6.30 NEWS & TOP HALF. 07/06/1985

News, current affairs, sport and weather.

Dr Ricky Gorringe, medical advisor to New Zealand’s Vietnam veterans, believes the common use of 245T (Agent Orange) is responsible for the ill health of many New Zealanders diagnosed with ME or Tapanui flu. There are calls for 245T to be banned. Interviews: Dr Ricky Gorringe, Brian Slater, Athol Longley (Vietnam veteran), Vic Johnson (Vietnam Veterans’ Assn), Dr John Stoke (Health Dept).

Independent examiner to enquire into police handling of a double shooting in Gore in which Kevin Fox and Donna Teresa were killed. Interviews: Det. Insp. Brian James, Hallam Smith (Mayor of Gore).

Remains of Nazi officer Josef Mengele exhumed in Sau Paulo, Brazil.

Queensland Premier Sir Joh Bjelke Peterson makes a diplomatic faux pax at a reception for the President of Ireland by telling an Irish joke.

Timaru by-election campaign. Interviews / speech excerpts: Maurice McTigue (National), Bill Greenslade (New Zealand Party), Jan Walker (Labour), Lynley Simmons (Social Credit).

Report on the high rate of interest on home loans (the top mortgage rate is 23% at Countrywide Building Society). Interviews: Peter Martin (Countrywide Building Society), Eric Keys (Real Estate Institute of NZ), John Dyer (Master Builders Association).

Top Half:
Report on problems facing the Centrepoint community in Canterbury. The community have just been evicted from Ministry of Works land in Albany, and members applying for the unemployment benefit have been turned down. Interviews: Bert Potter (Centrepoint leader), Andy Gillies (Social Welfare Dept.).

St John’s Ambulance staff in Hamilton may be cut owing to a funding shortage.