Checkpoint FOR MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2012
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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In a partial back down, the Government has delayed the first share float under its state asset sales programme until next year. This follows opposition from iwi and the Waitangi Tribunal recommending the Government sort out Māori water rights before any sale. The Prime Minister, John Key, told a news conference a short time ago the Government has rejected the Tribunal's concept of Shares Plus that would give some Māori a stake in the SOEs above and beyond the rights of other shareholders, but that Ministers will talk with iwi about it.
CUT Mr Key says the Government's preference would have been to go ahead with the Mighty River Power share float this year. CUT
The Associate Finance Minister Steven Joyce joins us now. LIVE
Listening to that was our political editor Brent Edwards. LIVE
An unsafe, overcrowded ship that should never left the dock and a bullying owner who put money ahead of people have been blamed for the sinking of a passenger ferry in Papua New Guinea. The Commission of Inquiry's report, obtained to Radio New Zealand International, says between 142 and 161 people died when the Rabaul Queen sank on February the 2nd.
It cannot say exactly how many people were on board because of the absence of a clear manifest. At the time passengers reported the ship was overcrowded and the shipping company's offices were attacked amidst growing public anger. Megan Whelan has been reading the report. PREREC
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS WITH Kate Gudsell
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The Government has formally confirmed that it will bring New Zealand troops home from Afghanistan by the end of April next year. The withdrawal date will follow the expected handover of responsibility to local forces in about a month's time. (at the beginning of October). Here's our political reporter, Chris Bramwell. PKG
A defiant Phillip Field says the court ordering him to pay back more than 27 thousand dollars proves he's innocent. The Crown was seeking nearly 60-thousand dollars from Field, the first and only MP in New Zealand to be convicted of corruption. He was jailed in 2009 and got out last year. He'd accepted labour from Thai people who he helped with immigration problems and then tried to cover it up. Here he is. PREREC
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17.30 HEADLINES
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More now on the Government pulling back from a start to the state assets sales this year.
It's put off the first sale, of up to 49 percent in the SOE Mighty River Power, till between March and June next year. This follows opposition from iwi and the Waitangi Tribunal recommending the Government sort out Māori water rights before any sale. The sale threatens to drive a wedge between National and its support party the Māori Party. The co-leader of the Māori Party Pita Sharples joins us now. LIVE
Australia has hit back at Afghanistan's president for condemning the Australian troops who killed two civilians during their search for a rogue Afghan soldier. The defence minister Stephen Smith says Hamid Karzai wasn't factually correct and the two Afghans killed in the raid were insurgents - not civilians. The ABC's Will Ockenden has the latest : PKG
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17.45 MANU KORIHI
Tēnā koutou katoa, good evening,
The Māori Council says the Government's decision to delay the first of its partial state asset sales shows it's acting in good faith.
The Crown is holding off on selling up to 49 per cent of shares in Mighty River Power, to allow more time to consult with Māori.
The sale is now due to go ahead between March and June next year.
The Māori Council co-chair, Rahui Katene, says it's happy with the Government's decision.
Ms Katene says, given the Government rejected the idea of a national hui with Māori, the least it can do is talk with the Māori Council and Iwi leaders.
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Rahui Katene from the Māori Council.
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A direct descendant of a Ngāti Hine ancestral chief, who signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi, says it's too early for the Government to consider a bill where public officials can swear allegiance to the treaty.
The proposed legislation, sponsored by Māori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell, has been drawn from the ballot and is set to be debated by Parliament.
Last year, Mana Party leader, Hone Harawira, was ousted from Parliament's debating chamber for trying to swear his allegiance to the Treaty, when being sworn in as an MP.
A former New Zealand First MP, Pita Paraone, who's an uri whakaheke of Ngāti Hine chief Te Ruki Kawiti, isn't opposed to the Māori Party's idea.
But he feels it's premature to consider the bill at present, saying the debate should instead focus on the country's constitution.
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The leader of a small lower North Island iwi says its partnership with the district council in a new cultural centre reinforces its local identity.
Te Takeretanga o Kurahaupō - the Horowhenua Community and Cultural Centre in Levin, is a collaborative project between the Muaūpoko iwi and the Horowhenua District Council.
The Muaūpoko Tribal Authority chief executive, Steve Hirini, says his iwi has never co-operated in this way with the Horowhenua District Council, and it acknowledges them as tangata whenua.
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Steve Hirini of Muaūpoko.
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The organisation charged with cleaning up the Waikato River has appointed a new funding manager.
Sean Newland will oversee the allocation of about six-million dollars a year, from the Waikato River Authority to projects that will improve the health of the river.
Mr Newland has a science background, and he's currently the sustainable dairying policy manager for Fonterra.
He says the health and well-being of the Waikato River is of huge importance to him, and he's looking forward to working with the people involved in cleaning it up.
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Radio Ngāti Porou on the east Coast of the North Island has turned 25.
It's the country's second oldest Māori radio station after Wellington's Te Reo Irirangi o Te Ūpoko o Te Ika, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in May.
Te Reo Irirangi o Ngāti Porou, which is based in Ruatōria, marked the milestone by hosting a community event at the weekend.
It was established in 1987.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a further bulletin in an hour.
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A Pacific Blue pilot charged with careless use of an aircraft will have to wait until October to know his fate. Closing submissions in the hearing of the 54 year old Papakura pilot, who has name suppression, have wrapped up in Queenstown. The Civil Aviation Authority says he endangered the lives of 70 passengers and crew when he took off from Queenstown two years ago, into near darkness and with alarms ringing on the flight deck. Our reporter Steve Wilde has been in the Queenstown District Court . LIVE
There's been an alarming jump in the number of teen suicides. Between June 2010 and July 2011 56 people aged between 15 and 19 killed themselves, but in the 12 months to July this year that figure leapt to 80. The chief coroner Judge Neil MacLean released the provisional annual suicide figures today. PREREC
The veteran South African anti-apartheid uh-PAH-tayt campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for Tony Blair and George Bush to face criminal charges over the Iraq war.
He says the former British and American leaders should be brought before the International Criminal Court. The BBC's Rob Broomby has more: PKG