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 WEDNESDAY 23 APRIL 2014
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The son of an infamous husband-killer has admitted hitting the former All Black, Justin Marshall, outside a Queenstown strip club, but says Marshall threw the first punch. Adam Kearns, who's 23, and Tai Neilson, who's 25, have both been charged with intent to injure Marshall. Mr Kearns is the son of Helen Milner, the woman imprisoned for murdering her husband with poison in 2009. He's now suing his mother for 60-thousand dollars after she framed him for a crime he never committed. Adam Kearns told our reporter, Steve Wilde, the confrontation happened last Thursday night.
I/V
The Corrections Department has unreservedly apologised and made a confidential payment to the children of a woman who died in a prison cell six years ago. Anna Kingi died of heart failure at Auckland Region women's prison. A highly critical coroner's report two years ago said Kingi rang her cell alarm but the guard who responded over the intercom system did nothing because the inmate didn't reply when she was asked what was wrong. The guard didn't tell anyone else about what had happened and about one and half hours later Kingi was found dead during a routine cell check. Corrections says one guard was sacked and another left before they could be disciplined. The department wouldn't talk to Checkpoint. The lawyer for Anna Kingi's family is Eric Forster.
I/V
The Prime Minister couldn't resist a dig at Labour today, over the loss of one its senior MPs to a job with the Foreign Affairs Ministry. The Labour MP Shane Jones will quit Parliament in a matter of weeks. He's been offered an ambassador type position, helping Pacific Islands make more money from their fisheries. Speaking during a regional visit in the Hawkes Bay, John Key stuck to the script in the main, talking up Mr Jones' attributes and the importance of the job. But he couldn't help adding Mr Jones is a welcome addition to the National Government. Here's our parliamentary chief reporter, Jane Patterson.
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President Obama, is aiming to revive stalled Pacific-wide trade talks when he arrives in Japan today. He'll meet Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe (shin-zo a-bei), where the two will try to break a deadlock on agriculture under the Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP. But analysts are not expecting much headway to be made. Our economics correspondent, Patrick O'Meara, reports.
pkge
Investigators failing to make headway into the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines plane are reportedly considering starting the search again from scratch. A Malaysian newspaper has quoted an unnamed official saying the flight MH370 may have landed elsewhere, as they haven't found a single piece of debris linked to the plane. An unmanned submarine sonar search will finish up this week, at which point a high level decision is expected on whether to call in more advanced submarines. We're joined from Perth now by the ABC's Peter Lloyd.
pkge
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS - Jenny Ruth
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A faster growing economy is continuing to keep New Zealanders here, as well as attracting foreigners. Official figures show a net gain of 3-thousand-8-hundred people in March - the second highest monthly level on record. The statistics also show fewer people are moving to Australia.
An economist at BNZ, Doug Steel, says it's all great news for the economy.
I/V
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17. 30 HEADLINES
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Ukraine's acting president is making accusations of brutal torture and murder after the discovery of two bodies near the city of Sloviansk. It is the site of the fiercest pro Russian uprising in the east of the country. One of the bodies was that of Vladimir Riback, a local politician from the president's own party. Daniel Sandford reports on what was already a day of high emotion.
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Its estimated last week's storm will cost one West Coast power company over half a million dollars to repair damage. Electricity has now been restored to all but a few remaining customers, but the power companies are now starting to count the cost of the damage. Our reporter Rachel Graham is in Westport looking at the damage.
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Further down the coast, Neville Rockhouse is wondering when his luck is going to change. The man who's been the voice for many of the Pike River families is now looking at massive clean up at his pub north of Greymouth, after the ferocious winds that hit on Thursday.
I/V
A senior figure in the fishing industry says a new Government position helping Pacific Island nations develop their fisheries comes 20 years too late. The Government's created the role and offered it to the Labour MP, Shane Jones, who announced his retirement from politics yesterday.
Charles Hufflett is the former president of the Pacific Islands Tuna Industry Association and owns a fishing business in Fiji which employs 400 people. He says the Pacific is a lucrative area for fishing, but also expensive and high risk.
I/V
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17. 45 MANU KORIHI - Rosemary Rangitauira.
Kia ora mai,
Descendants of a Pakeha farming family are asking the Government to review the Public Works Act.
A group of relatives has been fighting for the return of part of the Woodbourne Airbase in Blenheim, which was taken under the Act when World War Two broke out.
The land has been put into a Treaty settlement package for local iwi, in a sale and leaseback agreement with the Crown.
A family spokesperson, Tim Fairhall, says after losing a High Court case on the issue, they're now asking politicians to intervene.
TAUIHI-GOVT-TP
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Tim Fairhall.
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A professor of Maori Development warns Maori representation in parliament could suffer come the election because of the departure of senior Maori MPs such as Labour's Shane Jones.
Mr Jones joins National's Tau Henare, and the Maori Party's Pita Sharples and Tariana Turia, who've all decided not to stand in the September ballot.
Auckland Univeristy of Technology professor, Paul Moon, says the departure of senior MPs means their experience will not be handed down to new incoming Maori MPs, who're likely to occupy very junior positions.
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A Sydney-based Maori academic, Brent Reihana, says he doesn't agree with a recent survey showing fewer Maori in Australia are gaining citizenship.
Paul Hamer of Victoria University canvassed 540 New Zealand born-Maori who moved to Australia after the 2001 laws were introduced that stopped them from getting social security.
He concluded only 9 of the 51 people who applied for the status got citizenship.
But Brent Reihana says a survey like that needs to be based official data from each state and territory. [pron: tera-tree]
He says Maori are gaining citizenship and doesn't believe the recent figures come from a valid scientific source.
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The New Plymouth mayor, Andrew Judd, is lobbying the Government to implement Māori seats on the district council.
Last week seven councillors voted down a proposal to have iwi representatives appointed to standing committees with full voting rights.
Eru Rerekura reports:
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That's Te Manu Korihi news
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A Fijian man with kidney failure is being forced to leave New Zealand tomorrow. Labour's immigration spokesperson, Rajen Prasad has criticised the decision by Immigration officials not to allow Sanil Kumar to remain in New Zealand, saying the Ministry has the discretion to allow him to stay, on compassionate grounds. The associate immigration minister, Nikki Kaye, has backed that decision. Daniela Maoate-Cox reports.
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War veterans say a Labour Party plan to extend the war pension to all veterans is long overdue.
Veterans currently receive a pension only if they are considered significantly disabled. Labour is proposing an amendment to the Veterans Support Bill, currently before Parliament, that would scrap that requirement. And today, the party's leader, David Cunliffe, said that if the amendment fails, Labour will get rid of the requirement anyway if it's voted into government. Kate Newton went along to the Avondale RSA hall for the announcement.
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Researchers in the United States say the North American cougar survived the mass extinction that wiped out many of its cousins thousands of years ago - because it wasn't as fussy about what it ate. The BBC's Susana Mendonça (men-DONsa) has been finding out more.
pkge
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Presenter: Mary Wilson
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Denise Garland
Producers: Craig McCulloch, Michael Allan