Ask to use material, get more information or tell us about an item
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 4 APRIL 2014
****************************
1700 to 1707 NEWS
****************************
Fonterra has been fined 300 thousand dollars over the botulism scare. The financial heft of the country's largest exporter meant Judge Peter Hobbs this afternoon actually increased the fine, which he'd initially reduced to 260 thousand because of Fonterra's early guilty plea. The Ministry for Primary Industries brought the four charges including that the company failed to raise the alarm early enough when it suspected botulism had got into its dairy exports. The MPI's deputy director general of compliance and response Andrew Coleman is with us now.
i/v
Flooding in Solomon Islands has killed eight people and swept away hundreds of houses and businesses after three days of continuous rain. 30 people are still missing and aid workers say the death toll is expected to rise. 16 evacuation centres have been set up in local schools in the capital Honiara to provide shelter for more than 10-thousand people. Our correspondent Dorothy Wickman is in Honiara.
i/v
Police in Napier are carrying out house-to-house searches in their hunt for an armed robber - after he held up a bank at gunpoint this morning. Officers say a man went into the Kiwibank branch in Marewa at about nine this morning and threatened a worker with a gun. The police have named Junior Jury as a man they want to speak to about the robbery. So far one person has already been arrested - and is being spoken to by the police. Detective Sergeant Heath Jones is running the investigation:
i/v
A coroner has found a teenager who took her own life should have been given a formal psychiatric assessment. The 14-year-old died in Masterton in 2011, she suffered depression and stopped taking her medication a few days before her death. Her family had gone to the Wairarapa District Health Board's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service for help. Coroner Garry Evans has recommended the DHB ensures young people sent to mental health services are seen quickly, and all those given anti-depressants get a psychiatric assessment. He says it appears the girl didn't get such an assessment. Mani Dunlop has read the findings .
i/v
A big Wellington fire that claimed two Oscar statues is still smouldering after ripping through a self-storage building near the airport. Thick smoke poured from the Kilbirnie blaze for hours and 1000 degree temperatures knocked back the dozens of firefighters sent in against it. Bafta and Academy Award -winning cinematographer Alex Funke (pron funky) kept the Oscars he won for The Lord of the Rings movies in his lock-up at the Kiwi Self Storage Units.
CUT
Kiwi Self Storage says sprinklers aren't required by law but it will now look at installing them. The Fire Service's assistant area commander Paul Smith is with us now.
i/v
b/a
As for Alex Funke, there is a precedent for the movie academy giving him brand new Oscars - it did this in 2011 when the toddler daughter of the co-producer of The King's Speech dropped his statue, damaging it.
***********************
1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS with Jenny Ruth
************************
The Crown says the Act Party MP John Banks never told his team about a 50 thousand dollar donation from internet mogul Kim Dotcom because he wanted it recorded as anonymous. The Prosecutor Paul Dacre QC told the High Court at Auckland that Mr Banks met with Dotcom and discussed the donation during his failed campaign for the Auckland Super city mayoralty in 2010 . He also said Mr Banks asked for the cheque to be divided into two lots of 25 thousand and later thanked Dotcom for the cheques. Our reporter Edward Gay was at court today and joins us now.
i/v
***********************
17. 30 HEADLINES
***********************
Northland fruit growers say they're under siege from pests that have slipped through the bio-security net - and the discovery of another fruit fly in Whangarei this week is frightening.
The insect was found in a surveillance trap in a garden overlooking the Whangarei marina, on Tuesday.
It's one of a number of insects now laying waste to fruit crops in the north - that weren't there 15 yrs ago.
Lois Williams reports:
PKG
Ukraine's former President Viktor Yanukovich has been accused of ordering riot police snipers to shoot at demonstrators in the days before he was forced from office.
Ukraine's interim government has been carrying out an official investigation into the deaths of more than one hundred protesters killed in the capital Kiev in February.
Daniel Sandford has this report from Kiev :
PKG
A woman whose husband was told to put ice on his agonising back pain when in fact he was having an aneurysm that could have killed him, is questioning the worth of calling 111.
John Raven of Upper Hutt is in hospital tonight but out of intensive care following surgery.
