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 FRIDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2014
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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Australia's made a concession and will partially remove the barrier to student loans for New Zealanders living there, but it is not freeing up any other benefits. A young expatriate will have to have lived there for at least 10 years to be eligible. Fresh from his annual talks with counterpart John Key today, Tony Abbott said he will let stand the relaxation on student loans from next year as agreed to by the previous Gillard Government.
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But the Australian Prime Minister's given no indication of relaxing access to the other benefits, such as the dole and housing help, barred to New Zealanders since 2001. He made the point that unlike any other nationalities, New Zealanders have the automatic right of living and working across the Tasman.
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John Key says the move is in the best interests of both countries.
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The benefit-blocking deal agreed to by Helen Clark in 2001 has forced some New Zealanders to send their children to university here where they can get loans. Among them is Queensland expatriate Filipa Payne, who is campaigning for the same rights that Australians enjoy here. She has three children now eligible to get student loans but she's still angry.
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Our political editor Brent Edwards is in Sydney.
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The mayor of Auckland Len Brown is to chip in forty thousand dollars of his own money, towards an audit which has cost a quarter of a million dollars in the wake of his extra-martial affair. The mayor will also pay his own legal costs of twenty thousand dollars . Auckland Council's chief executive decided to bring in outside auditors, to ensure no council money was used by the mayor when conducting the two-year affair. The final cost and the mayor's contribution were made public late this afternoon, after weeks of negotiation. The mayor is declining all interviews . Our Auckland Correspondent Todd Niall is with us now .
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City councillor Dick Quax was one of a group of councillors who made a proposal to Len Brown that he cough up some money towards the inquiry costs. Mr Quax is with us now.
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A fire has razed one home and damaged another in south Auckland, burning down a large wedding marquee in the process. Firefighters are still out at the homes in Mangere, where all the householders are accounted for. Assistant Area Commander Geoff Purcell.
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS with Jenny Ruth
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Fiji has taken the shine of New Zealand's campaign to win the Wellington Sevens crown. We'll cross to the stadium in a moment. The two-day event attracts tens of thousands of people - and many of them started the party early in the city's bars. Alex Ashton has been with the revellers.
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Back to the rugby - where New Zealand has lost its first Sevens game after being stunned by Fiji. Our sports reporter Joe Porter is at the stadium.
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The costliest Winter Olympics in history officially opens in Russia overnight (0500 NZT) with a lavish ceremony in Sochi. Security in the town and the surrounding Caucasus mountains is tight, after repeated terrorism threats over the past few weeks. Some events have already begun, as the BBC's Alex Capstick reports.
PKG
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17. 30 HEADLINES
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A senior US diplomat has been caught on tape insulting the European Union and talking in very blunt terms about a plan to end the crisis in the Ukraine. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, Victoria Nuland (new-land) was speaking on the phone with US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyat. US officials are now implying that the Russian government bugged the call and then leaked it, something they describe as a "new low for Russia". Our correspondent in Washington, Daniel Ryntjes (ren-chez), reports.
PKG
An Auckland bar manager, who worked to resuscitate a badly beaten man this morning, says violence and fights at night are down to gangs and drug dealers, not the pubs or closing hours. The serious assault was one of two last night; another man was left with major head injuries after a fight in the city centre. Lauren Baker reports.
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A Nelson nurse is amazed she got away with nothing worse than six stitches in her knee after falling ten metres down a sink-hole or tomo on Takaka Hill yesterday. Jill Clendon was with a friend checking an orienteering course.
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A drilling ship that failed to find oil or gas in deep water off Taranaki is now heading to its next exploration spot and another round of action by protest boats. Anadarko's drilling ship Noble Bob Douglas has been capping its four kilometre deep test well in the Taranaki basin, and next up is an 11 hundred metre deep well off Dunedin. Our Otago reporter, Ian Telfer, has the story.
