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 20 JUNE 2014
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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A Northland man approved by Child Youth and Family to run a home with his wife has been sent to prison today for raping and assaulting the children in his care. Taite Kupa, who's 57, was convicted of raping and sexually violating two girls aged 10 and 14 - and assaulting four other children at the home in Whangarei. In the High Court in Whangarei today he was confronted by his victims who told him to his face about the damage he'd done to them. Our Northland reporter Lois Williams was in court there for the sentencing. . .
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The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, says there's no need to ask for New Zealand's moral support for its actions in Iraq, because it knows it has its backing. The US President has announced that it is ready for targeted and precise military action against Islamists in Iraq, but stressed American forces would not be returning to combat there. The Prime Minister John Key met Mr Kerry this morning in Washington DC for discussions that were dominated by the increasing violence in Iraq. Our political reporter, Chris Bramwell, is in Washington.
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Fuel costs have jumped at petrol stations around the country, with fuel companies blaming the Iraq crisis for the rise. BP, Z [Zed] Energy, and Mobil all lifted their prices by two cents a litre overnight, after warning earlier in the week that a hike was likely. Kate Newton reports.
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Emergency services are investigating a fire at a West Auckland home, where a dead man was found. The police were called out to the property in Makora Road, Massey, about 9 this morning. Nicole Pryor has more.
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Repeated flooding in parts of Christchurch look likely to push the city's rates up significantly. The City Council's draft annual plan had proposed a six-and-a-half percent rates increase - but that's likely to be bumped up to just shy of eight percent (7. 96). Jemma Brackebush reports.
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A Taupo pilot has dropped food and water from his plane to a kayaker battling waves and running out of supplies in the Tasman Sea. John Funnell launched the mercy mission after Scott Donaldson sheared off his kayak's rudder pin and hit other delays, jeopardising his attempt to paddle from Australia to New Zealand. His wife Sarah Donaldson heard back quickly from the drop site 500 kilometres off Taranaki this afternoon. CUT Pilot John Funnell is with us now.
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS with Jenny Ruth
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Gerry Goffin, who with his then-wife, Carole King, wrote some of the greatest songs of the sixties and seventies, has died at his home in Los Angeles. He was 75. The couple had string of hits, including Natural Woman, the Locomotion" and "Take Good Care of My Baby". After they divorced, Gerry Goffin continued writing hit lyrics, including "Savin' All My Love for You" for Whitney Houston. Alastair Leithead reflects on the man and his music.
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17. 30 HEADLINES
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Northland man Taite Kupa is beginning a long jail term tonight for raping and assaulting children in his care at the CYF home in Whangarei he ran with his wife. Justice Asher ruled in the High Court at Whangarei today that Kupa must serve at least half of the 14 year and six month sentence. The 57-year-old raped and sexually violated two girls aged 10 and 14, and abused another four children between 2011 and 2013. The Child, Youth and Family Regional Director for Te Tai Tokerau, Marion Heeney, says she is devastated and her social workers are asking themselves if they could have done more. CYF was first alerted to the physical abuse by a girl's mother in February 2012 but it was not till a year later a child disclosed the more serious abuse and Kupa was removed from the home.
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The US is sending up to three-hundred military advisers to Iraq will help the Baghdad government battle Sunni militants. But President Obama is for now ruling out any air strikes on rebel strongholds. This comes as Iraqi government forces hold off ISIS militants trying to seize control of Iraq's biggest oil refinery. The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, is warning the militants are not only a threat in Iraq.
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Our correspondent in Washington is Simon Marks.
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17. 45 MANU KORIHI with Eru Rerekura
Kia ora mai, good evening,
Ngati Hine members are rallying to oust three people elected to represent them in Treaty negotiations.
The election process for the mandated authority, Tuhoronuku, allows individuals to nominate kaikorero or representatives - without hapu support.
Lawyer Willow-Jean Prime says because Ngati Hine's boycotting Tuhoronuku, three rogue reps - including an Australian - were elected unopposed.
She says the hapu needed 90 signatures to withdraw the three - and in two weeks they've collected a thousand.
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Willow-Jean Prime says if more rogue nominations go forward, Ngati Hine will simply repeat the process, to get rid of them.
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Meanwhile. .
The Ngapuhi kuia and Tuhoronuku supporter, Titewhai Harawira, says Ngati Hine has tried to bribe the Minister for Treaty Negotiations by gifting a precious taonga.
Ngati Hine representatives are said to have presented the Minister, Chris Finlayson, with a piece of rare dark Puriri, which was of great significance to the tribal group.
Mrs Harawira believes the gift was a bribe, to encourage the Minister to in turn, give Ngati Hine a separate settlement.
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Tribes from Bay of Plenty and Te Tai Rawhiti will gather tomorrow in Tauranga to mark the 150th anniversary of the battle of Te Ranga.
In 1864 British forces attacked a Maori pa in Tauranga, seeking revenge after being defeated at Gate Pa or Pukehinahina, two months earlier.
Te Ranga pa was home to Ngai Te Rangi and Ngati Ranginui people who were supported by Ngati Porou from the east coast and Ngati Pikiao and Ngati Rangiwewehi from Rotorua.
One of the co-ordinators of the commemoration, Toni Heke-Ririnui, says she wants this kind of history to be taught compulsorily in schools.
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Toni Heke-Ririnui of Tauranga says there are a range of stories within each iwi and hapu to be told.
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The Northland iwi, Ngatiwai, wants its descendants to get the best education possible, and has made a pact with two tertiary providers to make it happen.
The tribal board has recently signed two Memorandums of Understanding with NorthTec and Massey University.
The tribe's Education General manager, Phil Alexander-Crawford, says it includes working with NorthTec to create qualifications and courses together.
It will also look at including Ngatiwai values in to programmes such as business and hospitality.
He says its aspiration is for its people to take advantage of education.
Mr Alexander-Crawford says the partnerships also give it an opportunity to help providers appeal to tangata whenua.
That's Te Manu Korihi news, I'll have a final bulletin in an hour.
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The Government's been accused of spinning the figures and trying to deceive the public over the true cost of its asset sales programme. The Finance Minister, Bill English, says the partial sale of four state-owned enterprises cost Treasury 85-and-a-half million dollars and the companies themselves about 35 million. But Labour and the Greens say put the total at more than half a billion dollars. Here's our political reporter, Craig McCulloch.
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Leaders of New Zealand's Fiji community are calling on Frank Bainimarama's Government to come clean about the voting in the country's first general election since his military coup in 2006. They say the lack of transparency is fuelling fears about the security of votes cast by Fiji citizens overseas and whether the election on September the 17th will be free and fair. Our Pacific Issues correspondent, Karen Mangnall, reports.
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Hundreds of farmers on tractors, trucks and spreaders have paraded through Waipukurau's main street to back a controversial dam as it approaches d-day. The 600 million dollar Ruataniwha irrigation dam faces the twin hurdles next week of a final environmental ruling and a regional council vote on whether to put millions into it. Critics say it could ruin the Tukituki River, while its backers say Plan Change Six will safeguard it by setting minimum flows and water quality. Gavin Streeter who co owns an electrical and pumping business in Waipawa instigated today's rally, which police estimated at four to five hundred people and a hundred vehicles.
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Presenter: Liz Banas
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Michael Allan