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 7 JULY 2015
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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The Government is moving to toughen the emissions trading scheme as it seeks to cut carbon emissions 30 percent by 2030. That's based on levels from ten years ago. But both the Green and Labour Parties say the Government's target is too weak. New Zealand will submit the target to the United Nations summit on climate change in Paris in December. The Climate Change Issues Minister, Tim Groser, says the target is the equivalent of cutting emissions 11 percent below 1990 levels. Mr Groser says getting there will depend on technology advances to help cut emissions from vehicles and the country's livestock. He spoke to our political editor Brent Edwards. CUT
The Government says it's not time to hit the panic button with business confidence falling to its lowest level in about three years. The Institute of Economic Research has released its survey of business opinion for the June quarter. It says the economy is losing momentum with growth below 3 percent in the year ahead and business confidence at its lowest since September 2012. Here's our political reporter, Demelza Leslie. PKG
The Greek government has acknowledged that it now has less than 48 hours to agree to a bail out with its international creditors or see its banks run out of cash. Since the country voted in the weekend to reject what was already on the table, the European Central Bank has decided to keep a tight grip on funding to Greek banks. And it's put them under more pressure by insisting they provide more collateral.
Eurozone leaders are expecting new proposals from Greece tomorrow. The BBC's Robert Peston reporting from Athens PKG
The Auckland Council has this afternoon given the green light for what could become the country's biggest film studios. It's backed setting aside half of 20 hectares of land at Hobsonville Point for movie making, cutting down on the number of new homes that will go up. Our reporter Mohamed Hassan was at the council meeting today. PKG
A workers' union isn't ruling out taking further action if Auckland's biggest bus operator does not budge on new rosters it deems unsafe and unfair. First Union today filed an urgent claim with the Employment Relations Authority, accusing NZ Bus of refusing to meaningfully consult with drivers on roster changes that it says could put lives at risk. NZ Bus however strongly denies the new rosters threaten health and safety. Carla Penman reports. PKG
A huge crowd lined the streets of central Apia today to honour the Manu Samoa and All Blacks rugby teams. The two nations will clash for the first time on Samoan turf tomorrow in a Test which has been long-awaited by Samoans. Sharon Lundy was among the crowd. PKG
Frank Bunce, the renowned All Black centre, also played four tests for Samoa and is in Apia for the match. He is with us now. i/v
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17.30 HEADLINES
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17.35 BUSINESS
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The truck driver sprayed with shrapnel from a police bullet in an Auckland motorway shootout in 2009 is to finally get his day in court. But even now, when Richard Neville's attempt to sue the police gets to the High Court in Auckland next Wednesday, the Crown will be seeking to have it struck out. The same shootout claimed the life of courier driver Halatau Naitoko, accidentally shot by the armed offenders squad as they chased down meth user Stephen McDonald. Richard Neville's injuries left him unable to do more than a few hours work a week as a blacksmith at Motat, so money's a problem - but it is not, he says, the number one thing driving him. i/v
A girl says she spoke out about her teacher touching her because she didn't want it to happen to anyone else. The girl - now a teenager - told the Auckland District Court today her teacher repeatedly touched her chest and would pull her on to his lap. She said he also put his hands down her pants. The teacher, aged in his 50s, has name suppression and has denied 16 charges of doing indecent acts on girls in his class. Our court reporter Edward Gay has been following the case. i/v
Opposition parties say the Government is deliberately blocking the release of documents that will reveal its dealings with a Saudi businessman. The Government has given the businessman, more than eleven million dollars in cash, livestock and agricultural equipment for a controversial demonstration farm in the Saudi Arabian desert. Our political Benedict Collins has more. PKG
Raging fires have forced 13-thousand people out of their homes in Canada as authorities figure out how to deal with such an unprecidented evacuation. The province of Saskatchewan [Sus-Skatch-uwan] is the worse hit with over a hundred fires are burning in with half of the fires larget than 100-hectares. The total area burned is over 400-thousand hectares. More than 600 firefighters are on the front line and one-thousand military personel have also been called in. Nearby to the west, fires are also burning in British Columbia where the CBC's Bob Keating has been covering the story. i/v
Three weeks ago removing the confederate flag from its spot near the South Carolina State House appeared politically impossible. But today with the desk of a slain member draped in black, the state's Senate voted overwhelmingly to remove the civil war symbol. It comes just weeks after the massacre of nine people at a historic and predominantly black church in Charleston. From the United States, the ABC's Nick Harmsen reports. PKG
Old court documents have revealed Bill Cosby once admitted giving powerful sedatives to young women he wanted to have sex with. In the last 18 months, more than a dozen other women have accused Cosby of abusing them. Eriq Gardner from the Hollywood Reporter with the latest on this ongoing scandal. i/v
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Presenter: Gareth Thomas, Jim Mora
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Phil Pennington
Producers: Mei Heron, Michael Allan, Denise Garland, Duncan Snelling