RNZ: The Week In Review

A review of the week's news including... Nurses call off a 24-hour strike, South Taranaki locals at a loss as to what caused two cars to collide head-on killing seven people, hidden camera footage from Farmwatch reveals a Northland sharemilker hitting cows with a steel pipe, a New Zealand man who was shot in the US trying to enter the house of a teenage girl he'd met online held in a secure ward at a local hospital and facing serious charges, the acting Prime Minister on looming industrial action in the public sector, the Government unveils proposals to cap interest and fees on loans, Auckland businesses say its not fair they're having to cough up for fuel taxes while waiting years for the benefits, Winston Peters wants young families to be able to buy a home worth five times their annual income, af ormer Minister of Maori Affairs is remembered this week as man who put being Maori before politics, the number of people with suspended or cancelled benefits has dropped by about a fifth in a matter of weeks, calls for State Highway Two through the Waioeka Gorge to be made more secure, the PM Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford emerge from an Auckland Hospital with their new baby and warnings a very large earthquake in the central North Island could trigger a big lahar on Mt Ruapehu.

A review of the week's news including... The Prime Minister's baby arrives, the Nurses Unions says the only thing that will stop a strike is more money, the saga of a State Intelligence Services staff member who appears to have helped a private security firm secure government contracts, frustrated Tolaga Bay locals hit with massive storm damage demands the Government steps in to help, a crack down on farmers who continue to break the rules around animal identification and tracking, a census of Auckland's rough sleepers the start of addressing the city's shameful levels of homelessness, why your house insurance could cost way more than the neighbours, a lucky escape for a Waikato school boy swept into the air by a tornado, a terminally ill woman calls for greater access to Maori healing methods and a toxic bug may be to blame for bowel cancer.

A review of the week's news including... Dairy farmers want Shane Jones to butt out of their business, the Land Information Minister who is a Green MP has been labelled a sell out over a Government decision to allow a water bottling giant to expand, the Government confirms meth users won't be kicked out of state houses, Police have apologised and will pay damages to investigative journalist Nicky Hager for breaching his rights during its 2014 investigation into his book 'Dirty Politics', a gang expert says for the first time since gangs emerged in this country some change, a mental health unit at a planned new prison is not ideal according to a psychiatrist, New Zealand First puts the brakes on Labour's plan to repeal the three strikes law, conflict at Auckland Council potentially threatens it's operation according to Massey University's public management group, Auckland University urges staff and students to put some plastics straight into rubbish bins as it is no longer able to find anywhere to recycle them, a Hamilton dentist launches a petition calling for Government to subsidise dental visits and it's the one place vegan steaks are unlikely to be much in evidence - Fieldays 2018.

A review of the week's news including... a new new super ministry to deal with the housing crisis, a leading environmentalist calls for tougher rules to stop logging operations from causing devastation seen at the weekend, the Housing New Zealand chief executive says its black list of tenants banned from state housing based on a dodgy meth testing regime has been wiped, the Government choses a former National Party prime minister to lead a group studying ways to achieve a fairer deal on pay and conditions, a patient at Tauranga Hospital says she could hear nurses arguing and swearing while she lay bleeding in a bed, residents of a botched housing development compare losing their homes to a loved one's funeral, the Taranaki rugby team will be without a home ground this season, some tourism operators in the Abel Tasman National Park say a hike in fees for huts and campsites will put some overseas visitors off, the rail tracks between Napier and Wairoa are humming again, Northcote voters go to the polls this weekend - we hear from the National and Labour candidates, brave, courageous and exceptional - just a few of the words used to describe bravery medal recipients and a cat makes a miraculous recovery after it survived a four and a half hour drive trapped in the grill of a car.

A review of the week's news including... Significant developments in the meth testing story, nervous times for farmers worried about their prized herds catching mycoplasma bovis on Gypsy Day, a Tauranga Hospital nurse committed suicide and left a note to his colleagues asking 'if they were happy now', sex workers say they are being undercut and crowded out by foreign prostitutes working in breach of their visas, Police defend their pursuit policies after a double fatality near Palmerston North, MPs have been told there is no evidence the country's banks are ripping off customers like their Australian counterparts, why a dozen sperm whales washed ashore on a South Taranaki beach still remains a mystery and the New Zealander who won Silver at the 76 Montreal Olympics and broke the 5,000 metres World record has died.

