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Checkpoint for WEDS 11 MARCH 2009
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The Prime Minister John Key today outlined details of the 20-million dollar nine-days a fortnight plan targeting companies with more than a hundred employees that are forced to consider redundancies because of the recession. Workers who agree to drop a day's work a fortnight will get the adult minimum wage of 12 dollars 50 from the government but for only half the hours they're normally employed. The subsidy will be paid for a maximum of six months. Here's John Key.PRE-REC
Two men have been jailed for defrauding the Otago District Health Board of almost 17 million dollars - with the judge saying it may be the largest fraud in New Zealand's history.The offending by the board's former IT manager, Mike Swann, and his friend, Queenstown surveyor Kerry Harford, stretched over a period of almost seven years. Reporter Emma Lancaster was at the sentencing at the High Court in Dunedin. PKG
The High Court in Christchurch has been told that David Bain was lying in a fetal position and crying when police broke into the Dunedin house where his family lay dead. Mr Bain is being retried for the murders of his parents and three siblings in 1994, after his original convictions were quashed by the Privy Council. Matthew Peddie joins us now: LIVE
The amount the government pays into the NZ Superannuation Fund each year looks set to be cut, and the Prime Minister is laying the blame on the global economic crisis. John Key has confirmed the government is considering reducing its 2-billion-dollar annual contributions, when it delivers its budget in May.Here's our parliamentary chief reporter, Jane Patterson. PKG
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BUSINESS NEWS
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At least ten people are dead after a gunman went on a shooting spree in the American state of Alabama. The FBI says the shooting began in Samson, a small town in the southeast of the state, and ended after a car chase and gun battle in Geneva, about 20 kilometres away. With us now is Ken Curtis from the television station WDHN in Dothan Alabama: LIVE
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17.30 HEADLINES
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The Corrections Department says guards at Auckland's maximum security prison need to take some responsibility for their own safety.It follows a string of serious assaults on staff at Paremoremo, and allegations the Department is not doing enough to protect them. Laura Davis has this report. PKG
Emergency services have described a crash that killed four people south of Auckland as one of the worst they've dealt with.Two cars collided along Buckland Road near Tuakau last night, with one bursting into flames. Rowan Quinn reports. PKG
A midwife charged with professional misconduct following the death of a baby has given a completely different account of events to that of the baby's mother.Monique Kapua has been giving evidence at her own health practitioners disciplinary tribunal hearing.Joy Reid has been at the hearing and joins us now. LIVE
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WAATEA NEWS
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The country's biggest private sector union is describing the goverment's nine day fortnight as a miserable subsidy which will be rejected by workers. The Prime Minister John Key today outlined details of the twenty million dollar plan to save up to 25 thousand jobs. The head of the Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union, Andrew Little says the scheme goes against what was discussed at the Government's job summit. PRE-REC
The future of a multi-million dollar Auckland sculpture dubbed the Twister is still up in the air.The Auckland City Council's art committee has voted to support the project but has also decided to put 200-thousand dollars worth of funding on hold. Ben Brown reports. PKG
A couple stealing food from patients, while one of them pretended to be in a wheel chair, is the last straw for Waikato Hospital staff who say they'll probably have to restrict visitors. In the last two weeks a doctor was kicked and punched by a drunken patient, and three teenage gang members were accused of intimidating staff. Here's the Waikato District Health Board's communications director Mary Anne Gill. PRE-REC
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