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 5 DECEMBER 2013
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The one-time Black Cap Lou Vincent has confirmed he is one of the targets of a match-fixing investigation being carried out by the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption unit. Another two former top cricketers are also being investigated and the Players Association is urging them to come forward as already some media are naming names. Vincent won't be interviewed but has issued a statement saying he is co-operating with the inquiry. The Association won't name the other two and nor will New Zealand Cricket though it knows who they are. A British paper meanwhile this afternoon named all three after the work of anti-corruption investigators here came to light. The chief executive of the Cricket Players Association Heath Mills says he can't name them for legal reasons, but with all former players now under suspicion he'd like the men to speak up.
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Heath Mills says sometimes players have found themselves trapped or groomed into situations off the field that have left them vulnerable to pressure.
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We'll hear more from Heath Mills just after 5. 30 The head of New Zealand Cricket David White gave this statement earlier.
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The Prime Minister, John Key, says it will be grave if the corruption allegations are proved true. Our cricket reporter Stephen Hewson has been following the latest developments and is with us now.
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New Zealand First says a charter school being established in Northland will be set up in prefab buildings, with portaloos for toilets. The party's deputy leader, Tracey Martin, pushed the Education Minister over the matter during Question Time this afternoon - and Hekia Parata was caught unawares. Here's our parliamentary chief reporter, Jane Patterson.
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The High Court in Christchurch has heard a recording of a tense exchange between the murder-accused, Helen Milner, and the family of her dead husband. Philip Nisbet was found dead in his bed in May 2009 and his widow, Helen Milner, is accused of feeding him a lethal dose of the anti-histamine Phenergan, to which he was allergic. A recording has been played to the jury of Mr Nisbet's father, James Nisbet, giving evidence at the November 2010 inquest into his son's death, at which time it was thought he was a suicide. He can be heard telling the coroner the suicide note the family saw was different from the one in evidence at the inquest.
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That recording came from the inquest, as did a tense exchange between James Nisbet and Helen Milner, in front of the coroner Sue Johnson.
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In this recording from the inquest and played in court today, Mr Nisbet's sister Lee-Anne Cartier grills Helen Milner about where the suicide note shown to the family was supposed to have been discovered.
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Joining us now is our reporter Nicola Grigg who has been at the High Court in Christchurch today.
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Thieves who stole a truck containing dangerous radioactive material in Mexico have tampered with the protective casing and may have been exposed to life-threatening radiation levels. The truck was stolen near Mexico city on Monday, and the medical-grade cobalt-60 was removed from its protective casing and then abandoned. The area is cordoned off and officials say there's no risk for local residents. The BBC's Mexico correspondent, Will Grant, says authorities are monitoring local hospitals for people with symptoms of radiation poisoning.
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS with Anusha Bradley
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The Government has made it clear it does not expect Chorus to ask for more money to help with the 70 percent of the nationwide ultra fast broadband network it is building. But the Communications Minister Amy Adams says there will be help for the embattled phone lines company. Ms Adams says a briefing from Ernst & Young has confirmed Chorus is at risk of not being able to complete its Government broadband contract because of its financial position. The Commerce Commission has ruled the company must cut internet charges for customers using its copper network, a move Chorus says will cost it a billion dollars in lost earnings by 2020. The Minister says Chorus and the crown agency Crown Fibre Holdings will now talk about changes to the contract that will close the funding gap. Mark Ratcliffe is the chief executive of Chorus.
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17. 30 HEADLINES
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The former Black Cap Lou Vincent has confirmed he's one of three former players under investigation by the International Cricket Council for match fixing. The games being looked at weren't on New Zealand grounds. In a statement Vincent said he's co-operating with the inquiry and will talk to the public once its over. Some media have named the two other players, but New Zealand Cricket and the Players Association won't say whether they're correct or not, although both know who they are. Heath Mills is the chief executive of the New Zealand Cricket Players' Association and he's with us now:
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The leaders of the Kaipara rates rebellion are defying a call to end their action, and pay their rates. Parliament yesterday passed a Bill validating the rates that were set unlawfully over several years. But the Mangawhai Ratepayers Association says that has just swept their problem under the carpet. Lois Williams reports:
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New Zealand First has claimed in Parliament that a charter school being set up in Northland has run out of money and will use portaloos for toilets. But the trust that is setting up one of the five charter schools so far approved by the Government says that is wrong. Natasha Sadler is the curriculum director of Te Kura Hourua ki Whangaruru - she's with us now.
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17. 45 MANU KORIHI with Eru Rerekura
Kia ora mai, good evening,
The Constitutional Advisory Panel doesn't recommend including the Treaty of Waitangi in a written constitution.
The government's released the panel's report, which asked New Zealanders about the basic rules by which they should live by.
Leigh McLachlan reports:
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The Police in Waikato are investigating whether a teacher, already facing sex charges at a South Waikato school, committed offences during his time at another school.
Reuben Tapara, who is 33, has pleaded guilty to eleven charges of sexually abusing boys at Te Wharekura o te Kaokaoroa in Putaruru and one charge of supplying cannabis.
The police say they're now investigating his time teaching at Te Wharekura o Maniapoto in Te Kuiti where he taught for several years up until 2008.
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The Crown acknowledges that ancestral land claimed by a central North Island iwi is line to be given to another tribe.
Ngati Kauwhata people have been to Parliament to make a plea for whenua in Waikato, where its descendants first settled before migrating south.
They want land on which the disused Maungatautari School sits on near Cambridge, but it has been promised to Ngati Koroki Kahukura as part of its Treaty package
A deputy director at the Office of Treaty Settlements, Marian Smith, has told MPs it knows about the claims made by Ngati Kauwhata.
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Marian Smith says, under Crown policy, her officials are still to identify a large natural grouping to negotiate with.
The MP and member of the Maori Affairs Select Committee, Nanaia Mahuta, says it looks like the horse has bolted for Ngati Kauwhata.
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A Massey University associate professor has received national recognition for her research into ways to improve schooling for Maori children with special needs.
Jill Bevan-Brown has been given the Tohu Pae Tawhiti Award from the Association of Research in Education.
The title recognises those who've made significant contributions to Matauranga Maori - Maori Education - and includes a taonga and 15-hundred-dollars.
Dr Bevan-Brown is encouraging kaiako to incorporate a child's culture in to education because a tamaiti would take more of an interest in something that relates to them.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a further bulletin in an hour.
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Horrifying accounts of torture and executions have been heard at a conference on sorcery killings in Papua New Guinea. A three day meeting in the Eastern Highland's capital Goroka has heard from women accused of sorcery. The conference is being held in response to a rise in the number of sorcery killings - there are about 150 a year. Radio New Zealand International reporter, Annell Husband, has been at the conference:
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A man who hid a stash of methamphetamine in the ceiling of a Customs interview room at Auckland Airport, where it stayed for four YEARS, has been sent to prison. Dinesh Manoharan, who is 36, earlier pleaded guilty. The sentencing Judge, Ian Mill said he did not believe Manoharan's claim about the drugs
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Judge Mill said while Manoharan was not the mastermind behind the smuggling he was more than a simple drug mule. Our Court reporter, Ann Marie May was at the sentencing at the Wellington district court.
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Presenter: Mary Wilson
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Cushla Norman