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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 11 MARCH 2014
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The brother of murdered prostitute Mellory Manning has compared the violence inflicted on his sister to something from a horror movie. Mongrel Mob prospect Mauha Fawcett has been found guilty of killing Ms Manning in 2008. The court heard he attacked her to earn his patch - hitting her with a metal pole and barking like a dog with other gang members as they raped, beat and stabbed her. Fawcett claimed his initial confession to the police was under pressure and he wasn't involved but the jury didn't believe him. The police say they have the DNA of one of the other killers and are pressing ahead with that investigation. We'll hear from them shortly. Mellory Manning's brother Robin says the guilty verdict was a huge relief after the ordeal of the trial.
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Detective Inspector Greg Williams says the investigation in Mellory Manning's murder is not over yet.
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The American whistleblower Edward Snowden says the United States has pressured New Zealand to change its laws to enable mass spying on citizens. Snowden made the claims in his testimony to the European Parliament. He says America's National Security Agency has a Foreign Affairs Division which searches for loopholes in other countries' laws to justify indiscriminate, dragnet surveillance - and such operations have occurred recently in Sweden, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. He claims the NSA tells the country how to degrade the legal protections around communications. Then, they attempt to access the bulk communications of all major telecommunication companies - in the UK's case Snowden names Vodafone among others. He also says the agreements NSA has with its foreign partners mean the other countries maintain plausible deniability. The Prime Minister John Key, who chairs the Intelligence and Security Committee, was unavailable to come on Checkpoint. His office says there will be many leaks from Snowden over coming months and he can't comment on them all. Mr Key has previously said that this country's spy agencies require warrants to carry out surveillance of New Zealanders and must act within the law.
The Green Party co-leader Russel Norman is a member of that five-person committee. He's with us now.
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Voters will have their say on whether to ditch the country's flag for another design, but not just yet. It won't happen until after this year's election. The Prime Minister has pledged to hold a referendum on the flag before 2017 if re-elected - and Labour's now promised to do the same. Here's our political reporter, Craig McCulloch.
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Using blunt and undiplomatic language China's Foreign Ministry is demanding that the Malaysian government tries harder to find the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. As the search continues authorities are even more mystified about what happened to flight M-H-three-seventy and the 239 people on board. Three dozen spotter planes and a flotilla of ships have carrying out an intense sea and air search over a vast area of water off mainland South-east Asia. The ABC's Peter Lloyd reports :
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS with Kate Gudsell
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17. 30 HEADLINES
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Lending restrictions have continued to cool the housing market, with sales falling for the third successive month. The Real Estate Institute says sales fell 8 percent to about 61-hundred in February, compared with the same month a year ago. The national median price rose 9 percent to 415-thousand dollars, but the pace of increases is slowing. Our economics correspondent, Patrick O'Meara, has been looking at the numbers . . . . .
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Auckland's rescue helicopter trust has stepped up its fight with an Auckland Council funding board, accusing it being influenced by gifts. The helicopter trust is taking legal action against the Regional Amenities Funding Board after it cut the trust's ratepayer funding. At a meeting today, the trust claimed board members had been accepting gifts and were being unduly influenced by the arts organisations the board also funds. Kate Newton was at the meeting.
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The police are vowing to bring to justice the other killers of Mellory Manning after today's guilty verdict for Mongrel Mob prospect Mauha Fawcett. Ms Manning was beaten, stabbed and raped because she owed money for drugs and for a street tax the gang had been collecting off some prostitutes in central Christchurch. Christchurch sociologist Jarrod Gilbert has written a book on the history of New Zealand gangs. He's with us now.
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17. 45 MANU KORIHI with Eru Rerekura
Kia ora mai, good evening,
The Prime Minister, John Key, says the government isn't bound by any principles in the Treaty of Waitangi to include Maori symbols on any new flag.
He says if National's re-elected it'll hold a referendum on the flag in the next parliamentary term.
Mr Key says the design of the current flag symbolises a colonial and post-colonial era whose time has passed.
He says whether or not a new ensign will include Maori symbols, including native flora and fauna will be up to the public to decide.
FLAG-KEY-TP
IN: I EXPRESSED A. . .
OUT: . . . MAKE THEIR CHOICE.
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John Key says if he's still the Prime Minister after the general election in September, he'll ask all political party leaders represented in Parliament to nominate an MP to join a cross-party group on flags.
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The Mana Party says it has time on its side and is better prepared to win more seats in the next elections.
The movement will contest all seven Maori electorates in September, and is considering vying for general seats.
Its leader, Hone Harawira, is the party's only MP and represents Te Tai Tokerau.
The party officially registered five months before the last elections in 2011.
Its president, Annete Sykes, says it has the organisational strategy in place to win more seats this time around.
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IN: WHEN WE WENT TO
OUT: . . . STRONG CANDIDATES EMERGING.
DUR: 14"
Annette Sykes says most candidates will be confirmed at its Annual General Meeting next month.
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Descendants of the Bay of Plenty tribe Te Mana o Ngati Rangitihi are being asked to back a bid to strike a settlement with the Crown.
Leaders of the iwi plan to enter into direct negotiations with the Office of Treaty Settlements.
Half a dozen hui will be held next month to seek a mandate from the people to begin talks.
A mandating strategy launched last year has been on hold until now to gather further feedback from tribal members.
Hui will be held in Rotorua, Hamilton, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Matata.
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The head of a new kaupapa Maori retreat in Hawke's Bay says teaching karanga will improve the self-esteem of the women which will benefit whanau.
A former Maori lecturer, Raina Ferris, is building a whare at the front of her Porangahau home to be the Kurawaka Retreat Centre.
The kaikaranga of 43 years says she'll provide courses for wahine to learn about the true meaning and depth of the scared art form, karanga.
She says teaching karanga to wahine will improve the state of it on the marae, but it would also improve the self-esteem of the women, which would enhance their whanau, hapu and iwi.
Raina Ferris says the whare will be finished before the first course intake in June.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a further bulletin in an hour.
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The principal of a decile-one primary in Otara has told a court she didn't spend school money on herself but used it to buy reference books. Colleen Gray and her husband Bruce Gray are on trial on charges of dishonestly using documents to obtain a pecuniary advantage and using forged documents. Our reporter Edward Gay has been at the Auckland District Court.
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The Prime Minister has continued to defend the Justice Minister, Judith Collins, against allegations she breached Cabinet rules by visiting food exporter Oravida in Shanghai while on an official visit to China. John Key has told Parliament the Cabinet Office advised him Ms Collins' visit was fine because she did not endorse the company or its products. Here's our political editor Brent Edwards.
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Police say the search for a missing boatie is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Search teams are scouring the coastline of the top of the South Island for the missing Marlborough man. Our reporter Alison Hossain has more:
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Presenter: Mary Wilson
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Meg Fowler, Mei Yeoh