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 2 MAY 2014
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The disgraced National MP Maurice Williamson, who resigned as Minister after he interfered in a police investigation, was not asked by the wealthy businessman or his interpreter for help in the case. Mr Williamson rang top South Auckland officer John Tims. The now former Minister has said he would help anyone who came to his electorate office and in this case there was confusion over whether Donghua Liu was going to be charged for assaulting his partner and her mother-in-law last December. But the MP has now made it clear neither Liu nor his interpreter approached him, it was Mr Williamson who made the approach. He says he didn't find out about the arrest until well into January.
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Maurice Williamson. He's not returned our calls to answer further questions on this. The police have released information showing Mr Williamson made not one but two approaches to Superintendent John Tims. Once on the 19th of January and again on the 27th. The former Minister says he wanted to make sure Liu had good legal counsel but the businessesman already had a lawyer. Our Political Editor Brent Edwards is with us now.
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A senior police detective cleared of a sex complaint has resigned and will no longer face an employment investigation. Detective Inspector Mark Gutry had been stood down from duties after a woman approached police in December 2013 and made a complaint of a sexual nature. Edward Gay has been covering the story.
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After intense public pressure, the Malaysian government has released a preliminary report, into the disappearance flight M-H-3-7-zero, showing that it took 4 hours after last contact was made for search and rescue operations to begin. CNN's Renee Marsh has read the report:
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS - Jenny Ruth
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A large bronze Paul Dibble sculpture worth 65 thousand dollars has been stolen from a central city walkway in Wellington, and for weeks no-one noticed it had gone. Police are now appealing for sightings of the art work called Soft Geometric Pacific Comb - it's an abstract of a dancer and shell comb. They think it disappeared sometime between the end of February and the 18th of March when a member of the public reported it missing. Adding to the mystery, Detective Constable Bryan Miller says the sculpture was protected by two security grills that were rolled down either side of it at night.
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The Government and the Christchurch City Council are again at loggerheads over the rebuild of the city - this time over the final costs. The council has estimated the work to cost three-point-four billion dollars but the Government's estimate is four hundred million dollars less. Jemma Brackebush reports
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17. 30 HEADLINES
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More now on the preliminary report out into the disappearance of flight M-H-3-7-zero. It shows that it took 4 hours after last contact was made for search and rescue operations to begin. A news conference has just been held in Kuala Lumpur. The BBC's Correspondent in Kuala Lumpur, Jennifer Pak, is with us now.
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A former Police Minister, Judith Collins, says all MPs, not just ministers, have to be extremely careful when dealing with the police, as they're in a totally different category to other government agencies. Here's our parliamentary chief reporter, Jane Patterson.
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Australia is raising the pension age to 70 almost 20 years earlier than officials had recommended. The Treasurer Joe Hockey today confirmed the entitlement age will rise from 2035. The qualifying age is currently 65 and will rise to 67 by 2023. The ABC political correspondent Louise Yaxley is with us now.
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17. 45 MANU KORIHI - Eru Rerekura
Kia ora mai, good evening,
An Auckland hapu has struck a deal with a retirement village operator to use a portion of tribal coastal whenua.
Ngati Whatua o Orakei is leasing land to Ryman Healthcare for 150 years.
Retirement properties will be built on just over 4 hectares at Wakakura, near Devonport.
The deputy chair of Ngati Whatua Orakei Trust, Ngarimu Blair, says the money earned from the lease will go into its education, housing, and cultural revitalisation projects.
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Ngarimu Blair.
The land being leased is part of a larger block returned to Ngati Whatua o Orakei under its Treaty of Waitangi settlement with the Crown.
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In a pre-budget announcement, the Government says 16 million dollars will go towards the repair and rebuild of rural housing, and the development of Maori social housing providers.
Some of that money will also be spent on trying to improve housing on the Chatham Islands.
The Government says compared to the rest of the population, significantly more Maori are experiencing housing deprivation and are more likely to be state tenants or renters than home owners.
It says iwi are putting housing into their long-term planning.
The Crown says tribes and other collectives will be able to hold a fund for small loans or grants to home owners for repairs to substandard houses in rural areas.
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Meanwhile, the third National Māori Housing conference is underway.
The hui, hosted by Te Matapihi - the Māori advocacy body for housing - is taking place in Whanganui and is in its second day.
Te Matapihi chair, Rau Hoskins, says there is a lot more work to be done within Maori housing, but the hui is proving the roopu is getting on with the mahi.
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Rau Hoskins.
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The Northern District Cricket Association has formed the country's first Maori women's Twenty 20 team.
It's a fast paced cricket game, with each side playing 20 overs.
The district's Maori co-ordinator, Graeme Stewart, says the team was set up a couple of month's ago partly because it was about time, and because the men's side has been doing well.
He says although the team hasn't trained together, most of them are experienced players.
Stewart says their debut against a touring Pacific team will be exposure for them:
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Graeme Stewart says the team is captained by Sam Curtis, who was part of last year's White Ferns, which had both home and away services including the ICC World Twenty20.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a final bulletin in an hour.
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New documents show the Justice Minister's office asked for an official briefing before a controversial dinner with Oravida executives in China. The Justice Minister has been defending allegations of a conflict of interest since early March this year. Her husband is a director of the milk exporting company, and close friends of hers are senior executives. Now it's also been revealed that Oravida donated 30-thousand-dollars to the National Party, two months she visited their offices in China last year. We'll talk to Ms Collins shortly. Labour's Grant Robertson is with us now.
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The Justice Minister, Judith Collins, is with us now .
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The secondary teachers' union says a private company should not be helping with the first trial of online NCEA exams. The Qualifications Authority says it will trial a level one maths test at 20 schools in September. The PPTA says school exams are too important to be contracted out. And it says the computer company running the online trial has already blundered by announcing the trial before the Qualifications Authority has told teachers. Our education correspondent, John Gerritsen, reports.
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Presenter: Mary Wilson
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Michael Allan