The Finance Minister Grant Robertson says it’s too early to definitively say the Government is looking to lend millions of dollars to Auckland Council, to buy disputed land at Ihumātao; and the New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is refusing to comment on news reports raising questions about how the party uses the New Zealand First Foundation to handle donations.
1.Ron Mansfield, the lawyer for the man accused of murdering Grace Millane has told the jury, the British backpacker should not be blamed or shamed for what happened on the night she died. The defence has opened its case in the trial of the 27-year-old man whose name is suppressed.
2. The Finance Minister Grant Robertson says it’s too early to definitively say the Government is looking to lend millions of dollars to Auckland Council, to buy disputed land at Ihumātao. Sources have told RNZ the Government is considering stumping up the $40 million needed to purchase the land from a Fletcher Building subsidiary.
3.Protestors occupying Ihumātao say they just want a definite solution. SOUL spokesperson Qiane Matata-Sipu says the group don’t care how the land is returned so long as it is returned, she says they want the Government to show them the facts and provide a solution.
4.The New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is refusing to comment on news reports raising questions about how the party uses the New Zealand First Foundation to handle donations, but Peters is promising to set the record straight by the end of the day.
5.Some of the young protesters who have been barricaded in a University building in Hong Kong have been allowed to leave by the police. However, upto 300 anti-Beijing demonstrators remain inside the campus and all exits are now blocked.
6.The United States says it no longer views Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank as inconsistent with international law. Israel has constructed about 100 towns and villages on land occupied, following the 1967 war.
7.The High Court has heard Venod Skantha took two friends to Dunedin hospital while off duty and treated a patient after drinking two beers. The 32-year-old is on trial for murdering 16-year-old Amber-Rose Rush in February last year.
8.The identity of an injured woman is being sort following yesterday’s tornado in Christchurch which caused part of a shop roof to collapse on her head. The tornado which ripped through the centre of the city damaged the roof of SaveMart in Sydenham, the roof injured two people including a 40-year-old woman and a male electrician.
9.The Transport Agency says the road in and out of Greymouth that has been closed by a slip for several weeks is now open with one lane. State Highway 7 and the rail line had been closed at Omoto, just outside Greymouth, since a road slip in early October.
10.The House of Representatives is investigating whether President Donald Trump lied to special counsel Robert Mueller in written answers he provided in the Russia investigation.
11.In what is a first in this country, a casino is applying to replace a number of pokie machines in return for closing down some table games. Sky City’s Hamilton Casino wants add 60 machines to replace three black jack tables.
12.A paediatrician is warning about the potential for complications from surgery for tongue tie infants. Tongue tie is a condition in babies that can interfere with successful breastfeeding.
13. The Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla have been officially welcomed to New Zealand. They were greeted by staff from the Defence Force on the lawn of the Government House.
14.A blessing ceremony today and a star-studded gala concert tomorrow officially launch the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, previously known as the ASB Theatre, in Auckland’s Aotea Centre.The renaming recognised the famous New Zealand soprano who was New Zealand’s first Grammy Award winner and has graced the stages of some of the biggest concert halls around the globe.
