The New Zealand share market has opened down 3.8 percent in line with other global markets which fell as much as 7 percent overnight; and the Prime Minister has sought urgent advice on whether the mosque attack’s memorial service should go ahead on March 15th in light of the Covid-19 outbreak.
1.The New Zealand share market has opened down 3.8 percent in line with other global markets which fell as much as 7 percent overnight. The benchmark top-50 index immediately fell more than 420 points on the open with falls across the board. It has extended those losses to be more than 520 points lower, about 4.7 percent, its worst single session in more than a decade.
2.Business analysts are predicting a global recession due to the spread of Covid-19. At the same time they say it’s likely to be short lived and some see its impact being dulled by tumbling oil prices.
3.The Opposition is urging the Government to delay the minimum wage rise due to kick in next month, as businesses struggle with the coronavirus fall out. ANZ’s chief economist Richard Yetsenga, called the move a no brainer yesterday but the FInance Minister Grant Robertson has ruled it out.
4.The Prime Minister has sought urgent advice on whether the mosque attack’s memorial service should go ahead on March 15th in light of the Covid-19 outbreak. Thousands are expected to attend a National Remembrance event in Christchurch, marking one year since the massacre.
5.Lockdown measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus will be extended across the whole of Italy, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte says. People should stay at home unless they have solid reasons related to work, health or other special needs, Conte said, specifying that commuting to work would still be allowed.
6.The Ministry of Health has no power to get more than $400,000 in funding that a charity is holding onto despite not operating since 2015. The Quit Group trust has been hoarding more than $3 million in reserves and was never given a deadline to re-invest the money.
7.The mother of a two-year-old girl who the Crown says was killed by her father has told his trial she had been worried about his mental health before her daughters death. 34-year-old Tewi Daniel Savage is on trial at the High Court in Hamilton for the murder of Arnica Savage in July 2018.
8.The issue of “safe zones” near abortion clinics is expected to be a heated topic in Parliament today. Abortion legislation will be debated by MP’s this afternoon and possible changes will be discussed and voted on ahead of the bill’s third and final reading.
9.A policewoman who says she was raped by her colleague has denied that she’s lying to cover up cheating on her husband. The woman has been on the witness box in her colleague’s trial at the Auckland District Court for close to two days now.
10.A Samoan chief on trial for slavery, says five men he brought from Samoa in 2003 did not come to work but to perform for his mother’s birthday. 65-year-old Joseph Matamata denies 11 charges of trafficking and 13 charges of slavery over a 26-year period.
11.The operator of a jet boat that crashed in Otago’s remote Skippers Canyon has been charged over the incident. Discovery Two, operated by Skippers Canyon Jet, crashed on the Shotover River in February last year.
12.A filmmaker Renae Maihi who was sued by Sir Robert Jones for defamation, says he’s agreed to pay her legal costs. Sir Robert withdrew his defamation case against Maihi five days into the trial.
13.The Labour MP Willie Jackson, says John Tamihere’s statement that the Government’s Maori MP’s have been silenced is a load of nonsense. Tamihere who is standing for the Maori Party in Tāmaki Makaurau, said yesterday Labour Māori caucus has been ineffective on issues like whanau ora and ihumatao.
14.A New York prosecutor, says Prince Andrew is refusing to cooperate with US investigators in the Jeffrey Epstein case.
