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 THURSDAY 15 AUGUST 2013
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The Far North paedophile teacher James Parker is tonight beginning an open ended prison sentence for sex crimes against 20 boys spanning many years and about 300 separate acts. The 38 year old appeared to weep in court as some of his victims read out their impact statements - one told of how he had grown to hate his family because they believed Parker, not him. Parker sat slumped for most of the sentencing in the High Court in Whangārei, in front of the judge and about 60 people including locals who'd driven down from the Far North. Justice Heath said the depraved and unfeeling nature of the former deputy principal's crimes made the damage worse.
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The sentence today of preventive detention with a minimum parole period of seven years means Parker won't be released as long as he's deemed to still be a risk. He'd admitted 74 charges ranging from indecency to sexual violations against boys aged between nine and 14 or 15, from 1999 to 2012. The police investigated in 2009 but Parker put pressure on the accusing boys and their families. They retracted their allegations and ended up being sent back into his class at Pamapuria School near Kaitaia. The victim who told the court about hating his family spoke, as he cried, of the on-going harm he's suffered. We are unable to broadcast that audio - we have used another voice.
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Justice Heath alluded to this.
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The sentence comes more than a year on from Parker's arrest, and 15 years on from when the principal at his first school, Ōturu near Kaitaia, first raised his name with teaching authorities. That letter included the claim Parker was showering with boys - but the police in their 2009 investigation did not ask to see that letter and did not talk to the Teachers Council which has it. In sentencing today, Justice Heath described how Parker abused boys during sleepovers at his home - sleepovers that continued past 2009 despite the police warning the school's principal to stop them. That principal Stephen Hovell has since been sacked.
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Justice Heath said Parker preyed on vulnerable boys. Parker's lawyer Alex Witten-Hannah says the sentence is humane and his client is comfortable with it.
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We'll hear more from that lawyer shortly.
At a news conference called by the police after the sentencing, reporters questioned them about why it took so long to bring Parker to justice. Detective Mark Dalzell of Kaitaia's Child Protection Team said they did not have enough solid evidence to prosecute him in either the late 1990s or 2009.
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He admits the police in 2009 were unaware the boy was pressured to retract his allegation. The police have refused to appear on Checkpoint tonight despite repeated assurances they would answer all our questions about the Parker investigations, which we first addressed to them 9 months ago. Earlier, Mark Dalzell praised one particular boy who spoke up and wouldn't back down.
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Our reporter Lois Williams has been in court today for Parker's sentencing and at the news conference and is with us now.
I/V
Miners at Huntly East have been floored by the news more than half of them are losing their jobs.
The state owned coal miner Solid Energy announced today its proposing to shed 93 jobs at the underground mine. The company has been caught out by falling coal prices and over-ambitious expansion plans which has left it with a debt mountain of 390 million dollars. Last year it made a loss of just over 40 million. In August last year, about 70 employed workers lost their jobs, with an extra 60 contractors also dropped. Lorna Perry has been in Huntly.
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS
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The bloody crackdown in Egypt has brought swift international condemnation, but with both sides appearing determined to hold their ground, it's triggering fears of a wider civil war. In the past 24 hours the Army's crushed the protest camps of thousands of supporters of the ousted Islamist President Mohammed Mursi. A month long state of emergency is now in place. The government says hundreds have been killed, including forty police officers. But the Muslim Brotherhood says the death toll is closer to 2-thousand. Barney Porter has this report :
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17. 30 HEADLINES
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The American soldier Bradley Manning has told a military court he is sorry for leaking numerous government documents to Wikileaks, in what was the biggest breach of classified material in US history. Manning apologised for the unintended consequences of his actions. He is facing up to 90 years in prison. Adam Klasfeld is a reporter for Courthouse News Service. He's regularly covered the trial and was at the court martial in Fort Meade today where he says Manning delivered an unequivocal apology.
I/V
The Far North paedophile teacher James Parker is tonight beginning an open ended prison sentence for sex crimes against 20 boys spanning many years and about 300 separate acts. Emotions ran high in the High Court in Whangārei as the former deputy head of Pamapuria School near Kaitaia was sentenced to preventive detention. One victim cried as he read out an impact statement telling of taking drugs, losing friends and feeling scared and sad because of what Parker did to him. Parker sat slumped in front of the judge and about 60 people including locals who'd driven down from the Far North. He has to serve just seven years before he can apply for parole. His lawyer is Alex Witten-Hannah.
I/V
There are further signs the economy is picking up.
Job advertisements rose sharply last month, while manufacturing continues to prosper. But unions say the recovery is not creating jobs. Our economics correspondent, Patrick O'Meara, reports.
