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Checkpoint FOR WEDNESDAY 6 MARCH 2013
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The drought gripping much of the North Island has driven a spectacular spike in international milk prices as buyers worry about falling supply - but it won't be enough to offset losses on the farm. South Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Coromandel, Taupō and Hawke's Bay have all been added to the drought declared in Northland last week. Manawatu is expected to be next. Overnight global dairy prices jumped by 10 percent at Fonterra's bi-monthly auction - that's the biggest jump in two years and the sixth consecutive increase. Overall, prices have now risen by 18 percent this season. Economists, such as Doug Steel, say it's a classic case of demand outstripping supply.
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Peter Buckley, is a Waikato dairy farmer and President of the local branch of Federated Farmers. He doesn't think the price rise will make much of a difference.
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And Keith Woodford who is Professor of Farm Management and Agribusiness at Lincoln University, says the higher prices won't help farmers anytime soon.
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A man employed by the police to send criminals to jail has himself admitted dealing drugs and illegally accessing the confidential police computer system. Timothy Sarah was working as a police prosecutor at the Auckland District Court when he was arrested in a drug raids in 2011. The Police are refusing to comment till after Sarah is sentenced in May. Olivia Wix was in the High Court in Auckland today.
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Even in death Venezuela's President OOH-goh CHAH-ves Hugo Chavez continues to be provocative. His death was announced on national television this morning by the Vice-President who used the occasion to claim that Mr Chavez had been infected with cancer by his enemies. The firebrand socialist leader was a hero to the poor but a hate figure for his opponents at home and in the US. The ABC's Brendan Trembath looks at what his death might mean for Venezuela's relationship with America.
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The mother of a soldier who killed himself in Afghanistan wants an open investigation into his death and says the secrecy imposed by the coroner is not justice for herself or her family. Doug Hughes died in Bamiyan in April last year, the Defence Force investigated and says his death was not preventable. The soldier's mother Venus Poa disagrees and wants another public inquiry but the Coroner Gordon Matenga says the matter has been dealt with by the military Court of Inquiry and there's no need for an inquest. He's suppressed publication of the Court's report in the interests, he says, of justice and on the basis of personal privacy. Venus Poa says the question of the family's privacy was first brought up by the Defence investigators.
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The Crown Law office says it has had no formal request for the Solicitor-General to consider ordering an inquest into Corporal Hughes' death. But it says it IS looking into possible breaches of coroner Gordon Matenga's suppression orders around the Hughes' case by various parties including more than one newspaper, after an official complaint from the coroners' office.
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS WITH Sharon Brettkelly
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A jury has heard that the three people accused of killing two teenage sisters in a crash on Christmas Day 2011 were racing their cars at the time and had all been drinking. Phillippa Morehu, Haki Davey, and Hetaraka Reihana are charged with the manslaughter of Brooklyn and Merepeka Morehu-Clark, aged 13 and 14. Ms Morehu is the mother of the two girls. The trial has started in the High Court in Hamilton today where Crown Prosecutor, Greg Hollister Jones, made his opening statement.
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Our reporter Andrew McRae has been in court and joins us now
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17. 30 HEADLINES
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A human rights watchdog in Fiji says there is unprecedented outrage and shock in Fiji at a graphic video of two men being beaten which has sparked a police investigation. The group, the NGO Coalition on Human Rights has called for a public enquiry. Sally Round reports for Radio New Zealand International.
PKG
It's taken more than five years but the world's most watched share index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has closed at its highest level - eclipsing records set before the global financial crisis. There was elation on Wall Street as investors poured money back into blue-chip stocks. The breakthrough came despite the failure of the American Congress to agree on a budget and as the US economy is crawling out of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. The ABC's Business editor Peter Ryan has this report:
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Crown prosecutors have been arguing at the Court of the Appeal that the former directors of Lombard Finance should have their sentences increased . The former justice ministers, Sir Douglas Graham and Bill Jeffries, along with Lawrence Bryant and Michael Reeves, were last year found guilty of making false statements in company prospectuses. The company collapsed in 2008 owing investors more than 127-million dollars. The directors were sentenced to community work and reparation payments - which the Crown says is inadequate, but the Defence wants thrown out altogether. Our reporter, Craig McCulloch, has been in court.
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17. 45 MANU KORIHI Rosemary Rangitauira
Thanks Mary, tēnā tātou
A BBC television programme has secured consent from the Far North District Council to film a supersonic car speeding along a part of 90-mile Beach or Te Oneroa-a-Tōhē.
The council understands the popular motoring show Top Gear is due in Northland from next Monday.
The BBC has asked for part of the beach to be shut at some stage over a six day period, to give film crews flexibility in case of bad weather.
Council officials have spoken to the chair of what it calls the principal iwi in the area, Ngāti Kurī, which told the council it has no objections to the request.
However, the council has received complaints from some local people who are against filming consent being granted.
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Fisheries officers are hunting a group of men who've been attempting to sell pāua to bakeries and take-ways in the Whangārei area.
The Ministry for Primary Industries is appealing for help to find a trio suspected of illegally selling the seafood
All are believed to be Māori and aged between 35 and 40 years.
The Ministry is reminding people that buying illegal kai moana is a serious offence with fines of up to a quarter of a million dollars.
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TV3 says the world's biggest kapa haka competition deserves wider coverage on mainstream channels instead of limiting it to Māori Television.
Te Matatini Incorporated Society banned 3 News for 24 hours last month from showing any pictures of the largest Māori cultural festival after the programme breached an agreement between Te Matatini and the host broadcaster Māori Television.
TV3's Director of News and Current Affairs, Mark Jennings, says Te Matatini organisers have sold themselves short and they need to think of the benefits of exposing Māori culture to a wider audience.
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IN: I THINK THIS...
OUT: ...THE EVENT ITSELF.
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Mark Jennings of 3 News.
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Te Arawa Lakes Trust says a floating wetland the size of a rugby field, which is designed to remove tonnes of phosphorus [fos-fur-us] and nitrogen each year from Lake Rotorua, is working well.
The Trust helped fund the nine hundred thousand dollar structure, made from recycled plastic bottles and 20 thousand native flaxes, which was launched in August last year.
The Trust Chairman, Toby Curtis, says if more wetlands could be built - the lake would be cleaned up almost overnight.
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OUT...WATER QUALITY IMPROVES
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Toby Curtis says the wetland concept fits in well with the iwi's kaitiakitanga or conservation responsibility.
and Mary that's Te Manu Korihi news
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Auckland's first double-decker commuter bus has taken to the road as part of a new push to boost patronage. Ritchies Transport has taken VIPs for a run in the 88 seater bus, along the Northern Busway, from East Coast Bays to the city, where the regular double-decker service begins next week. It is the first of dozens that could be plying Auckland's busiest bus routes over the next year or so. Our Auckland Correspondent Todd Niall went along for the ride.
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North Korea is threatening to abandon a sixty-year-old ceasefire agreement with South Korea and has proclaimed its readiness to launch surgical military strikes.
The statement was released prior to the US tabling a United Nation's resolution for sanctions to target the rogue nation's diplomats. The BBC's Jonathan Marcus has this report:
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A Christchurch couple took justice into their own hands when they lay in wait for a burglar to return to steal again. When Melissa Skurr and JC Anderson's home was broken into, the robbers took their laptops, hard drive, and PlayStation 3 console, but a quad bike was left behind. The police said they could not come to the house to investigate for 48 hours, but Ms Skurr had a feeling the offenders would be back before then.
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