is defending the Prime Minister's office against Labour's accusation that it was John Key's chief of staff Wayne Eagleson who intervened to get that to happen. Chris Finlayson, who chairs the privileges committee, spoke to reporters at Parliament this afternoon .
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The Parliamentary Service head Geoff Thorn quit in August when it emerged that Fairfax journalist Andrea Vance's phone records and emails were released to the David Henry inquiry without her consent. Fairfax Media says it is astonishing that the Speaker of the House, David Carter, the Minister responsible for the Parliamentary Service, was not consulted or even informed about the information's release. It says it is now waiting for the privileges committee to fix the fundamental flaws. The United Future leader Peter Dunne quit as a Minister after refusing to co-operate with the inquiry. Today, John Key said Peter Dunne could still be reinstated as a minister but added the Privileges Report won't impact on his decision one way or the other. Peter Dunne says he'd like to be resinstated. He's with us now.
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The Court of Appeal has confirmed Government offers to buy out some owners of uninsured property and vacant quake-hit land in Christchurch are illegal. It has found that while the red zone was lawfully created, the offer to pay half the rateable value for those properties was not legal under the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act Now the Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee must reconsider the offers. He is not available to be interviewed on Checkpoint but spoke to reporters earlier today:
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The ruling is a win for 46 owners who want a 100 percent payout on their red zoned land. Christchurch lawyer, Grant Cameron, is acting for the group of landowners, who call themselves Quake Outcasts. He's with us now.
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17. 45 MANU KORIHI with Eru Rerekura
Kia ora mai, good evening,
New information collected from the Census shows a drop in the number of Te Reo speakers.
Just over one in five Maori can now hold a conversation about a lot of everyday things in their native tongue.
Gareth Thomas filed this report.
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IN SFX. . . . TODAY, A PACK. . . .
OUT . . . SOC
DUR 01' 19
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In the education sector, the number of Maori achieving formal qualifications at university has soared.
The proportion of Maori with a bachelor's degree has increased by more than 50 per cent to just over 36-thousand.
Information shows Maori men are less likely than wahine to have a formal qualification.
While women are more likely than Maori men to be taking studies.
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In other news. . . the Bay of Plenty iwi, Ngati Whakahemo, fears it will be outbidded by foreign investors, for its confiscated farmlands near Pukehina Beach.
Iwi representatives are in Wellington trying to convince the Crown it has the right to first refusal of the dairy farms, which Landcorp will close tender for tomorrow.
Ngati Whakahemo says most of the land was confiscated by the Crown.
The runanga chair, Mita Ririnui, says it has offered to pay commercial market rates for its whenua, but has been told to take its chances and bid.
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IN: WE DON'T KNOW. . .
OUT: . . . LOCAL COMMUNITIES.
DUR: 16"
Mita Ririnui.
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The lead researcher looking into the impact of the Rena grounding says he supports a report that says kaimoana is now safe to eat from around the Astrolabe Reef and Motiti Island.
The environmental study into the grounding, released this morning, has shown the environment has still not returned to its pre-Rena state.
But it also says there have been few long-lasting impacts.
A science professor, Chris Battershill, says even though there are traces of some toxins in the sea, he is confident that seafood is safe to eat.
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The government should have a better idea of potential credit card mispending at the commercial arm of the Kohanga Reo National Trust early next year.
A draft of the independent report into the trust's spending of tax-payer's money is expected within weeks.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a further bulletin in an hour.
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The head of the government's electronic spy agency has appeared for the first time at a public hearing of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, where he was grilled about collecting masses of data on New Zealanders . Ian Fletcher from the Government Communications Security Bureau, appeared along with Warren Tucker who heads the Security Intelligence Service. A law change after the controversy over the illegal spying operation on Kim Dotcom, included public financial reviews for both agencies. Mr Fletcher told the committee the agency is still dealing with the fall-out.
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Our parliamentary chief reporter, Jane Patterson was at the hearing. . .
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A coroner has found a South Otago teen killed when his quad bike went off a cliff, had never ridden one before. 16 year old Rowan Parker died on Boxing Day last year while visiting a friend's farm in the Catlins. Our Otago reporter, Ian Telfer, has been looking at the coroner's findings.
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A quarter of New Zealand's population was born overseas and one in eight people living in New Zealand is Asian. The latest census results released by Statistics New Zealand also show fewer people can afford to own their own home. Meg Fowler reports:
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European Union politicians are taking aim at the rise in public support for right wing parties and a new euro-sceptic alliance that wants to scale back the influence of Brussels on Europe's governments. The alliance has promised to change the vote in next May's ballot for the European Parliament and it has Brussels calling for a co-ordinated response as Deutsche Welle's Monika Jones reports :
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Presenter: Mary Wilson
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Cushla Norman, Mei Yeoh