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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 FRIDAY 19 SEPT 2014
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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Scotland has rejected independance. With more than 60 percent of the referendum votes declared, the Nationalists have conceded defeat. Their deputy leader, Nicola Sturgeon, says 'there is a real sense of disappointment that we've fallen narrowly short of securing independance'. But she says there is still an appetite for change CUT And Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has congratulated the head of the Scottish anti- Independance campaign, Alistair Darling. In Glasgow, Scotland's bigest city, people voted for independence, but not by a great enough margin to bring the "yes" camp back into the race. The returning officer George Black announced the result CUT Calculations put support for staying in the United Kingdom at 54 percent. Stewart Paterson, the Political Correspondent for Scotland's Evening Times newspaper is in Glasgow i/v
The Fiji Electoral Commission is outraged that opposition parties have tried to stop the vote counting, with claims of election fraud. Opposition parties say complaints - including ballot box spoiling, and no counting in some areas - have been trickling in from around the country. Vote counting is still taking place, and a final result - expected on Monday - will more than likely confirm a landslide victory for Frank Bainimarama and his FijiFirst party. The Electoral Commission said today that the whole process has been free and fair. In a news conference, the commissioner Chen Bunn Young said it's unfair to indict Fiji's whole elections process without evidence being presented. He said opposition parties have said they'll present the commission with evidence by the end of today, and once that happens they'll review it and take it seriously. CUT Our reporter, Philippa Tolley, is in Fiji. i/v
Political leaders are converging on Auckland ahead of tomorrow's vote using that last hours of campaiging to shore-up all the support they can. John Key has heckled by protestors on a brief visit to Rotorua and had to abruptly abandon a news conference because of the disruption. CUT This week the American journalist Glen Greenwald and the whistleblower Edward Snowden claimed that the New Zealand government is carrying out illegal, mass surveillance on its citizens, which the government has repeatedly denied. On the eve of the election, National's campaign boss Steven Joyce is claiming Kim Dotcom has been a big help this week . CUT John Key says while it's been a campaign with plenty of twists and turns, he has no regrets. CUT Our Chief parliamentary reporter Jane Paterson is on the National Party bus . i/v
b/a And there will be LIVE coverage of Election 2014 from 7pm on Saturday on RADIONZ.CO.NZ. As the results come in we will have continuous updates, reports from around the country, and an up-to-the-minute graphic showing how the parties are faring against each other. In the meantime - if you wanting to sort out political fact from fiction - the website will explain all.
A witness to a pile-up in Cheviot has described a school bus careering along the road in a scene reminiscent of the movies, and performing a 360 degree turn before it crashed.
Several people have been injured in a crash of the school bus, a milk tanker, a camper van and a four wheel drive just after 3pm in north Canterbury. The witness, who did not want to be named, said the front of the bus was stoved in, there was no driver at the wheel and a passenger who had been thrown from it was lying on the road screaming. Dave Berry of the Fire Service is with us now. i/v
To Australia now where the police are promising they'll make further arrests after seizing a huge amount of material in yesterday's mass terrorism raids. And the Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the foiled plot to seize and behead an Australian in Sydney would have been carried out "within days". CUT Mr Abbott says terrorist networks have had chatter about an attack on Parliament House in Canberra and so federal police were called in a few days ago to run security there. A meeting of his Cabinet's National Security Committee has been convened in Sydney, where police are on 24 hour patrols of landmarks and bus and railway stations. Tougher anti terrorism laws will be introduced into parliament next week, though one Senator, David Leyonhjelm (line-helm) is worried they open the way for torture. The ABC political reporter Andrew Greene is with us now. i/v
The Government's rejected accusations that it ordered an ex-employee to bury potentially-embarrassing information when in the job. A former high-ranking Customs lawyer, Curtis Gregorash, has told New Zealand Herald that he quit in March after being told by senior executives to deny legitimate media requests for official information. Mr Gregorash says he believes the orders came from the former Customs Minister, Maurice Williamson. Here's our political reporter, Craig McCulloch. PKG
b/a Meanwhile the State Services Commissioner, Iain Rennie, has released a statement saying he understands the allegations were unsubstantiated, after Crown Law investigated. But he says if anyone has concerns about how agencies respond to OIA requests they should contact the Ombudsman.
