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 MONDAY 31 MARCH 2014
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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A man is in custody after an attack on two tourists on the West Coast and the discovery of a third woman's body in the boot of car at a Christchurch supermarket. Homicide detectives headed from Christchurch to the West Coast today to interview the 38 year old. He was arrested early today following a five hour stand-off near Fox Glacier where police had molotov cocktails thrown at them. The tourists are still in Grey Base Hospital - one was stabbed and the other suffered injuries to her pelvis while hitch-hiking yesterday afternoon. 24 hours earlier Amy Farrall was reported missing, and her body was found at a Woolston supermarket yesterday. The 24 year old worked as a caregiver for Richmond Services and her family says in a statement they are devastated that her caring nature appears to have been tragically taken advantage of. Detective Senior Sergeant Darryl Sweeney is with us now.
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For the latest here's GNS Seismologist Lara Bland:
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New Zealand has lifted all the travel bans imposed on Fiji after the December 2006 military coup led by Frank Bainimarama. Australia has done the same. They both say they want to recognise Fiji's progress towards free and fair elections scheduled for September. Four parties have registered for the promised polls, with the regime leader, Rear Admiral Frank Bainimarama, expected to launch a fifth party next month. His government has appointed a new Supervisor of Elections and brought in an Electoral Decree, which has a clause outlawing any use of state authority to intimidate the opposition. The Foreign Minister is Murray McCully.
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Jim Burdett says the Parole Board has made the right decision to release the man locked up for the rape and murder of his sister. Mr Burdett says Teina Pora is innocent and and he wrote to the Parole Board saying all the evidence points to there being a miscarriage of justice. Edward Gay reports.
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New Zealand is poorly prepared for climate change and the country can expect more often and more severe flooding and widespread damage to coastal and low-lying areas as seas continue to rise. In it's latest report out today, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change identifies eight key risks for New Zealand and Australia as temperatures continue to rise in step with increased greenhouse gas emissions. Over 700 scientists from 70 countries have contributed to the report. The coordinating lead author on the Australasia chapter is Andy Reisinger.
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS with Jenny Ruth
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17. 30 HEADLINES
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In Australia, the Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he is refusing to put a time limit on how long the search will continue for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Mr Abbott's made the comments earlier today after an Australian Orion aircraft identified several orange objects in the southern Indian Ocean - in what is being described as "the most promising leads" in the search so far. The objects, each greater than two metres in size, will now be assessed to confirm whether they are related to the missing airliner. They were spotted in a five-nautical-mile area within the search zone. 11 ships and 1,000 crew members are now scouring the ocean for debris: ABC correspondent Sue Lannin is at the RAAF Pearce base in Perth:
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A Rotorua hospital doctor who failed to realise a patient had fractured ribs and fluid on their lungs had already had a series of complaints from other patients about her mistakes. Staff had also complained about her being rude and unapproachable. The Health and Disability Commissioner Anthony Hill says the Lakes District Health Board had told the doctor she would be monitored but that didn't happen and he's told the DHB to apologise for not making sure she was competent. The Lakes District Health Board chief executive Ron Dunham says this went on at a small hospital that had inadequate supervision of less experienced staff, and he's promising changes.
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In the latest case in 2011 a man was admitted to the emergency department with chest and shoulder injuries after falling two metres onto concrete. The commissioner Anthony Hill says the doctor discharged him despite knowing his chest x-ray was not done properly because he was in too much pain.
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17. 45 MANU KORIHI with Eru Rerekura
Kia ora, good evening,
The novelist Patricia Grace is continuing her fight against the seizure of her ancestral land for a major expressway in the Kapiti Coast - this time in the Environment Court.
She was at the hearing in Wellington today objecting to the Transport Agency taking part of her Waikanae land under the Public Works Act for the Kapiti Expressway.
Just days ago, the Maori Land Court recommended Ms Grace's land be given special Maori Reservation status, which, if classified by a government department, can't be transferred to the Crown.
Her lawyer, Leo Watson, says that special status isn't binding on the Environment Court, but he's arguing that the court consider it anyway.
Patricia Grace is crossing her fingers.
GRACE-ENVIRO-TP
IN: LAND HAS BEEN. . .
OUT: . . . WILL BE SUCCESSFUL.
DUR: 09"
Patricia Grace. The hearing will continue tomorrow.
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Hapu are being given more time to nominate representatives to take a seat on the board that will negotiate a treaty settlement for the country's biggest iwi.
There are fifteen positions for sub-tribes on Tuhoronuku.
Nominations have re-opened, after officially closing more than a week ago.
The interim chair of Tuhoronuku, Sonny Tau, says some hapu have been waiting for the Crown to respond to requests to see the submissions on the mandate, before deciding if they'll take part in the elections.
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IN: RATHER THAN GETTING. . .
OUT: . . . APRIL THE 17TH.
DUR: 19"
Sonny Tau, the interim chair of Tuhoronuku.
A Ngati Hine lawyer, Willow-Jean Prime says re-opening nominations for hapu reps to settle Ngapuhi's treaty claims, won't solve core problems with the mandate.
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The Maori Party says it hopes there are systems in place to support the convicted murderer Teina Pora when he's released from prison after 21 years.
The Parole Board has granted Pora parole, saying he no longer poses a threat to the community.
The 38 year-old is serving a life sentence for the 1992 murder of Susan Burdett.
The Burdett family and Pora maintain his innocence, and the Maori Party has linked his prolonged imprisonment to institutional racism in the justice sector.
The Maori party co-leader, Te Ururoa Flavell, says he is pleased with the parole board's decision, and wishes Teina and his whanau well.
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A scientist says titi are completely safe to eat - even though he wants to examine feathers for radiation.
A senior physics lecturer at Auckland University, David Kroftcheck, says sooty shearwater birds that spend their winter off the coast of Japan could've picked up traces of caesium 134 fallout from the Fukushima Nuclear Plant in Japan that was damaged by a deadly tsunami in 2011.
He says he's been trying to contact Ngai Tahu Rakiura muttonbirders to arrange a visit to Stewart Island to test feathers for contamination, and see if radiation has entered the foodchain.
Dr Kroftcheck says even if titi have been exposed to radiation, the levels would be very, very minute.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a further bulletin in an hour.
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The head of Civil Defence says a key recommendation from the Coroner's inquiry into deaths at the CTV building already exists and he can't explain why it failed to work when disaster hit. The Coronor Gordon Matanga has criticised the fire service for not ensuring there was one person in overall control of search and rescue at the site who could have made sure teams on both the west and east side of the building had what they needed. This meant rescuers trying to find survivors didn't realise crucial equipment such as concrete cutters was available and close at hand. The Coroner wants the Civil Defence Ministry to make sure the Co-ordinated Incident Management System or Cims is changed to ensure this doesn't happen again. The Ministry's director is John Hamilton.
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The human bones found in a park in Auckland recently have been confirmed as the remains of missing Chinese woman, Cissy (see-see) Chen. Detective Inspector Bruce Scott is with us now.
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Top diplomats from the United States and Russia have met for four hours in Paris overnight to discuss the situation in Ukraine. While there was no sign of an imminent solution to the crisis they revealed both agreed to involve Ukraine's interim government in any further discussions about the country's future. The ABC's Michael Vincent reports :
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Presenter: Mary Wilson
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Meg Fowler, Mei Yeoh