He had to be taken to hospital after midnight on Sunday by his daughter and wife Judy because when she phoned for an ambulance, she was transferred to a healthline worker who instead suggested an icepack.
Judy Raven says her initial emergency call went through to a man who asked her questions like was her husband sweating or feeling nauseous.
CUT
Earlier this week we reported on a Lower Hutt man who rang emergency services four times, and was put through to the health line, before he managed to get an ambulance for his wife whose knee had dislocated knee.
At that time Wellington Free Ambulance said it would make sure such a thing did not happen again.
Its executive manager for service delivery Andy Long is with us now.
IV
***************
17. 45 MANU KORIHI with Eru Rerekura
Kia ora mai, good evening,
The Māori Affairs Minister, Pita Sharples, is quashing an accusation by the Mana Party that the government wants to axe two Māori Language agencies.
The Mana Party says rumours are circulating that the Crown plans to get rid of the Māori Language Commission and the Māori Broadcasting Funding Agency.
It understands the government wants to hand over their responsibilities to a single organisation, whose leaders would be appointed by politicians.
The minister, Dr Sharples, says he is considering a single umbrella organisation for the agencies under his Te Reo strategy. . .
But says the Mana Party is wrong to suggest the agencies would be axed.
RUMOUR-ACCUSE-TP
IN: THIS IS MY BILL. . .
OUT: . . . AND ATTACK PEOPLE.
DUR: 20"
Pita Sharples says any single authority would be made up of iwi representatives from the seven Māori wards.
--------
The Chief of the Defence Force, Lieutenant General, Tim Keating, has been given the prestigious Haane Manahi sword to carry, for the people of Te Arawa.
About 100 people attended the ceremony at Tamatekapua marae in Rotorua today.
The sword of valour recognises the bravery of Te Arawa descendant, Haane Manahi, in the second World War.
The people of Te Arawa and the Manahi whānau presented the sword and patu to the Chief of Defence to hold for the duration of his tenure.
Leiutenant General, Tim Keating, says it was a moving ceremony.
He says it is about sharing the understanding of what he is there to represent, which is the Haane Manahi's and the humble examples of soldiers who have gone before him.
--------
The panel overseeing Māori land law reform says it got the jitters about recommending outsiders manage whenua Māori.
The government backs the suggestion in a new Te Ture Whenua Māori bill, to make it eaisier for unused customary land.
An expert consultant of the changes, Matānuku Mahuika, says there was some anxiety over allowing the management of land to shift from trustees to managers.
WHENUA-FRI-TP
IN: YOU'LL NOTICE WHERE. . .
OUT: . . . OF THE OWNERS.
DUR: 22
Matānuku Mahuika, who headed a panel to review the Te Ture Whenua Māori Act.
--------
A Māori psychiatrist says health practitioners are undervaluing the healing powers of ta-moko or Māori tattooing.
Diana Rangihuna, told the recent Māori health hui in Wellington that tāmoko is a form of therapy, saying it's helped people overcome mental health problems.
She says tāmoko artists bring history to life, and knowing where one comes from is an important step towards well-being.
Dr Rangihuna says it's important for health practitioners to consider all healing options without bias.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a final bulletin in an hour.
****************
An Otaki couple who cleared several native trees on their property have won their fight against the local council - all charges against them are to be dropped. Peter and Diana Standen, who are both in their 70s, say the trees on their property were rotting, diseased and dangerous - and they felled in accordance with the Kapiti Coast District Council's own guidance brochure. Kapiti Coast District Council has now said it won't be taking any further action against the Standen's - although the aborist employed by the couple is still being prosecuted. Peter Standen says the decision comes after months of legal wrangling:
i/v
It's the last day of campaigning in Afghanistan ahead of the first transfer of presidential power in elections tomorrow (night nzt). President Karzai has called on the Afghan people to defy the Taliban by coming out to vote, despite threats of violence. The BBC's correspondent Karen Allen reports from one of the safer parts of the country, on how preparations are coming along:
PKG
*******************
Presenter: Mary Wilson
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Meg Fowler, Mei Yeoh