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 TUESDAY 20 AUGUST 2013
****************************
1700 to 1707 NEWS
****************************
It will be harder for people with a low deposit to get a home loan from the start of October. The Reserve Bank's new rules mean that at any one time banks are only allowed to have ten percent of new lending tied up with customers who have less than a 20 percent deposit. At the moment about a third of new lending goes to low deposit customers. The central bank is worried Auckland's housing market could overheat, and any meltdown could damage the country's financial health and the broader economy. Our economics correspondent Patrick O'Meara has been looking at the new rules.
I/V
The Government is offering a significant enticement to people to buy shares in Meridian Energy in the face of public disenchantment with its asset sales programme. It says individual investors will only have to pay for sixty percent of their shareholdings straight away before paying for the final forty percent 18 months later. Here's our political editor Brent Edwards.
PKG
A Christchurch pensioner wants an apology and compensation from the police after an independent investigation found officers used excessive force in him during an arrest which was unjustified and unreasonable. The police say they won't apologise. John Bennett, who's 67, was wearing only a tee shirt and underwear when he went outside his house armed with an air pistol and tee-ball bat after hearing noises which he thought might be earthquake looters. It was early in the morning in December 2011. Instead he was arrested for carrying the weapons and made to lie down with an officer using his knee and foot on Mr Bennett's back. The Independent Police Conduct Authority in a report released today says the police were wrong to act as they did. Mr Bennett says the District Commander, Superintendent Gary Knowles has never said sorry has been rude and abrupt to him when they spoke last year about what happened.
I/V
The police say they accept the IPCA's findings about Mr Bennett's treatment but Gary Knowles won't say sorry.
I/V
An argument has broken out between the Prime Minister and the Labour leader over who initiated a meeting between them on the GCSB Bill. The legislation allowing the electronic spy agency to carry out surveillance on New Zealanders is entering its final stages in Parliament. In Question time, there were rowdy exchanges between John Key and David Shearer over a confidential discussion that took place in Mr Key's office, after a meeting of the Intelligence and Security Committee. Here's our political reporter, Clare Pasley.
PKG
***********************
1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS
************************
White Island is quiet this evening after erupting earlier today, sending a plume of steam and ash high into the air just after 10am. The cloud could be seen from the Bay of Plenty coast. John Burgess has been a guide with PJ White Island Tours for 6 years and was offshore this morning when the volcano blew.
I/V
For more about today's eruption, we're joined by a volcanologist with GNS, Nico Fournier.
I/V
***********************
17. 30 HEADLINES
***********************
If you're not sure don't take it. That's the advice being given to athletes by New Zealand's anti-doping organisation after cricketer Jesse Ryder's positive test for banned performance enhancing substances. Ryder says he took the supplement to lose weight and thought he'd done enough to check it out.
CUT
The New Zealand Cricket Players' Association says athletes need supplements regularly and they should get more help when deciding what to take. Jacob McSweeny reports.
PKG
Egyptian officials say the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammad Badie (bay-dee), has been arrested in the capital Cairo. He's been on the run as authorities try to suppress protests at the ousting of the President Mohammed Mursi. His arrest comes as three days of national mourning are declared for 24 police officers killed in an attack by suspected Islamic militants on the Sinai Peninsula. The BBC's Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen has this report from Cairo:
PKG
A police officer, hailed a hero, for diving off a bridge to save the life of a crash victim in Tauranga last week, has given a humbling account of the night's events. Constable Deane O'Connor was among the first at the scene of the Maungatapu Bridge crash in which a van had plunged into the water. The van's driver, Gregory Woledge, who was 24, died, but the passenger was rescued. Here's our Bay of Plenty reporter, Lorna Perry.
PKG
**************
17. 45 MANU KORIHI
Kia ora mai, good evening,
A Northland man who's been honoured for fisheries protection says cutting the east coast recreational snapper quota could lead to boating fatalities.
Des Subritzky was awarded the Queens Service Medal in 2010 for years of conservation work on Kaipara harbour and beaches.
The former Fisheries inspector says if people are allowed to catch only three snapper each, they'll be heading over to the west coast - where they can still catch nine - and loading up small boats with children to increase their allowable catch.
SNAPPER- SAFETY TP
IN: THE BOAT SAFETY. . .
OUT: . . . PART OF THEIR DIET.
DUR: 18"
Des Subritzky says commercial fishers have told him the main reason they're not reaching their snapper quotas is that they're targeting other, more lucrative species.
But he says dumping also happens, and nets that allow small snapper to escape should be made compulsory.
--------
A Southland Rūnanga is monitoring the coastline to record and recover taonga or artefacts exposed by erosion.
Te Rūnanga o Waihopai noticed signs of significant erosion eight years ago at places like the Tokanui River mouth and Waikawa and Curio Bay.
But in the past two years the erosion has accelerated leaving ancient bones and other taonga exposed to the elements at risk of being taken away by the sea or found by fossickers.
The co-ordinator of the Southland Coastal Heritage Inventory Project Dean Whaanga, says kaitiaki volunteers are now walking the coast where taonga have been found.
MURIHIKU-ERODE-TP
IN: WE'VE TAUGHT THEM. . .
OUT: . . . THEY MAY FIND.
DUR: 23"
Dean Whaanga.
--------
A renowned Māori chef, Charles Royal, is hoping a new Māori and Pasifika television show will convert people to healthy food - and turn them away from takeaways.
The Real Pasifik show focuses on authentic dishes and heritage recipes from the Cook Islands, Samoa, Vanuatu, Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand.
Charles Royal who features in the programme says the TV series wants to inspire people to cut back on foods like canned corned beef, and fast-food, and cook from scratch using fresh, natural ingredients.
He says it aims to gives viewers the confidence to use some of the menus at least twice a week - and taste the difference.
Real Pasifik goes to air early next month.
--------
Organisers of a Blenheim kapa haka competition rudely interrupted by Friday's earthquakes will decide at the weekend whether to re-run the event.
The regional competition, Te Huinga Whetū, for primary and intermediate school students was called off with four acts still to go - after the children were badly shaken by the six-point-six magnitude quake .
The chairperson of the organising council, Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka a Maui, Dayveen Stephens, says the options include, holding a fresh competition, or waiting two years until the next scheduled contest. .
Ms Stephens says a hui in Nelson on Saturday will make the decision.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a further bulletin in an hour.
****************
To Pakistan now, where the former military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, has been indicted on charges of conspiracy to murder the former opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto. She was twice elected prime minister and was assassinated in a gun and bomb attack in 2007. Musharraf is vowing to fight the charges. The Guardian's Jon Boone joins us now from Pakistan.
I/V
The fishing company, Sanford, is once again in trouble over allegations of illegally dumping oil at sea. It's been charged with dumping in New Zealand waters and of failing to tell the authorities - the maximum penalties include imprisonment and fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The investigation into the Korean fishing charter vessel, the Pacinui (Pas-ih-nui), started in January this year. The charges have been brought by Maritime New Zealand but it hasn't been able to tell us how much oil is involved. Last August, Sanford was convicted of dumping oil waste in waters around American Samoa, and it was fined 1-point-9 million US dollars. The company's chief executive is Eric Barratt.
I/V
At least 37 people have been killed and dozens more injured after being struck by a train while crossing the tracks at a remote station in eastern India. Police investigators say those who died were not walking on a designated platform. But, angry crowds have set several train carriages alight in protest. The BBC's Rahoul Tandon reports from Calcutta.
PKG
*******************
Presenter: Mary Wilson
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Susie Ferguson, Rachel Askew