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Checkpoint for Thursday 2 APRIL 2009
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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Seventy jobs have been axed at the Tertiary Education Commission - the first casualties of the government's drive to cut costs in the public service.The commission has also confirmed that its regional offices in Rotorua and Christchurch will go, leaving the organisation with no presence in the South Island. Our education correspondent, Gael Woods, joins us. LIVE
New Zealand Post has announced its axing up to 100 mail centre and administrative jobs.The company says the move is in response to a large drop in mail volume. Ian Telfer reports. PKG
The deputy State Services Commissioner, Laurence Millar, has resigned, following the release of a critical report on the way the Commission handled contracts, worth seven and a half million dollars, with an information technology company. The contracts, were with an independently-owned company called Voco which was given the job to plan and implement parts of the Government Shared Network. The network was shut down this year because too few people were using it. The State Services Commissioner Ian Rennie is with us now . LIVE
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BUSINESS NEWS
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A church memorial book for victims of the 1979 Mount Erebus plane crash has been safely returned. A local homeless man found the book among rubbish at a cemetery on Karangahape Road, and returned it to the church undamaged. St Matthew-in-the-city assistant priest Clay Nelson received the book earlier today, he joins us now. LIVE
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17.30 HEADLINES
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Convicted murderer Graeme Burton has been putting pressure on already stretched resources by insisting on making weekly appearances in court. Burton is charged with attempted murder after an assault on a fellow prisoner at Auckland Prison. He is serving a life sentence with a minimum non parole period of 26 years for killing Lower Hutt man, Karl Kuchenbecker. Six other Auckland Prison inmates were also in the North Shore District Cour , charged over the killing of 23 year old Tue Faavae last month. Laura Davis was at court and joins us now. LIVE
The new chairperson of the ACC has told MPs the Corporation's liabilities are set to rise significantly but privatisation is not on the agenda, at least for now. John Judge made his appearance today before Parliament's Transport and Industrial Relations select committee. And as Julian Robins reports, this time there was no sign of the ACC minister, Nick Smith. PKG
The Green Party is questioning why the ACC is paying GPs for enrolling patients in a new pilot scheme. The Better at Work programme, being trialled in Taupo, aims to help patients stay at work after an injury. The Greens say doctors should provide neutral medical service, and a scheme that pays them to push people into work doesn't achieve this. In a written statement, ACC said payment to the doctor is not intended to be an incentive, but to recognise the extra work involved for those in the trial. Joining us now is Green MP, Sue Bradford: LIVE
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WAATEA NEWS
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Air New Zealand has cancelled a flight from Christchurch to Sydney this afternoon, citing industrial action. It says flight attendants employed by its subsidiary, Zeal, have been suspended and passengers rebooked on another service. The EPMU which represents the staff, today called off a strike that would have disrupted Easter travel for many people. But ZEAL staff are continuing other industrial action - including wearing fancy dress - to publicise their claim for better pay. Lois Williams reports. PKG
The government has cancelled work visa changes which allowed six Filipino welders to do general work at a Taranaki factory where local welders had been sacked. MCK Metals Pacific says the foreign workers' skills have almost secured a major new contract, which would create at least two dozen new jobs across the country. The company's chief executive is Pramod Khatri. CLIP
I asked the Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman if he thought these workers should be sent home if there was no specialist work for them to do. PRE-REC
The G20 summit officially begins in a few hours time with world leaders sharply divided over what to do about the economy. The summit has been seen by some as a chance to make a collective plan. The BBC's economics correspondent Andrew Walker filed this report : PKG
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