Checkpoint FOR WEDNESDAY 19 DECEMBER 2012
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The Secretary for Education, Lesley Longstone, has had to quit after barely a year in the job but is in line for a severance pay-out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. She had five year contract but has now agreed her strained relationship with the Education Minister, Hekia Parata means she has to go. The State Services Commissioner, Iain Rennie in announcing her resignation this afternoon, refused to say she had been sacked. CUT Mr Rennie says it's not just relations with the Minister that have been strained. CUT He says Mrs Longstone will get a severance pay-out. CUT Mrs Longstone's resignation caps a horror year for Minister and Ministry, with the back-down over class sizes, outrage over plans to close and merge Christchurch schools, and the mistake ridden rollout of the Novopay payroll system. The Labour Party's acting education spokesperson, Chris Hipkins, says Hekia Parata also needs to resign. CUT Ms Parata issued a statement thanking Ms Longstone and saying it has been a difficult period. But she's refused to be interviewed on Checkpoint. Her spokesperson said that's because the Minister is on leave, but later her office said she won't talk because it's a matter for Iain Rennie. The Green Party also says Ms Parata should go and its education spokesperson, Metiria Turei, says the Minister is now running away from the consequences of her own failures. CUT The Prime Minister, John Key, was unavailable for comment today, but his office says he has complete confidence in Hekia Parata. The former head of the Ministry of Social Development Peter Hughes will take over as acting Chief Executive and Secretary for Education in February. He's not commenting either.
The President of the Secondary Principals' Association, Patrick Walsh, joins us now. IV
Our education correspondent, John Gerritsen has been following today's developments. IV
A Whangārei man seeking treatment to become a woman has been sent to a men's prison to serve time despite pleas to the judge that she'll be sexually attacked there. Glen Cooper was convicted on a serious assault charge and had asked to be sent to a women's prison, saying she suffered continual sexual assault when locked up with men. Judge Duncan Harvey sentenced Cooper in the Whangārei District court today, to 2 years and one month in jail. Cooper's lawyer Kelly Ellis says the sentence was shorter than it might have been because the judge did recognise the risks her client faces. Ms Ellis is with us now. IV
In the wake of the mass killings at a Connecticut school, the White House has spelled out some of the specific gun controls measures that would get the backing of President Obama. It's the first signal of the President's intentions since he spoke at a public prayer service for the victims earlier this week. Our Washington correspondent, Nick Harper, has the latest from the White House news conference. IV
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS WITH Patrick O'Meara
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An Auckland coroner has called for national guidelines on safe sleeping with babies, following the deaths of two infants from accidental suffocation while they were in hospital. Katharine Greig found that both babies died when their mothers fell asleep while breast-feeding in bed. Cushla Norman has been reading the coroner's reports: PKG
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17. 30 HEADLINES
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The centre of one of Fiji's largest cities has this afternoon been shut down, to prevent looters raiding cyclone-damaged shops. It’s just one of a number of problems Fijian authorities are coping with as they deal with damaged homes, flooding, no electricity and phone lines down in the areas worst hit by Cyclone Evan's 200 kilometre winds. Olivia Wix has the latest. PKG
Christchurch school principals are sceptical that Lesley Longstone's quitting will restore their confidence in the Ministry of Education. The Secretary for Education is stepping down barely one year into a five-year contract, after accepting that strained relations with the Minister of Education and the sector have made her job untenable. Mrs Longstone has fronted the ministry's proposals to close or merge up to 38 schools as part of the post-quake education overhaul in Canterbury. The latest criticism has come from the Ombudsman's office which this week accused the Ministry of Education of trying to hide information about the school closures. That office, and its handling of official information, is now being investigated. The Canterbury Primary Principals' Association President John Bangma, who is the principal of Mairehau Primary School, joins us now. IV
Remember this CUT That's the Speaker of the House Lockwood Smith giving New Zealand First leader Winston Peters his marching orders earlier this year. There was also this exchange. CUT Now it's Dr Smith who is leaving the chamber for good to become New Zealand's High Commissioner in London. His political career started in 1984 as a National MP for Kaipara, and he served as Education, Agriculture and Trade Minister in the 1990s. He's been Speaker for four years. Despite his altercations with Mr Peters, Dr Smith says he never got angry as Speaker - just frustrated IV
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17. 45 MANU KORIHI
Kia ora mai, good evening,
The Māori Affairs Minister, Pita Sharples, says an evaluation of the early outcomes of the marae based court system for young Māori, shows the rangatahi courts are on track.
Ngā Kooti Rangatahi was the brainchild of Youth Court Judge Hēmi Taumaunu, who introduced the concept on Te Poho o Rawiri marae in Gisborne in 2008.
The evaluation was released today at Hoani Waititi marae in the Auckland suburb of Glen Eden.
Dr Sharples says the report found the 10 courts in operation, are facilitating a process for youth to not only be held accountable for their actions, but to connect with their cultural identity.
He says he's keen for more courts to be set up.
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Pita Sharples.
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The Minister for Courts, Chester Borrows, says it's important for people to understand that the report dealt specifically with how the courts are engaging with young Māori accused of a crime, and their whānau.
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Chester Borrows says research needs to be done next year as to what effect rangatahi courts are having on the rate of re-offending by young Māori.
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A community row over the naming of a new school in a Bay of Plenty town has been settled.
Some residents in Murupara were angry at a decision by the Establishment Board of Trustees to call a new area kura, Te Awatea o Murupara.
The Board Chairman, Jacob Te Kurapa, says because of differences of opinion the Board held a poll to decide what the school should be called.
He says the winning name with one hundred and three votes out of 184 was Murupara Area School.
Mr Te Kurapa says in retrospect the Board should have consulted more with the community before deciding on a name.
The Board will send a letter to the Ministry of Education requesting a name change be made official, before the new kura opens in February.
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Action by an iwi environment group in Rotorua has led to the District Council making a decision in relation to public access to a ramp at Lake Rotoiti's Ōkawa Bay.
Early this month the Ngāti Pikiao Environmental Society wrote to the Council and Te Arawa Lakes Trust about a locked gate on the ramp, which gave the Bay of Plenty Trailer Yacht Squadron exclusive access.
The Council agreed to meet last Friday with the iwi group and other interested parties.
The Chief Executive, Peter Guerin Gear-in, says after a two hour discussion a decision was made.
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Peter Guerin says the meeting also suggested setting up a committee, which would consider how to ensure public safety on the lake, which is used by speed boats.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a further bulletin in an hour.
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A plan to truck oil and gas drilling waste from the East Coast to dump sites in Taranaki has angered iwi on both sides of the North Island. Tag Oil and Apache Corporation is seeking resource consent for an East Coast exploratory well and is proposing to transfer the waste to two disposal farms in Taranaki. Juliet Larkin reports PKG
Lower payments to foreigners and a surge in dairy exports has helped narrow the country's deficit with the rest of the world. But it is expected to blow-out again in 2013 as the economy recovers and the Christchurch rebuild gets into full swing. Our economics correspondent, Nigel Stirling, reports PKG
While millions of South Koreans are electing a new president today, the big winners could be over the border in the communist North. Mark Willacy explains PKG