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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 WEDNESDAY 14 MAY 2014
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The Government has not yet banked any budget surpluses but the Prime Minister is already raising the possibility of further tax cuts. John Key says it is possible National might go into the election campaign promising to cut taxes. Here's our political editor Brent Edwards.
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Auckland Hospital aims to go ahead with testing a new drug on unconscious patients in intensive care despite warnings it may be illegal because they can't give their consent. The patients' relatives will be informed, then the patient asked for retrospective consent once they've recovered. The Northern health ethics committee is waiting for the researchers to answer some legal questions, but has granted them provisional approval to test the new antibiotic, ceftolozane, as part of an international study. The patients' rights code says any trials where someone can't give consent must be in their best interests . A medical law lecturer at Auckland University Associate Professor Jo Manning says that's a hurdle the antibiotic trial doesn't surmount. The Ministry of Health told ethics committees last month it was aware of worries around on-onsensual research and reminded researchers to make sure they meet legal requirements. But Auckland district health board's chief medical officer, Margaret Wilsher, says the antibiotic trial is in the patient's best interests.
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Home buyers, hit by low deposit loan restrictions, can expect to find it easier to borrow money in the future. The Reserve Bank will consider easing restrictions on mortgage lending before removing them altogether. But it wants it be sure the overvalued housing market has cooled enough before doing so. Here's our economics correspondent, Patrick O'Meara.
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Over 200 miners are now confirmed dead in an explosion and fire at a coalmine in western Turkey. More than 360 have been rescued but the country's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz says seven hundred and eighty seven people had been inside the mine at Soma when an electrical fault triggered the blast. Natalie Carney is a freelance journalist in Istanbul.
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS with Jenny Ruth
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For the first time a farm worker has been convicted and fined for repeatedly carrying a child on a quad bike. In February 2012, a safety inspector noticed Rangi Holmes riding without a helmet along State Highway six with his two year old child sitting in front of him. He was again seen carrying three children not wearing helmets late last year. He was caught dangerous driving three more times before Worksafe New Zealand decided to prosecute him. Today the Marlborough farmer worker was fined 15 thousand dollars Ona (owner) de Rooy is the General Manager of Health and safety with the agency.
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17. 30 HEADLINES
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Pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine have attacked and killed seven government soldiers in an ambush in the east of the country. European nations being led by Germany are urging talks to defuse the crisis. Russia says it supports that dialogue, but the White House says Moscow's actions don't match its words, especially as its soldiers crowd the border. To underscore that point, the United States has released satellite photos showing the Russian soldiers still in position.
Michael Vincent reports :
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The chair of the health ethics committee that's close to approving the testing of a new antibiotic on unconscious patients in Auckland Hospital says the trial is NOT an attack on informed consent. The hospital is waiting for final approval from Dr Bryan Fergus' committee before it begins the tests of ceftolozane as part of an international study. He's waiting for the researchers to provide the latest legal advice they've had. The code of patients' rights states that any trials where someone can't give consent must be in their best interests. Bryan Fergus chairs the northern health ethics committee which gave provisional approval to Dr Shay McGuinness' study that's sponsored by American firm Cubist Pharmaceuticals.
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A ballooning expert from the United Kingdom says if the wind direction had not changed at the last minute, a balloon which crashed in Carterton could have landed safely. Phil Dunnington from Bristol was giving evidence at an inquest into the January 2012 crash, in which the balloon hit powerlines and caught fire, killing the pilot, Lance Hopping, and 10 passengers. He said witnesses reported initially that the pilot and passengers appeared to be trying to free the balloon from the powerline it was caught in but they would have had few options once the arcing from the wire ignited the gas on board.
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Our Court reporter, Ann Marie May has been at the inquest.
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17. 45 MANU KORIHI with Eru Rerekura
PLAY AUDIO: TAKU WHARE E PIECE
IN: TAKU WHARE E. . . .
OUT: . . . KO TAKU WHAREPUNI.
DUR: 11"
ERU COMES IN AT 07 SECS THEN FADE MUSIC DOWN AND OUT
Kia hiwa rā! Kia hiwa rā!
Kua hinga he tōtara i te waonui a Tāne!
The people of Ngā Paerangi of the Whanganui River, and the Māori performing arts community are mourning the death of the composer and historian, Morvin Te Anatipa Simon.
He died this morning in Wellington Hospital after being ill for some time. He was in his late 60s.
Mr Simon is a descendant of Te Ātihaunui-ā-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Apa and Ngāti Tūwharetoa tribes.
He's renowned both nationally and internationally for his ability to compose choral pieces.
The Programme Co-ordinator of the Bachelor of Performing Arts at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, Rob Ruha, says he'll be sadly missed in the kapa haka world.
He says Mr Simon's contribution to kapa haka was not only important to his own Whanganui iwi but the rest of the motu.
OBIT-KAPA-TP
IN: SIGNIFICANT TO THE. . .
OUT: . . . THROUGH OUT THE COUNTRY.
DUR: 20"
Rob Ruha of Awanuiarangi.
Morvin Simon is lying at Hato Paora College in Fielding tonight before he gets taken to Kaiwhaiki Marae on the Whanganui River tomorrow where his body will be lying until his burial this weekend.
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The leader of a Far North iwi says the government's vision for the whole nation to get behind the revitalisation of Te Reo is a lick and a promise.
Haami Piripi of Te Rārawa is behind the broader plan to return control of the language to the people who speak it, through a new tribal group called Te Mātāwai.
But he says work needs to be done in getting everyone involved.
REO-RARAWA-TP
IN: IN THINK IT. . .
OUT: . . . ALL NEW ZEALANDERS.
DUR: 16"
Haami Piripi.
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A senior lecturer specialising in Māori politics says Labour would be left open to attacks by opposition parties if it accepted the broadcaster, Shane Taurima, as a Tāmaki Makaurau electoral contender.
Labour's decided not to put up the former Television New Zealand executive, after an investigation found he used the channel's resources for political work.
But, the party's electorate committee has asked its council to review its decision which stops Mr Taurima from standing.
A lecturer at Victoria University, Dr Maria Bargh, believes it's better for voters if a nominee has a clean profile, and doesn't have skeletons in their closet.
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A Maori Business advisory in Ōhākune says a pending treaty settlement signals a good time for financial literacy lessons.
Koa Business Advisors and Chartered Accountants are to provide free financial and business literacy workshops in the Ruapehu and Whanganui areas.
It's been contracted by Te Puni Kōkiri to run the sessions for Māori organisations and whānau over the next month.
The director of Koa, Riria Te Kanawa, says understanding financial management concepts is especially important for Whanganui businesses.
He says Whanganui iwi are at a point in their claims process where it's important that decision makers in tribal entities have that financial literacy.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have another bulletin in an hour.
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Australia's Prime Minister and the Federal Treasurer are defending their massive cost-cutting budget which includes tax hikes, tighter welfare rules, new GP fees, and cuts to health and education spending. Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey argue this will reduce the deficit and bring it within reach of a surplus in time for the next general election. But they're under fire from voters who say the sick, the aged and the young carry the burden of this budget. The ABC's Political correspondent Louise Yaxley explains.
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More than two point five million dollars of cash has been sniffed out by detector dogs at the border over the last ten months. A team of five labradors have been patrolling Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch airports searching for hidden money. Travellers carrying more than ten thousand dollars must declare it when entering the country and risk losing it if they don't. The largest find to date was in October last year when two travellers were discovered with 390 thousand dollars. The Chief Customs Officer who trains the dogs is Dave Huff.
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Presenter: Mary Wilson
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Mei Yeoh, Michael Allan