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 MONDAY 2 MARCH 2015
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The Prime Minister has announced the Government will change the law to stop MPs getting a three-and-a-half percent pay rise. John Key has told his post-Cabinet news conference the decision was made by ministers today. Legislation will change the criteria the Remuneration Authority uses to set MPs' pay and it will be backdated to July last year to reverse the increase announced last week. Mr Key says MPs' pay increase will now be based on the increase public servants get. CUT John Key says the legislation will be introduced under urgency when Parliament resumes in a week's time. Our political editor Brent Edwards was at the Prime Minister's news conference. i/v
New Zealand's biggest credit union has been hit with record damages for hounding a woman employee who upset her bosses... in part because she was so smart. NZCU Baywide must pay 168 thousand dollars to Karen Hammond. But the Hawkes Bay firm is refusing to say what if any action has been taken against the top managers who tried to have her blacklisted. The catalyst came when she decorated a cake with the F word in 2012 in a private show of support for a friend who'd just left NZCU Baywide. Managers responded by bullying a junior employee into accessing Ms Hammond's Facebook account to get the picture of the cake, then warning recruitment agencies against dealing with her and trying to get her sacked from her new job. The Human Rights Review Tribunal says Baywide's actions were shameful and inexcusable in what it says is arguably the most serious case it's ever looked. It says the privacy issues were ignored by managers including the chief executive Gavin Earle. We asked to speak to Mr Earle today, but Baywide would not agree to an open interview. Instead the firm in a statement says it accepts the ruling and is genuinely sorry. Karen Hammond says it's a ruling that should embolden workers and is a relief to her. CUT The tribunal says NZCU Baywide's boss Gavin Earle made an apology during its hearing but without any sincerity. Karen Hammond says she is owed a proper apology but it's probably a case of too little too late. CUT She was asked if she now regrets putting the photo of the cake online. CUT
Our Hawke's Bay reporter Peter Fowler joins us now ... i/v
A Horowhenua Police officer is recovering after being attacked by an angry man and his dog in Foxton earlier today. Police were called to Foxton's Work and Income office just before midday 1130 and shortly after the officer arrived, he was assaulted by the man. The man fled and was followed by other police officers to a Bainesse address, where he again became confrontational. The man surrendered after a Taser was brought out and arrested. The acting Manawatu Area Commander, Detective Inspector Chris Bensemann, says there were a number of witnesses to the brutal assault. i/v
The crown says a man who was found so badly burnt, who was initially mistaken for a piece of wood, was killed for his money. The body of 21-year old Shalvin Prasad was found in smouldering scrub in South Auckland in January 2013. Shivneel Kumar and Bryne (pro: brian) Permal, both in their early 20s, pleaded not guilty of murder today as their trial began at the High Court in Auckland . The crown prosecutor, Aaron Perkins, told the court how Mr Prasad was doused in petrol. CUT Mr Perkins says only the day before his body was found, Mr Prasad had withdrawn more than 30-thousand dollars from his bank account. He said the accused then went on a spending spree. CUT Our reporter, Lauren Baker, has been in court today. i/v
The Ministry of Social Development has been charged over the fatal shooting at a Work and Income Ashburton office last year. Worksafe is accusing it of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of its employees, under the Health and Safety in Employment Act. The shooting on September 1st last year killed Work and Income staff members Peggy Noble and Leigh Cleveland and a third person was injured. The national secretary of the Public Service Association Richard Wagstaff is with us now. i/v
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17.30 HEADLINES
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17.35 MARKET UPDATE
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Two bodies discovered on the Tasman Glacier within weeks of each other, after what could be decades of being burried under layers of snow and ice, are believed to be from unrelated climbing accidents. The first set of human remains was located on the lower part of the Tasman Glacier in mid-February from a climber who is thought to have gone missing in 1972. Last week, a second body was found in a different part of the glacier which runs alongside Mount Cook. About 70 people have been reported missing in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park since records began, around 100 years ago. Canterbury Police Rural Area Commander, Inspector David Gaskin says the discoveries are unusual but not unheard of. i/v
An Australian lawyer who worked on the trial of the former Yugoslav President Slobodan Miosevic, believes Bosnia war crime suspects are living in New Zealand. In the US, immigration officials are moving to deport at least 150 Bosnians who they believe took part in war crimes and "ethnic cleansing" during the bitter conflict in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The association Mothers of Srebrenica has turned over names of suspected Bosnia war criminals to US prosecutors, and says suspects are also in New Zealand and Australia. Dr Gideon Boas (bo-ass) is an associate professor at the Monash Law Faculty. He was a senior legal officer at the International Criminal Tribunal during the Slobodan Miloševic case. He joins us now i/v
A British forensics expert who worked on the Yorkshire Ripper case has pointed to what she says were mistakes made in the Lundy investigation by Police and forensics. Gillian Leak told the High Court retrial of Mark Lundy she'd lost count of how many crime scenes she's examined where brain matter was spread around the scene. And she gave the jury an everyday example of the way in which such tissue could stick to anything it came in contact with. CUT Our court reporter, Ann Marie May is following the trial. i/v
A pharmacist who gave a woman the wrong medication causing liver damage and sending her to hospital for 5 days, has been spared further action because he has retired. The woman visited a pharmacy to collect medication to treat an inflammatory bowel disease and cholesterol. She noticed a change in her medication and questioned a shop assistant who assured her it was okay, thinking she was asking about something else. The woman took the wrong medication for three weeks. The pharmacist said his mistake had caused him considerable anguish and he has now retired. The deputy Health and Disability commisioner Theo Baker investigated the case . i/v
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A collective representing 30 marae is saying Maori pā should not insure their treasured wood carvings, to help drive down the high price of insurance - which can cost thousands of dollars.
And the collective, charitable arm of Te Pumau/tanga o Te Arawa suggests marae should spend time recording the history of their taonga - because they're priceless.
From Te Manu Korihi news, Rosemary Rangitauira, reports.
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Prince William has begun a visit to China. He's the most senior member of the royal family to go there in nearly thirty years. The prince arrived after a four-day trip to Japan, where he visited the coastal areas hit by the tsunami four years ago. Here's the BBC's royal correspondent Peter Hunt. PKG
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Presenter: Liz Banas, Jim Mora
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Jo Leavesley, Mei Heron, Sharon Brettkelly, Mary Jane Aggott