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 website:
17:07
Killer of dairy owner given six year prison term
BODY:
The lawyer for the boy who stabbed and killed dairy owner Arun Kumar says Child, Youth and Family should have taken him away from his drug-using mother.
Topics: crime, law
Regions:
Tags: manslaughter
Duration: 3'52"
17:12
CYF knew about problems at boy's home
BODY:
Child Youth and Family was notified 20 times about the boy's family - half of those reports were about domestic violence.
Topics: crime, politics
Regions:
Tags: Child Youth and Family
Duration: 4'40"
17:17
Police-wide tasers a step towards guns - human rights lawyer
BODY:
A human rights lawyer fears the move to arm all police with tasers is the next step towards introducing guns to the front line.
Topics: law
Regions:
Tags: tasers
Duration: 3'04"
17:19
Long jail term for Chews Lane drug ringleader
BODY:
Four drug dealers who reprocessed meth in a central Wellington apartment's kitchen are tonight beginning jail terms ranging from 17 years down to 3 and a half years.
Topics: crime
Regions: Wellington Region
Tags: drug raids, Chews Lane
Duration: 2'58"
17:24
Pay rise for Auckland councillors could have been bigger
BODY:
Auckland councillors' salaries will go up next week but the increase is just a fraction of what it could have been.
Topics: politics
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags: councillors' pay rises
Duration: 3'57"
17:27
Labour 'sorry' for footnote omission
BODY:
Labour is rejecting claims of plagiarism after cutting and pasting extracts from an article in the Economist into a report without attributing the source.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: Labour Party
Duration: 1'53"
17:28
PNG announces ban on foreign advisors to government
BODY:
Papua New Guinea is banning all foreign advisors who work for the Government, accusing them of spying and saying they make local staff lazy.
Topics: Pacific
Regions:
Tags: PNG
Duration: 3'18"
17:35
Today's market update
BODY:
Business firms are feeling even more gloomy about the economy, with confidence falling to a six-year low.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'06"
17:37
Kirks investors agree to takeover by David Jones
BODY:
Kirkcaldie and Stains' fate has been sealed - the name will soon be no more.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags: Kirkcaldie and Stains
Duration: 2'55"
17:42
Final countdown at TPP trade deal talks
BODY:
The latest now on the elusive TPP, the powerhouse trade deal that so far just refuses to get signed off.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: TPP, Maui
Duration: 4'08"
17:45
Two children break out of Early Childhood Education centre
BODY:
A childcare centre is taking action after two preschoolers managed to open an emergency exit and wander off across a four lane road.
Topics: education, security
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'16"
17:47
Fatal crash area not prone to rockfalls - NZTA
BODY:
The police and coroner are investigating a fatal crash in the Waikato thought to be caused by a boulder on the road.
Topics: transport
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'29"
17:48
Te Manu Korihi for 31 July 2015
BODY:
The Green Party says the 'Tomorrow's Schools' model is weakening Te Reo because it restricts the ability to monitor and research how it is being taught; The Chief Executive of Ngai Tahu Property, Tony Sewell is to leave the company at the end of the year; The Otakou runanga on the Otago Peninsular is opposing any retrospective resource consent conditions for a rock quarry at Papanui Inlet on the peninsular; A book has been published to mark the end of an exhibition of kaakahu, cloaks and weaving from five generations of one family.
Topics: te ao Maori
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 3'35"
17:55
Surfer survives shark attack with punches and kicks
BODY:
A shark attack at Evans Head in New South Wales this morning is more evidence that shark attacks and sightings along the coast are on the increase.
Topics: environment
Regions:
Tags: shark attack, New South Wales
Duration: 3'10"
17:58
That old Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds is becoming real for holiday makers in England where Seagulls are becoming 'public enemy number one'. Jon Kay reports.