A review of the week's news including... Hopes of avoiding a nurses' strike in the middle of winter may be dashed, are compostable bags really better for the environment?, the Government says a 3000 bed mega-prison won't be built, Housing New Zealand rejects suggestions it routinely blocks people from being bailed or paroled, a leaked fisheries report reveals some of the country's biggest fishing companies have been under-reporting their hoki catch by hundreds of tonnes, how Mycoplasma Bovis was discovered and the fall out, New Zealanders may get to vote on legalising marijuana next year, the public start to make their case in person for or against euthanasia, a Maori woman is backing a life coach for also wearing one despite being Pakeha, the Transport Minister offers his resignation but the Prime Minster refuses to accept it, plane passengers begin to panic above Tauranga and a New Zealand scientist is promising to solve the mystery of the Loch Ness monster.

A review of the week's news including... Extensive analysis of this week's budget, the death of the founder of the Gloriavale sect focuses attention on a new leader, the Waikato region's first confirmed case of mycoplasma bovis is detected, the Government is under serious pressure to avoid a repeat of the Foreshore and Seabed controversy, are insurance companies offering their agents incentives that could leave clients worse off?, the massive alpine fault is due for another big earthquake - what would the devastation would look like?, an Auckland activist accepts an offer to postpone the payment of her unpaid rates until she sells her home or dies, more than a dozen of New Zealand's largest retail chains have now been accused of forcing their employees to work without pay, the BNZ trespasses a 93-year-old customer with dementia and Girl Guiding New Zealand ditches their famous biscuit.

A review of the week's news including... Questions over the labeling of made in NZ fashion garments, the 100 Per Cent Pure marketing slogan is getting a shakeup, a euthanasia advocate is convicted of two charges of importing a drug which can be used to commit suicide, a serial rapist to face a third murder trial, a union claims employer exploitation of kiwifruit workers is rife, the unprecedented Maori youth suicide rates are raising alarm, a nw health board chair gets a first-hand look at the scale of the problems at the crumbling Middlemore Hospital, retail chain Smiths City has been caught underpaying minimum-wage-workers for at least 15 years, a back track on a promise to remove a controversial path and the first New Zealand woman to win the Badminton Horse Trials in England.

A review of the week's news including... The Minister of Energy receives no concessions from oil company BP over their pricing strategies, banks have been told to provide proof they are behaving ethically, the failing meth rehab funding system, the Drug Foundation backs an Auckland school which is under fire for issuing pamphlets describing how to safely use P, the Police say the partner of the Prime Minister is not and has not been the subject of a police inquiry after widespread rumours were published, a tax specialist says the Government's indulging in 'industrial strength optimism' if it thinks retailers around the world will jump on board it's GST plan, a snub by US president Donald Trump has the Government worried about the future for New Zealand aluminum and steel exports, schools that have tackled unconscious bias among their teachers say it has a big impact on Maori students' achievement, a new report shows New Zealand companies are seriously lagging behind other developed nations in using artificial intelligence and the Dominion Post downsizes to tabloid.

A review of the week's news including... 28 billion dollars to be spent over the next decade on efforts to get Aucklanders moving around their city faster, the Chair of the Board at Counties Manukau DHB reveals the former and current minister of health were told about Middlemore's building issues, a call for a rethink on the use of "jailhouse snitches", a big turn out in for Anzac Day services, the Ministry of Social Development apologises to a woman who's benefit was stopped because she had been on two Tinder dates, the Social Development Minister says an announcement on the promised overhaul of the welfare system can be expected in the next few weeks, claims the bureaucracy is too sluggish and it needs to move faster, the Foreign Affairs Minister talks up the prospect of a free trade agreement between all 53 commonwealth nations, some Christchurch residents say their drinking water now tastes and smells like a swimming pool, the search for the boy in the photo and a Taranaki cinema is standing by its decision to turn away customers wearing pyjamas, onsies and even dressing gowns.

