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 22 APRIL 2014
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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One in five homes have been damaged and 82 are still without power in the Buller District after severe winds swept through the region during the long weekend. The winds ripped off roofs, felled trees and cut power to many of the 10-thousand residents on the south island's West Coast. 500 homes in Karamea are being powered by a diesel generator, while repairs are made to the electricity lines. That's severely hit the region's dairy farmers, who have had to milk their cows with a limited power supply. A boil-water notice is also in place for the whole Buller District, except Refton, because of problems with the water treatment system. The Buller District mayor, Garry Howard, joins us now.
LIVE
The Prime Minister says he's personally in favour of changing the law to allow businesses to open if they want to, on days that are currently restricted, like those during the Easter weekend. It's been revealed only two businesses were fined last year for breaching the restricted trading rules. Unless they're in specially exempt areas, like Queenstown, shops aren't allowed to open on Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Christmas Day, and the morning of ANZAC day. But, knowing the inspectors weren't going to be around at the weekend, the majority of Wanaka's shops defied the law, opening to cater for the hundred-thousand people in town. The Prime Minister, John Key says it would be a challenge to get a big enough parliamentary majority to change the current law.
CUT
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment says it'll only pursue the shops that opened, if complaints are made. Our reporter, Lauren Baker, has been investigating .
Q&A
Whangarei Maori seeking the return of crown land at Marsden Point are devastated it's been put on the market. More than a hundred and sixty hectares of coastal land, including the former Marsden Power station sites, has been advertised for sale by Mighty River power. Lois Williams reports:
PKG
The bodies of six sherpas in Nepal have so far been cremated in public ceremonies in Kathmandu in the wake of the worst disaster on Mount Everest since it was first climbed sixty-one years ago. Thirteen sherpas or local mountain guides died and three are still missing. Now relatives of the dead have dismissed an offer of four hundred dollars' compensation for each sherpa and are demanding much more. As the BBC's South Asia correspondent, Andrew North, reports, they're also threatening a boycott:
PKG
The Warriors rugby league club has added its name to the list of NRL teams that won't be making a move to sign the playmaker, Benji Marshall. Marshall's career is at a crossroads after he requested a release from the Blues Super Rugby team following an unsuccessful code switch this year. Here's our sport reporter Alex Coogan-Reeves.
PKG
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS with Anusha Bradley
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A California teenager has survived a five-and-a-half hour flight from San Jose to Hawaii, stowed away in a plane's wheel well, The 15-year-old ran away from his Santa Clara home after a fight with his parents and made his way to the San Jose airport, where he climbed into the gap above the jet's wheel during the night. A reporter for the San Jose Mercury newspaper, Robert Salonga, says the teen had to climb a six-foot high fence that had barbed wire in most parts, to get to the plane.
PREREC
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17. 30 HEADLINES
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The Council of Trade Unions is taking legal action against two forestry companies over the deaths of workers. Nineteen-year-old Eramiha Pairama was killed in January 2013 while working for Puketi Logging Ltd, in Whakatane, while 45-year-old Charles Finlay was working for Tokoroa firm Cross logging when he was killed in July of that year. The government agency WorkSafe investigated both cases but never laid charges, and the CTU says it should have. Nigel Hampton, QC, is the Council of Trade Union's lawyer.
LIVE
The United States is condemning Syria's plans to hold presidential elections in June, calling it a parody of democracy. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki Moon also fears the elections will hinder efforts to reach a political solution that could end the conflict. President Bashar Al Asad is widely expected to win another seven year term if polling takes place admist the violence. The BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet reports from Damascus.
PKG
The Labour MP, Shane Jones, has revealed a prominent National Party supporter helped fund his bid for the Labour leadership last year. Sir Wira Gardiner, who's married to the National minister, Hekia Parata, donated one thousand dollars towards Mr Jones' campaign. But he didn't tell his wife about the donantion . Here's our political reporter, Craig McCulloch.
PKG
The Boston Marathon has been run safely - a year after a bombing at the finishing line in last year's race left three people dead and hundreds more injured. There was high emotion and the tightest security the route has ever seen when the runners set off. Thirty six thousand took part--- twenty-five per cent more than last year. The BBC's Nick Bryant watched the race get underway:
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17. 45 MANU KORIHI
Kia ora mai, good evening,
A Bay of Plenty tribe has lost another round in its fight against the Tūhoe Treaty settlement.