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17.30 HEADLINES
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17.35 MARKET UPDATE
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The inquest of Rutger Hale has left more questions than answers about the deadly object that smashed through a car windscreen and killed him. The coroner's hearing held in Queenstown today comes almost a year after Mr Hale died while driving one morning last October near Hawea. Mr Hale's partner, Danielle Oylear, who was sitting in the passenger seat, says he was hit by a projectile the size of a brick. CUT A forensic pathologist, Dr Martin Sage, told the court he has not seen a wound like Mr Hale's in 30 years of practice. He says the man was killed by an object at least semi-circular and possibly fully spherical. CUT Our reporter, Ian Telfer, has been at the inquest and is on the line from Queenstown. i/v
The High Court has told the Government it expects its help and support to enforce a ruling that the body of James Takemore be returned to his partner and children. Iwi members last month blocked an attempt to exhume his body at a Bay of Plenty family cemetery. One of them told police officers they'd have to shoot him first. Mr Takamore died in 2007 in Christchurch and his Tuhoe whanau took him away against the wishes of his partner Denise Clarke, whose attempts to return him to Christchurch have the backing of the Supreme Court. Now the High Court has asked the Solicitor General to help decide what the next step should be. Denise Clarke's lawyer Gary Knight says there are a couple of options. i/v
b/a A Maori academic predicts thousands of Tuhoe people will turn out to defy any court order to exhume James Takamore's body. Maori academic, Sonny Tau, says there is no precedent for this case. CUT
The Labour Party leader, David Cunliffe, says the election is on a knife-edge and he will be campaigning until late tonight. As his bus tour heads around Auckland, Mr Cunliffe reflected that if he could change anything about the campaign it would be his blunder over the Capital Gains Tax policy in the second leaders' debate. CUT The Labour Party bus driving to Henderson at the moment, and our political reporter Chris Bramwell is on it i/v
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17.45 MANU KORIHI with Eru Rerekura
With election night in sight, the Tai Tokerau seat is likely to be the main focus for many people.
Mana Leader, Hone Harawira, has held the electorate since 2005, and the Internet-Mana Party is relying on him winning the seat tomorrow to help get them through.
If he doesn't, Internet Mana will not get any seats in Parliament.
In one poll, Mr Harawira's main competition, Labour's Kelvin Davis, was polling just one percentage point behind.
However, former Mana Motuhake leader and political commentator, Sandra Lee, says despite what might be a decreased majority, the Mana leader is likely to hold on to the seat.
[audio cut]
Voting closes tomorrow at 7 o'clock.
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A Ngati Porou teacher and mentor is being remembered as a man skilled at inspiring tangata whenua living in the city to be proud to be Maori.
Amster Reedy died on Wednesday night at Gisborne Hospital following a stroke.
He was 70 years old.
Maru Karatea-Goddard, who was brought up in Horowhenua and affiliates to Ngati Porou, was tutored by Mr Reedy at Wellington Teachers College in the 1980s.
OBIT-MARU-TP
IN: FOR ME AS A NGATI...
OUT: ...EXCITING FOR ME.
DUR: 14"
Maru's husband, Danny Karatea-Goddard, was also taught by Mr Reedy at Wellington teachers college in the 80s.
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IN: really he built us
OUT: ...REALLY LIBERATED US.
DUR: 15
Danny Karatea-Goddard.
Amster Reedy will be buried tomorrow.
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One of Te Rarawa's influential ancestors, Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia, a women's suffrage campaigner, is being remembered as the inspiration for wahine to take on the big issues for their people.
121 years ago today, Aotearoa became the first country ever to grant wāhine the right to vote.
Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia, was born near Whakarapa on the Hokianga Harbour in 1868.
She was the first woman to address parliament in 1893, she requested not only that Māori women be given the vote, but that they be eligible to sit in the Māori parliament.
An executive of Te Runanga o Te Rarawa, Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn, says it's her tupuna like Meri Te Tai, who have shown her to be comfortable in her own skin.
SUFF-MERI-TP
IN SHE CUT THROUGH...
OUT ...GENERATIONS.
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Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn no Te Rarawa and Ngāti Kuri.
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The world's first indigenous UN conference, which is being attended by a Maori delegation, gets underway early next week.
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Elderly women on Auckland's North Shore are being terrorised by a group of thieves who steal their pin numbers at supermarket checkouts. The police say at least eight women aged between 71 to 86 have had their money stolen over the past two weeks, and there may be more. In one case over nine-thousand dollars was stolen. Detective Senior Sergeant Stan Brown says it's been traumatic for the victims - one suffering a heart attack soon after she noticed the money was missing. He says it all starts with someone following the women to the checkout. i/v
The UN Security Council has declared the Ebola outbreak a threat to world peace and called on countries to provide urgent aid to West Africa. The New York Times UN correspondent, Somini Sengupta,says the council heard a desperate plea from a Liberian medical aid worker Jackson Naimah. i/v
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Presenter: Mary Wilson, Jim Mora
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Jo Leavesley, Mei Yeoh, Bridget Mills