A review of the week's news including... EQC accused of ignoring true extent of damage to Christchurch homes, another Government agency used the services of a controversial security consultant, Sky loses bradcast rights to the Rugby World Cup next year, Wallabies rugby star Israel Folau makes a bombshell revelation that he would walk away from Australian rugby immediately if asked to, why thousands of people were left out of a life-saving cancer screening programme, Filipino workers are being brought in to work on Wellington's huge Transmission Gully project infuriating unions, a teenage girl whose mother pimped her out for sex says all she ever wanted was for her mother to love her, a petition is launched to stop Mark Middleton's deportation, New Zealand's biggest ever Commonwealth Games team brings home the biggest pile of medals from an overseas Commonwealth Games, an American researcher on celibacy predicts a long battle in New Zealand for the Catholic church to face up to the issue of priests secretly fathering children, a New Zealand speedway legend has died and we have two reports from the Taite Music Prize event held this week.

A review of the week's news including... After an intense storm thousands of Aucklanders wake up to a bitterly cold morning with no prospect of a hot coffee, the government tells the New Zealand oil industry to get real, it's 50 years since the Wahine sank in Wellington Harbour, the Greens elect a new co-leader, the Health Minister warns of more big building troubles, Immigration New Zealand apologises for confusion relating to a controversial data modeling programme used to profile overstayers, industrial unrest ahead for nurses and port workers, a Grey Power representative calls for wider availability of medicinal cannabis, findings from a survey on gender attitudes commissioned by the National Council of Women, several hundred people are forced to evacuate a 13-storey office building in central Wellington and the weather didn't keep bidders away from the auction of Kiri Te Kanawa's personal art collection.

A review of the week's news including... The bill to fix botched EQC repairs from the Canterbury earthquakes is now four times what the previous Government predicted just two years ago, immigrants are being computer profiled, MPs are told that medicinal cannabis should be legalised for more people, Middlemore Hospital's woes continue, the Government orders a compulsory recall of 50 thousand vehicles with faulty airbags, Auckland drivers face a double tax hike under proposed sweeping changes to transport funding, Parliament changes the law so New Zealand men with historical homosexual convictions can have them wiped, a bus company wants to recruit more than 100 drivers from overseas because it can't find enough people to do the job here, Dunedin has its biggest weekend ever in terms of money spent thanks to Ed Sheeran, first it was closing - now it's not, Kaikohe's Warehouse is to stay, it all comes together for the New Zealand cricket team against England, an international consortium reaches a verbal agreement to buy the New Zealand Warriors and the woman who was RNZ's Washington correspondent for more than 20 years has died.

A review of the week's news including... the Prime Minister stands by her Broadcasting Minister in the wake of the resignation of senior RNZ news executive Carol Hirschfeld, all cattle with the disease Mycoplasma bovis will be culled by the end of May as three properties are raided by the Ministry for Primary Industries, Jacinda Ardern asks for official advice on whether there are any people of Russian origin who should be refused entry to New Zealand in the wake of the nerve agent poisoning attack in the UK, Air New Zealand wants prison sentences for drone pilots involved in life-threatening near misses with aircraft as a pilot and his passenger have a narrow escape after colliding mid air with what they believe was a drone, the lives of an estimated eight people have been saved in the first eight months of bowel screening, a 20 metre wide 5 metre deep trench in the road just north of Kaitaia has off the only public road to Cape Reinga, the Marine Industry says new jobs have already been created and economic benefits are already being felt from the America's Cup being held in Auckland in 2021, the family of a mother of two shot dead by her boyfriend yelled "thank you" as the jurors left the court room, Dunedin has become Dun-ED-in and Sir Bob Jones on the Parker-Joshua fight.

A review of the week's news including... Barack Obama's visit to New Zealand, the Prime Minister tells the Regional Development minister to pull his head in, current and former Health Ministers were kept in the dark about the extent of the leaky buildings at Middlemore Hospital, Fonterra's eight million dollar man resigns, train drivers are terrified to cross the bridge at Ngaruawahia in case another child is killed, a total ban on set net fishing is possible after five nationally endangered hector's dolphins were killed in a single net, the foundation that fundraises for Plunket says its ability to raise money for the service is being undercut by unfair criticism and it's a long way from Waikato to the White House for but Matamata born businessman.