Te Ūpokorehe says its territory's been wrongly included in the Crown's agreement with the larger iwi - and objects to being identified as a beneficiary of the Tūhoe settlement.
But the Māori Affairs Select Committee has rejected a plea to step in and stop the Tūhoe legislation.
It says members of Te Ūpokorehe who are affiliated to Tūhoe will benefit from the settlement.
MPs on the committee say they're satisfied the agreement won't prevent Te Ūpokorehe from developing its own negotiations with the Crown.
Te Ūpokorehe - which is made up of five sub-tribes - has already failed to secure an urgent hearing at the Waitangi Tribunal, which found the claimant had failed to demonstrate significant and irreversible prejudice.
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The battle for iwi representation on the New Plymouth District Council has now been taken to the Crown.
Last week the council chose not to accept iwi representation through six tribal seats on standing committees - with full voting rights.
The Treaty claims negotiator for Te Ātiawa, Peter Moeahu, has just arrived in Wellington and is calling on the Government to intervene.
He says although the New Plymouth mayor, Andrew Judd, voted yes to iwi appointments, seven councillors didn't see it that way.
NPDC-MOEAHU-TP
IN: WELL FIRSTLY I...
OUT: ...THIS ISSUE AS WELL.
DUR: 22"
Peter Moeahu says Rick Barker's been working with the council on Te Ātiawa's Treaty Settlement, and is hoping he can use his influence to persuade the council.
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The Green Party is planning to add the Public Works Act to its Treaty of Waitangi policy for this year's general election.
It calls the legislation an instrument of destruction.
The spokesperson on Te Tiriti, Catherine Delahunty, says the Act is used consistently against Māori.
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IN: BOTH MAORI LAND...
OUT: ...AT THE MOMENT.
DUR: 14"
Catherine Delahunty of the Green Party.
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The organiser of a half marathon to raise money for a marae in Whanganui says it's about improving health amongst whānau and giving back to the marae.
Five people who recently took part in a 21 kilometre stretch from Pūtiki marae in town, to Kaiwhaiki marae further up the river - have raised at least 600 dollars so far.
The organiser, Anton Blank, of Ngā Paerangi, says the event will be bigger next year.
Instead of relying on grants, Mr Blank says it's important that whanau are doing something to contribute to the marae and keep healthy.
He says the main purpose is getting his people to set bigger goals and challenges and give back to the marae.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a further bulletin after 6:45.
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A top New Zealand scientist is to be a star prosecution witness in a major terrorism trial underway in New York Abu Hamza, a 56 year old radical preacher, who used to wear a hook where his hand was blown off, is charged with setting up a jihad training camp in the US and helping hostage takers in an attack on tourists in West Yemen. That attack happened in 1998, and Mary Quin, now the chief executive of Callagahn Innovation, was one of the captured tourists. She escaped, grabbing one of the attacker's guns when he was injured, but four hostages were killed in the battle between the terrorists and Yemeni government troops. Dr Quin later tracked down Abu Hamza at London mosque and her taped conversation with him about his role in the kidnapping will be played to the jury. Christopher Buckton from the Mirror is covering the trial and Dr Quin's story.
PREREC
The death toll in the South Korean ferry disaster has risen to 104, as it's revealed a child on board the vessel raised the first alarm. Only 174 of the 476 passengers and crew have been rescued and the remainder are all presumed to have drowned. Of those on board, 339 were children and teachers on a high school outing, and it was one of those students who called a fire station to alert them the ferry was in danger, three minutes before the ferry sent out a distress call. Our correspondent in Seoul, Jason Strother, says a transcript of the captain's distress call has been released and it shows the confused state everyone was in.
PREREC
President Obama is set to begin a weeklong trip to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines today. His administration may want to be talking about trade and deeper economic ties but issues like security and territorial integrity are expected to be higher on the agenda. The US says Asian countries have been very supportive of the actions taken against Russia, because of the precedent that was set by the annexation of Crimea. The ABC's North America correspondent Michael Vincent reports.
PKG
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Presenter: Mary Wilson
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Denise Garland
Producers: Michael Allan, Sharon Lundy