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Checkpoint FOR THURSDAY 15 JULY 2010
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The Canterbury District Health Board says people could die as a result of Government plans to reduce the red tape controlling the quality of drinking water. The DHB says the changes mirror those made by the Government of Ontario, which a judge found contributed to the deaths of seven people in the small town of Walkerton 10 years ago. They'd been drinking E-coli contaminated water from a bore which was poorly monitored as a result of fewer regulations. The DHB in Canterbury says there are similar risks here, if the Cabinet adopts parts of the Local Government Act Amendment Bill that give councils more flexibiliy, including not having to consult with Medical Officers of Health. The Local Goverment Minister Rodney Hide declined to be interviewed while the bill is being considered by a select committee but the Canterbury medical officer of health, Dr Alistair Humphrey, joins us now. LIVE
A last minute apology by the controversial lawyer Chris Comeskey may have saved him from being struck-off for professional misconduct. Mr Comeskey, who was involved in negotiating the return of stolen war medals and has defended high profile offenders like Nai Yin Xue, pleaded guilty to three charges including over-billing the Legal Services Agency and misleading the Court of Appeal. This afternoon he was suspended from practicing law for nine months. Belinda McCammon was at the hearing in front of the Lawyers Disciplinary Tribunal and joins us now. LIVE Q&A
On the line now is the president of the Law Society, Jonathan Temm. LIVE
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS WITH Naomi Mitchell
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BP has started crucial tests to see if a cap on the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is strong enough to stop the leak. A sequence of valves on the capping device are slowly being shut down to try to reduce the oil that's spilling into the sea. The cap was fitted four days ago. BP has already been forced to postpone the tests once because of worries about safety. Here's the White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs. CUT
The man in charge of the clean-up is Admiral Thad Allen he says the tests can now go ahead because closer analysis shows they won't cause more harm. CUT The BBC's Andy Gallagher is in Washington. CUT The testing will go for up to 48 hours.
Bugging prisoners phones in New Plymouth's jail has led to drugs charges against three people. They're the lastest arrests since random recording of inmates' calls began three years ago. But a prison reform group says authorities should have good reason to listen in on inmates' calls. Craig Ashworth reports PKG
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17.30 HEADLINES
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The police investigating the shooting of a 31 year old Feilding dairy farmer say they still haven't established a motive.
Early last Thursday morning Scott Guy was on his way to work when he was gunned down outside his ute at the end of the driveway on Aorangi Road. Today police checked over two hundred vehicles and handed out flyers as Heugh Chappell reports. PKG
Patients at Wellington Hospital's emergency department who have received tetanus boosters in the last ten years are being told they aren't at risk despite being given an ineffective vaccine.
The Capital and Coast District Health Board has revealed that a faulty fridge containing the vaccine weakened its potency. Andrew McRae reports. PKG
New evidence shows smoking is becoming less popular among young people. The Action on Smoking and Health group surveys about 30 thousand year 10 students, and since 1999, there's been a marked decrease in the number of teenage smokers. The 2009 survey showed 5.6 percent of 14 and 15 year olds said they smoked daily, down from 15-point-six percent in 1999. Denise Garland reports. PKG
It's been estimated that by the middle of this century Australia may need an extra one and a half trillion litres of water to cope with a population of up to 45-million people. A report says water restrictions will be common place and as the ABC's Environment reporter Sarah Clarke reports it'll cost more : PKG
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17.45 TRAILS
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WAATEA
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Defying talk of a stalled economic recovery and plummeting business confidence, manufacturing is doing its bit for growth by producing more for the tenth month in a row. The BNZ-Business New Zealand Performance of Manufacturing Index rose two points, to 56-point 2 in June - a reading above fifty shows the sector is growing. Here's Business New Zealand's Catherine Beard. PREREC
Exotic pine trees are growing in the wild like noxious weeds threatening more than a million hectares of New Zealand landscape and delicate native ecosystems. The problem is costing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for local councils, DOC and volunteers to keep under control and now there's a call for the Government to step in. Steve Wilde has been looking at the wilding conifers beside Lake Wakatipu.
PKG
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has taken on the social networking site Facebook after thousands of online tributes appeared praising a gunman. Raoul Moat shot himself after killing a man and shooting his ex-girlfriend, as well as a police officer in Northern England last week. From London here's the ABC's Rachel Brown: PKG
A female kiwi, known as Dark Star has spent the past two months recovering from a broken foot, after being hit by a car.
But she was released back into the wild today by Pete Graham, a Department of Conservation ranger. He joins us now. LIVE
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