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 THURSDAY 06 MARCH 2014
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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Christchurch home owners who are already juggling quake claims and repairs with insurers and the EQC, are demanding answers and action from the council and government as they return to their flood damaged houses. The city's mayor met this morning with the Earthquake Recovery Minister and engineers, and is seeking law changes to fast track flood management work in the hardest hit suburbs . We'll hear from the mayor shortly. Carrick Street is one of the worse hit with knee-deep water through some homes. Rose Lennon is getting her neighbours together into a collective to press for action.
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Hamish Griffen who's also in Carrick Street says it's the fourth lot of flooding since the February 2011 quake, and the council has done nothing and there's no point ringing them. He says that inaction means people are in the dark about what the future holds.
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In the same street, Pip Rush is part way through quake repairs - she says the council did call to warn her the flood was coming and to drop sandbags off. But there has been little other help.
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Julie Cairns in Mairehau wants the council and government to get their act together.
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The Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziell is now focusing on how to stop homes in the Flockton basin flooding again. She wants to put forward a local Bill for Parliament to look at, to speed up the flood protection work and bypass the Resource Management Act.
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For the first time Hawke's Bay's harbourmaster, has begun fining people for not wearing a lifejacket. Phil Norman says some people need to move past bravado and the 'it's never happened to me' attitude and take responsibility for their family, their friends and themselves by wearing lifejackets. Eight boaties have now been fined 300 dollars each for breaking a bylaw which came into force in 2012 . Since then everyone on board a boat 6 metres or less in length must have a lifejacket. The harbourmaster Phil Norman is with us now
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WorkSafe New Zealand has closed 23 log hauling operations as it cracks down on the forestry industry - although no one has yet been prosecuted. It says the operations were shut down because the workers faced imminent danger. More than two-hundred sites were inspected, and of those, 270 enforcement notices were issued. WorkSafe will now focus on tree felling, the second of the two most dangerous jobs in the industry. Its health and safety operations manager is Ona de Rooy.
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The United States first military response to the crisis in Ukraine is now underway. The American Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered an increase in NATO's policing in the Baltic peninsula and in the training of Poland's air force. Republican leaders are backing President Barack Obama's actions, but they're also calling for him to approve natural gas exports to Europe, in order to reduce the European Union's reliance on Russian supplies. Michael Vincent reports from Washington :
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS with Jenny Ruth
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17. 30 HEADLINES
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In the last 3 months, 10 flights have arrived in Auckland carrying passengers with measles. Public health officers say most of the cases have links to the Phillipines with the latest being two brothers who arrived on Flight NZ one-three-six from from Brisbane last Sunday. An Auckland medical officer of health, Richard Hoskins, says there've been 58 cases of measles in the city so far this year and the number of infected of flights coming in is highly unusual.
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A plunge in the price of mobile phone services means New Zealanders are now paying a lot less for the most common packages than in many other developed countries. Plan prices have dropped between 25 and 70 percent over the last three years, a new study shows. The rate here for the most popular prepay bundle, of 19 dollars a month, is 40 percent below the OECD average, and similar to Australia's. At the top end, however, where a plan offers say 900 calls and 2 gigabytes of data, prices are stubbornly high at a fifth above the OECD average. And standalone mobile broadband can be eye-wateringly expensive, with charges for high users one hundred and 80 (180) percent above Australia's. The Telecommunications Commissioner Stephen Gale is with us now.
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The murder accused Mauha Fawcett has told a jury he lied to the police and stupidly implicated himself in the killing of Mellory Manning. His closing of his defence case at the High Court in Christchurch is the first time Mr Fawcett, who is representing himself, has spoken at length in the trial. Marcus Irvine has been in court.
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17. 45 MANU KORIHI with Eru Rerekura
Kia ora mai, good evening,
The senior National MP, Tau Henare, is urging Tuhoronuku, the treaty mandating body for Ngapuhi to reconcile opposing sub-tribes - so it can push ahead with a settlement.
The government's picked Tuhoronuku as the mandating body, which has angered a Ngapuhi Alliance, which includes the hapu of Ngati Hine.
It's voted to pull out of a planned settlement.
The chair of the Maori Affairs Select Committee, Tau Henare, says he wants Ngapuhi to reach a settlement, but he says changes have to happen first.
NGAPUHI-THINK-TP
IN: any deal has to include. . .
OUT: . . . not outside the tent.
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Tau Henare, the chair of the Maori Affairs Select Committee.
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Television New Zealand says discussions about working with Maori Television to produce programmes are still alive.
TVNZ's appeared before MPs at Parliament to talk about revelations about the level of connections between its former head of Maori and Pacific Unit, Shane Taurima, and the Labour Party.
The Chief Executive of the state broadcaster, Kevin Kendrick, says both broadcasters could work together for the benefit of viewers.
TVNZ-TELLY-TP
IN ONE OF THE. . .
OUT. . . IN THE FUTURE
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Kevin Kendrick says TVNZ's committed to its Maori and Pacific department.
He spoke about the unit's strengths, particularly producing the long-running archival documentary programme, Waka Huia.
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The state-owned agribusiness, Landcorp, says better partnerships with iwi are part of its priorities for the future.
It's recorded a net operating profit of 12-point-2 million dollars in the half year to December 2013.
During that time Landcorp completed the sale of the Pouarua dairy complex to the Hauraki Collective representing iwi in the region.
The two-thousand-200 hectare complex will be farmed by Landcorp under a sharemilking agreement.
It says it sees substantial potential working with Maori interests who own land following Treaty settlements.
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A new multi-million dollar museum on the Waitangi Treaty Grounds is expected to be built before the 6th of February next year.
The Bay of Islands development, which includes an education centre, is expected to cost about 12 and a half million dollars.
The Minister of Internal Affairs has announced the Lottery Grants Board will contribute just under six million dollars to the project.
The Waitangi National Trust's chief executive, Greg McManus, says its vision is for Waitangi to become a first choice destination for both New Zealanders and international visitors.
He says the development will provide a secure climate-controlled area in which to house significant taonga and stories of Maori and European history.
The Trust hopes the museum will be finished by February next year.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a further bulletin in an hour.
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In Ukraine - the eastern city of Donetsk is on edge with fights breaking out between pro and anti Russian protesters. (Donetska) Moscow supporters ripped metal grills from entrance to the administrative headquarters of the City, breaking through a police riot ring. They then fought their way to the top of the building - before raising the Russian flag. It's the second time in a week they've seized the building from the Ukrainian government. ITN's Correspondent Emma Murphy was there when they broke through the police barricades:
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Human rights investigators accuse all sides in the conflict in Syria of committing war crimes. Imogene Foulkes reports
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Presenter: Mary Wilson
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Meg Fowler, Mei Yeoh