The Government is being accused of ‘virtue-signalling’ after banning KiwiSaver default funds from investing in fossil fuel companies; and an Indian community leader says Shane Jones’s latest comments are unacceptable and the Prime Minister should censor him.
1.The vast majority of new cases of the covid-19 coronavirus are now being reported outside China. The number in Germany has doubled in the past day and Europe has started to take the threat seriously.
2.In this country, unions are urging the Government to do more to help workers or businesses if people need to stay home to prevent the spread of the virus. There is just one confirmed case in New Zealand so far but health officials are asking people to take precautions because of the threat of more.
3.Seven people on board a cruise ship that docked in Tauranga this morning have the flu or gastroenteritis, not the Covid-19 coronavirus, the Ministry of Health says. Passengers and crew were prohibited from leaving the Voyager of the Seas at Vanuatu and New Caledonia due to coronavirus concerns and it has diverted to Tauranga.
4.Gunshots were heard in Mt Roskill early this morning, two days after a triple shooting in the Auckland suburb. The police say they received reports of shots around Fairley Avenue about 3AM.
5.Corrections says its strategy for reducing the disproportionate number of Māori in prison is on track to being transformational. Hōkai Rangi which was launched about six-months ago is aimed at eventually reducing the number to 15 percent of the prison master.
6.The ANZ bank has begun its submissions in the High Court in Wellington asking the Court to dismiss the claim that David Ross was operating a Ponzi scheme. The bank does not want the case to go to trial and is pursuing strike out action.
7.The Government is being accused of ‘virtue-signalling’ after banning KiwiSaver default funds from investing in fossil fuel companies. A number of changes will be made to how the default funds are run, including the new ban. KiwiSaver members are allocated a default provider if they don’t actively choose a KiwiSaver fund – and nearly 700,000 people are currently in that situation.
8.An Indian community leader says Shane Jones’s latest comments are unacceptable and the Prime Minister should censor him. The New Zealand First MP and Cabinet Minister told Newshub Nation, Indian students have ruined academic institutions and there are too many immigrants from New Delhi.
9.The jury at the trial of six men accused of murdering Whanganui man James Butler has heard gruesome details of how he died. The 58-year-old was shot and left for dead at a property on Wikitoria Rd in April 2018. Crown prosecutor Michele Wilkinson-Smith told the High Court at Whanganui this morning that Butler was killed after confronting a group of Black Power members who had gone to his home to rob him of drugs.
10.The Jury in the trial of a Hastings based Samoan Chief accused of trafficking and using 13 people as slaves, has been played a two hour video interview of the youngest complainant. Joseph Matamata denies 24 charges over a 26 year period.
11.Thousands of Muslims from China’s Uighur minority group are working under coercive conditions at factories that supply some of the world’s biggest brands, a new report says. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute said this was the next phase in China’s re-education of Uighurs. China has already detained about a million Uighurs at internment camps, punishing and indoctrinating them.
12.A group of students have donned togs and taken their towels to Parliament to demand the government keep its election promise to clean up waterways. The Choose Clean Water campaigners gathered outside Parliament this morning to call for tightened freshwater standards in line with Labour’s 2017 promise.
13.A top tech boss at the Ministry of Culture and Heritage (MCH) reviewed the Tuia 250 website’s security and declared it “fit for purpose” just two months before a major breach was uncovered, new correspondence shows. The security lapse – discovered by a member of the public in August 2019 – compromised the privacy of roughly 300 young people who had uploaded sensitive material while applying to take part in commemorations.
14.The Hawkes Bay District Health Board says it spent nearly $12,000 on ice blocks and fans for staff working in sweltering summer heat with no air conditioning. Ward temperatures pushed 30 degrees for more than a week last month
15.A Fox Glacier resident says rubbish from a landfill spill last year has been forgotten by authorities. A deluge washed out at a closed landfill near Fox Glacier, leaving all garbage snagged on logs or buried under rocks and silt along the Fox river bed.
16.Malaysia has a new prime minister, less than a week after the unexpected resignation of Mahathir Mohamad plunged its politics into turmoil. Muhyiddin Yassin, backed by the corruption-tarnished former governing party, was sworn in by the king. Mr Mahathir, 94, who has dominated Malaysian politics for decades, described the appointment of Mr Muhyiddin as illegal and a betrayal.
17.The longtime governing party in Slovakia suffered a sweeping defeat in national elections on Saturday, paving the way for a new government coalition that promised to fight corruption and promote the rule of law. The leader of the largest opposition party, Igor Matovic, vowed to make the most of the moment.
