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 10 JULY 2015
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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Thousands of people are having their benefits cut off because they are not filling in the complicated paperwork required. Beneficary supporters say many are relying on handouts from friends and family to survive or ending up on the streets. But the Minister for Social Development Anne Tolley says it's up to them to ask for help if they need it. Ruth Hill reports. PKG
Hundreds of people in the Gisborne area face another cold night without power. Lines company, Eastland Network says 500 families and businesses still have no electricity, and its still struggling to reach communities cut off by road closures. State Highway Two from Opotiki to Gisborne is still closed and farmers say thick snow is still covering the ground. The road from Gisborne to Wairoa has closed for the night and won't reopen until tomorrow morning at the earliest. Kristy Shaw owns a sheep and beef station in Matawai, about an hour's drive north-west of Gisborne. She says about half a metre has fallen at her farm. CUT Liz Rua runs a deer farm with her husband Lawrence near Matawai. She was one of many who opened their homes last night. CUT Soldiers from the Waiouru Military Camp were called out last night to help the police rescue stranded motorists. About 60 people had to stay in the camp's barracks. Major Patrick Hibbs also let a stranded family stay at his house.. CUT Alec Pert managed to get home to Gisborne this afternoon before the road closed again. He had an unscheduled overnight stop in Wairoa, with the snow and ice making travel north too dangerous. i/v
About 500 customers are still without power in the Gisborne area. Brent Stewart is the General Manager of the lines company Eastland Network, which is working to restore power to those households. i/v
Sky Sport pulled the red card against Auckland's Otahuhu Rugby Club for showing Wednesday's historic All Blacks / Samoa game on the big screen in front of hundreds of people illegally. Sky says that amounts to piracy and showing the game without a proper subscription. Kim Baker Wilson reports. PKG
To Greece now where the prime minister is expected to struggle to sell a new bailout proposal to voters. The latest plan includes tax rises, privatisation, and cuts in pensions and spending. European Union leaders will decide late on Sunday whether to grant Athens another bailout. The BBC's Gavin Hewitt reports. PKG
A former All Blacks coach, a sports broadcaster, and a high-profile businessman; they all wrote to the High Court in support of a man sentenced to home detention now on fraud charges. Former wine merchant, Peter John Scutts, was sentenced to eight months home detention when he appeared at the High Court in Auckland today. The 59-year-old was found guilty of 17 fraud charges relating to taking thousands of dollars in secret kick-backs for wine deals. Reporter Edward Gay was at court . i/v
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17.30 HEADLINES
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17.35 BUSINESS
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The Foreign Minister, Murray McCully, has given the clearest hint yet that aid to Nauru could be in jeopardy over human rights abuses and a failing justice system. Mr McCully has met with the Nauru President Baron Waqa (Wanga) in Sydney and
says he's raised questions about opposition MPs being suspended from Parliament. Three MPs are fighting criminal charges for criticising the government and a fourth, Roland Kun, has had his passport siezed and cannot return home to his family in Wellington. New Zealand gives 1.2 million dollars a year to support Nauru's justice system and Mr McCully says he's instructed officials to have further discussions before the next tranche of funding is released in August. The Minister is unavailable to speak to Checkpoint. The Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has just held a news conference in Sydney. Radio Australia's Jemima Garrett was there. i/v
New Plymouth's council is axing 52 leadership jobs as part of a major restructure. The district council employs 138 people in these roles, ranging from managers to team leaders, to co-ordinators of front-line staff, but that will drop to 86. Our Taranaki reporter Robin Martin has more. PKG
The decision by a panel of independent commissioners not to seek public feedback on SkyCity's convention centre in Auckland has been slammed as a travesty and potentially unlawful. The three commissioners have decided the company's application for resource consents will proceed on a non-notified basis. Mohamed Hassan reports. PKG
After more than 50 years of flying the Confederate Flag at South Carolina's State Capitol - the contentious symbol is coming down later tonight. This in the wake of the killing of 9 African-American parishioners by a white gunman at a church in Charleston last month. But change hasn't come easily. South Carolina's House of Representatives approved the measure last night after a long and heated debate. And the future of the flag nationwide is now a hot topic in Washington, where the ABC's Nick Harmsen reports. PKG
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Maori in Northland are challenging the Regional Council's role in the mining of swamp kauri.
The council's new Maori Advisory Committee has grilled the council this week on why it allows wetlands to be dug up - and how it monitors the mining.
Lois Williams went along to the meeting ....
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30 years on Rebecca Hayter still remembers very clearly her encounter with a French terrorist. She was working for rental campervan company in Auckland and when a Swiss couple going by the name of Turenge showed up with a broken windscreen she organised a replacement. That was two days before the Rainbow Warrior bombing which killed photographer Fernando Pereira. Two days after the attack she helped police arrest the couple, who were actually the French secret service agents Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur. She told me about her first contact with Mafart. i/v
A new study claims smoking can triple the chances of developing psychosis. The research published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal says chemicals in tobacco can trigger serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia. With more on this, the ABC's Mandi Sami. PKG
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Presenter: Mary Wilson, Jim Mora
Editor: Maree Corbett
Deputy editor: Denise Garland
Producers: Mei Heron, Michael Allan, Duncan Snelling