The Fonterra dairy co-operative has confirmed that 400 jobs will be lost from Wellington as it moves most of its operations north. The dairy giant told Wellington staff this morning that by the end of 2004 150 positions will be transferred to Auckland, 50 to Hamilton, and 20 to Palmerston North. The company's Chief Executive, Craig Norgate says there will also be 200 redundancies. The announcement ends month of speculation for former Dairy Board employees who became part of Fonterra's mainstream dairy ingredients business, NZMP, with the merger that created the company last year. Staff at the Wellington Fonterra office say after so much speculation they expected the announcement. VOX POPS
I asked Craig Norgate why 200 positions are being axed. LIVE
Wellington's mayor Kerry Prendergast had written to Fonterra asking the company to reconsider its plans to shift most of its staff out of the city. She joins me now. LIVE
New Zealand nuclear test veterans say their legal action against the British Government has taken a major step forward as they join UK and Fiji servicemen in a multi million dollar claim for compensation. The move comes as the Government offers medical help to children of the nuclear test and Vietnam veterans. Sharon Brettkelly reports: PKGE
BUSINESS NEWS WITH JOHN DRAPER
Air New Zealand flights to Australia, the Pacific Islands and Asia will be affected by strike action by long-haul cabin crew starting at midnight tonight. More than nine hundred members of the Flight Attendants and Related Services Association or FARSA will walk off the job for 14 hours. Another 14 hour stoppage is due from midnight on Thursday. The union wants longer rest breaks on some international flights and says roster changes are needed.
Two flights between Auckland and Sydney will be cancelled and another nine flights will be delayed as a result of tonight's strike. I asked Air New Zealand's spokesperson Brendon Fitzgerald whether there was any sign of a breakthrough in the industrial dispute. PREREC
An industry body says pirated CDs now cost the music industry an estimated 114 million dollars a year. But despite this, the Recording Industry Association is hailing the first year of its Burn and Get Burnt' education campaign as a success. Anna-Louise Taylor filed this report. PKGE
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SPORT with RICHARD CROWLEY
New Zealand hospitals are being warned that the chances of a patient dying from complications after surgery depend on the number of nurses on duty. A study just published in the United States shows the risk to the patient increases by 7-percent for every extra patient a nurse takes on. The researcher, Linda Aitkin from the University of Pennsylvania's Centre for Health Outcomes is here for a nursing conference on patient safety. Our Health Correspondent Rae Lamb has also been at the conference, and she joins me now. LIVE
There's scepticsim in some North Island provincial cities over forecasts of major population declines in Taranaki, Manawatu-Wanganui and the East Coast. Statistics New Zealand says the population of Taranaki will fall by 10 thousand over the next two decades, while Manawatu-Wanganui, Hawkes Bay and Gisborne will experience declines of between two and four thousand. But the local authorities in those areas say the economic growth the regions are experiencing has not been taken into account. Jill Galloway reports. PKGE
The Commerce Commission is warning consumers about an advertised weight loss product which claims to melt away fat and cellulite in three weeks without the need for dieting or exercise. The Director of the Fair Trading Act at the Commission, Deborah Battell says two distributors are promoting the product called Celluslim in personalised direct marketing. She says it seems that 17 hundred New Zealanders have already bought the product ...she joins me now. LIVE
President Bush has signed legislation paving the way for the biggest shake up in the American government in half a century. This follows last week's vote in the US Congress approving a new Department of Homeland Security, which will combine 22 existing agencies. The reorganisation is aimed at preventing another September the eleventh style attack. Steve Mort filed this report from Washington. PKGE
A [illegible] into a predicted lahar or mudslide from the crater of Mount Ruapehu says there's a one to ten percent chance that people will be killed.
Scientists predict that a dam around the crater lake, made up of debris and ash from eruptions in the mid-1990's, is likely to collapse, sometime between late next year and the end of 2005. This would send around one-and-a-half million cubic metres of water down the mountain, destroying roads and bridges. The Director of the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Managment John Norton joins us now. LIVE
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