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A music teacher has come forward to reveal he's the ghost writer for a famous deaf Japanese composer who's been compared to Beethoven. Mamoru Samuragochi (mum-OR-roo sam-oo-ruh-GOTCH-ee) admitted yesterday that he had not written his own music since he began to lose his hearing. At a news conference today in Tokyo, Takashi Niigaki (as written, short "a's") spoke about his part in the deception. And he went further - saying he doesn't believe the composer is actually deaf. The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes report starts with some of the composer's music.
PKG
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17. 45 MANU KORIHI with Eru Rerekura
Kia ora mai, good evening,
Waitangi Day might be over in Aotearoa.....
......but for New Zealanders living on Australia's Gold Coast, they're gearing up to mark the event this weekend. [Sat 08 Feb].
The Pacific Arts and Culture Heritage Incorporation is hosting Waitangi Day Upper "Kumara" 2014, which includes Maori and Polynesian cultural performances, live band entertainment, dance competitions, and ethnic food stalls.
One of the organisers, Sarah Ingram-Kavana says one of the main reasons for holding the event is to help Australian-born New Zealanders understand the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi.
COOMERA-WAITANGI-TP
IN: OUR CHILDREN DON'T...
OUT: ...IS REALLY ALL ABOUT.
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Sarah Ingram-Kavana says the Upper Kumara Waitangi celebration is one of the only free events in Queensland.
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Whanau out of touch with cultural customs are to benefit from a Maori project looking into traditional child-rearing.
Ministry of Social Development data from 2012 [2011/2012] shows abuse among Maori new-borns to four years old was higher than other nationalities.
While for the same period, the rate of Maori who went to hospital for intentional injuries was four times higher than for other tamariki - not including Pasifika children.
Leonie Pihama, who leads the research programme, Tiakina Te Pa Harakeke, says some traditions include parents and grandparents working together to raise a child.
The Waikato University associate professor says another custom is to avoid smacking a child because it's seen as physically punishing a child and its ancestors.
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A kaiako from Kawerau says teachers are too stressed to observe pupils' demeanour.
O'Sonia Hotereni takes classes at Te Whata Tau O Putauaki, a Maori medium school, and recently [23//1] gave a speech on Maori primary education in Wellington.
She says teachers are tied up compiling reports and ensure students meet reading and writing standards.
But she wants teachers to listen to a child's tone of voice and examine students' body language.
O'Sonia Hotereni suggests kaiako will have to find more time for their tamariki.
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IN TEACHERS ARE BUSY...
OUT...BEST FOR THEM
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O'Sonia Hotereni, who teachers in Kawerau.
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The Mana Party leader, Hone Harawira, claims there are signs more and more voters are drifting away from the Maori Party, which he says which is evident in its failed attempt to attract new candidates.
Last year, the Maori Party held informal talks with retired heavyweight boxer, David Tua, to help bridge the gap between Maori and Pacific voters.
Mr Harawira says even at this year's Waitangi Day celebrations there were hardly any Northland supporters of the Maori Party, just those from outside of the electorate.
He says the Maori Party's close relationship with National is turning a lot of voters off.
He says the Maori Party is chasing so many candidates - and being rejected - which suggests support for the party is waning.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a further bulletin in an hour.
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As many as 40 percent of pregnant women who end up in intensive care because of blood loss or blood poisoning are there because doctors and midwives failed to pick up signs of trouble early enough. A study done by the Women's Health Research Centre at Otago University in Wellington, looked at 98 cases of acute maternal illness at four District Health Boards over 17 months. The lead researcher Dr Bev Lawton says almost 40 percent (38. 8) were preventable.
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The convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby is expected to find out shortly if she'll be released after almost a decade in an Indonesian jail. The Australian has been serving time in Bali for a drug crime she continues to swear she did not commit. CNN's Fionnuala (fin-ula) Sweeney reports.
PKG
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Presenter: Mary Wilson
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Mei Yeoh