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17. 45 MANU KORIHI
Kia ora mai, good evening,
Labour's Māori Affairs spokesperson says it's disappointing to see on-going quarrels amongst South Island iwi, Ngāti Rarua, about which tribal entity should govern its treaty assets.
The Māori Affairs Select Committee held hearings in Nelson and Blenheim yesterday on the Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill, which involves 8 iwi at the top of the South Island.
The bill, valued at 300-million-dollars, passed its first reading in parliament in June.
A Labour Party committee member, Shane Jones, says different iwi entities, under Ngāti Rarua, are arguing about who has the iwi mandate.
TAUIHU-MANDATE-TP
IN OUR POSITION IS QUITE. . .
OUT . . . MANDATE ISSUES.
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Labour's Shane Jones.
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A Ngāti Kahungunu leader, part of a New Zealand delegation on tour in the Pacific says the group is providing ideas about how to develop the region's fishing sector.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Murray McCully is leading the delegation, which includes the Māori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples, as well as Labour's Phil Goff.
Ngāti Kahungunu Rūnanga chair, Ngahiwi Tomoana, who's a member of the Māori Economic Development Taskforce, is also on the trip to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Speaking from the Solomon Islands, he says they have established a fish factory, but they need to set up a processing plant, which would create employment for the locals.
He says New Zealand and Māori could help develop the sector by introducing practices used in Aotearoa.
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The Māori Fisheries Trust, Te Ohu Kaimoana, says Māori have interests in all aspects of fishing, but it can't say how snapper catch reductions will impact on iwi.
The Ministry for Primary Industries has suggested decreasing the daily snapper catch limit for recreational fishers in the upper North Island.
The Trust chief executive, Peter Douglas, says it is unsure what impact catch reductions will have on recreational Māori fisherman, because not enough is known about them.
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IN WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH. . .
OUT . . . TO BACK THAT UP.
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Peter Douglas says the Ministry is going the right way about finding a balance across all elements.
Consultation on the proposals close next Friday.
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A lecture on the international rise of indigenous art will be presented in Dunedin tonight by a renown Māori art historian.
Jonathan Mane-Wheoki is a Professor of fine arts at the University of Auckland and the head of arts and visual culture at Te Papa.
The lecture - Remembrance, Resistance and Resurgence relates to ancestry, liberation movements of indigenous people and their rise in the political spectrum.
Professor Mane-Wheoki, says while the lecture will take a broad view of indigenous art around the world, it will also focus on the connections made with Māori artists.
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IN PARTICULARLY IN NORTH. . .
OUT . . . HAVE SPRUNG UP.
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Professor Jonathan Mane-Wheoki.
That's Te Manu Korihi news I'll have a further bulletin in an hour.
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A tired, texting driver at the wheel of an overloaded, unroadworthy van led to crash in July 2010 that was almost inevitable. An inquest into the death of Jesse Howe, one of the passengers, heard how the driver, Aaron Gourlay, was having text conversations in the minutes before the smash and had an energy drink and caffeine tablets before setting off. 12 teenagers were driving home to Rotorua from a party in Taupō in the van which had a badly worn and wrongly fitted tyre, some passengers were sitting on an unrestrained couch in the back and none were wearing seat belts. Inspector Kevin Taylor is the Bay of Plenty road policing manager.
I/V
A notorious Australian spammer has been fined nearly a hundred thousand dollars by a New Zealand court. Wayne Robert Mansfield sent nearly a million spam emails across the Tasman to people here in 2010, promoting his business seminars. Christopher Gilbert reports.
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A Wellington man prosecuting the Act leader, John Banks, wants the boss of Sky City and Kim Dotcom to give evidence against the politician. The Epsom MP is denying the allegation of electoral fraud, relating to 65-thousand dollars worth of donations in his Auckland Mayoralty campaign in 2010. The retired accountant, Graham McCready, is arguing that Mr Banks knew those donations were from Kim Dotcom and Skycity but still recorded them as anonymous on electoral forms. Olivia Wix has been in court.
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Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have met for about five hours in the first face-to-face meeting between the two sides since 2010. The peace talks come after months of shuttle diplomacy by the US Secretary of State, John Kerry. Early yesterday Israel released twenty-six Palestinian prisoners as a gesture of goodwill. But it has continued its settlement expansion in the run-up to the talks and that's causing disquiet among Palestinians. Deutsche Welle's Ben Fajzullin (fah-ZOO-luhn) has the latest :
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Presenter: Mary Wilson
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Susie Ferguson, Rachel Askew