Checkpoint FOR WEDNESDAY 20 JULY 2011
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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This morning the Prime Minister was refusing to confirm or deny whether a group of Israelis in Christchurch at the time of the February earthquake were spies - saying it was not in the national interest for him to do so. This afternoon at a news conference in California Mr Key confirmed the security agencies had fully investigated the unusually rapid departure of two young women and a man after the quake and found no link to Israeli intelligence. This follows a report from the Editor of the Southland Times Fred Tulett that 23 year old Ofer Binyamin Mizrahi, who died in February's earthquake, was found with five passports - and that his three travelling companions left the country within 12 hours. It's also claimed that the SIS carried out an audit of the police national computer because of fears that another group of visiting Israelis may have embedded dangerous software. We'll talk to Mr Tulett shortly. The Prime Minister wouldn't speak to Checkpoint. And the Israeli ambassador is refusing to comment at all. For the latest on today's developments we're joined by our political editor Brent Edwards. LIVE
The journalist whose story sparked the speculation today about Israeli spy operations in Christchurch says he is not buying the Prime Minister's claim that the investigations are all over.
Fred Tulett is the editor of the Southland Times, and wrote the article that appeared this morning after two months research. He standing by his story including that Ofer Mizrahi had five passports. PREREC
Now to the UK and the extraordinary parliamentary committee appearance of two members of the most powerful media family in the world. The power reversal between politicians and media barons was immediately made clear when MP's refused Rupert and James Murdoch permission to take control of the hearing by reading an opening statement. The ABC's Rachael Brown was watching the proceedings and filed this report on the day's events: PKG
And in Australia today, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said the Australian arm of News Corp will also have to answer hard questions following the phone hacking scandal. The Sydney Morning Herald's chief political correspondent Phil Coorey is on the line now. LIVE
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS WITH Naomi Mitchell
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A dissident Fiji military commander who's now in New Zealand is denying accusations he was involved in torture. Lieutenant Colonel Ratu Tevita Mara fled to Tonga in May after being charged with sedition. The New Zealand police say they're deciding whether to take action about a complaint made against him by the Auckland-based Coalition for Democracy in Fiji.
The Coalition's spokesman Nik Naidu says Colonel Mara's previously admitted soldiers under his command were guilty of torture and he should be arrested. But Colonel Mara is dismissing his claims. PREREC
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17.30 HEADLINES
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The country's export-led recovery is facing fresh wobbles after another fall in dairy prices and a new high for the New Zealand dollar today. Prices at Fonterra's latest dairy product auction fell five per cent, taking losses since March to 20 per cent. While the Kiwi pushed through a fresh post-float high of 85-point-66 cents against the Greenback. Our economics correspondent, Nigel Stirling, reports. PKG
The Prime Minister has confirmed multiple security agencies investigated the unusual behaviour of a group of Israelis after the February quake in Christchurch. But he says no evidence has been found to link the group with Israeli intelligence. John Key says there's been a full investigation into the unusually rapid departure of two young women and a man after the quake.
Mr Key who's in the US has declined to talk to Checkpoint . The Labour Party leader Phil Goff is on the committee that oversees the SIS and he was also Foreign Minister during the 2004 scandal when two Israelis were jailed for passport fraud and New Zealand suspended high-level contacts with Israel. Israel eventually apologised . Mr Goff joins us now. LIVE
Thirty to forty jobs are to go at the Christchurch department store, Ballantynes, because of earthquake damage to it's central city shop. The company says it remains confident the store in City Mall will reopen in time for the city's annual Cup and Show week at the end of October, despite the demolition of parts of the shop. Ballantynes managing director is Mary Devine. PREREC
The British Prime Minister David Cameron will be grilled by parliament later today about his decision to employ a former tabloid newspaper editor caught up in the phone-hacking scandal at News of the World. The scandal at one of Rupert Murdoch's newspapers, has forced the resignations of senior executives at the company and two of Britain's top policemen.
Mr Murdoch told a British parliamentary committee overnight he'd been misled by people he trusted, but he wouldn't resign. With the latest from London, we're joined now by the BBC's Jon Brain. LIVE
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17.45 MANU KORIHI
Tēnā koutou katoa, good evening,
The Crown says it's putting right a great deal of wrong by moving towards a Deed of Settlement for all historical Treaty claims with the Poverty Bay iwi, Rongowhakaata.
The Deed was today initialled in Te Hau ki Tūranga - an intricately carved ancestral meeting house which was built in the early 1840s, confiscated by the Crown in 1867, and is currently installed at Te Papa.
The tribe will work with the museum on the feasibility of taking the meeting house back.
The Government's to apologise for a number of other Treaty breaches, including the unjustified use of military force in Tūranganui-ā-Kiwa or Gisborne, and the summary executions of prisoners at Ngātapa in 1869.
As part of the settlement, there iwi will get 22-million dollars plus the interest that's accrued since 2008, and the several Crown-owned properties in the Gisborne region.
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The Northland Labour MP, Kelvin Davis, says it's good the government's not awarding any rights for oil prospecting off Northland's west coast .
There were no successful bids for the 12 exploration blocks in the Northland and Reinga basins, which may contain up to a trillion barrels of oil, but the Government won't explain how come.
Mr Davis says the government may have learned a lesson from the recent protests by Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and Ngāti Porou over oil exploration off East Cape.
He says iwi want to be consulted about off-shore oil drilling, and the government now has time to work out how to involve them.
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OUT: ...really concerned about.
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Kelvin Davis.
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The Kāpiti-based Brewer, Tuatara, says an American car manufacturer is free to use the name of the New Zealand reptile.
Shelby SuperCars is calling its latest high spec model - the Tuatara, due to what it says is the lizard's fast evolving DNA.
A member of Ngāti Koata - the traditional kaitiaki or guardians of the Tuatara, Roma Hippolite, says if Shelby Cars knew the name was Māori, it could've at least consulted with them.
But the general manager at Tuatara Breweries, Sean Murrie, suspects he knows why Shelby didn't seek advice.
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OUT: ...through the consultation.
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Sean Murrie of Tuatara Breweries.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a further bulletin in an hour.
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The Pike River Royal Commission has been told the coal inside the mine was not prone to spontaneous combustion. The chief executive of the Pike River company Peter Whittall's been giving evidence on the eighth day of hearings into last November's explosions where 29 men died. Geoff Moffett is at the inquiry in Greymouth. LIVE
A judge is poised to rule on whether the Destiny Church co-founder, Hannah Tamaki can carry on with her controversial challenge to head up the Maori Women's Welfare League. Mrs Tamaki wants to be president but some in the league oppose her on the grounds she's too sectarian.
Her name was left off voting papers and no papers were sent to several Destiny Church-affiliated branches. The league's in the middle of its own inquiry into the dispute. Mrs Tamaki's case against the league was heard in the High Court in Wellington today and our Court reporter Ann Marie May was there. LIVE
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