National Radio Midday Report

School Evacuation – Drug Haul – Doctors’ Strike – ERO Review – Shopkeeper Fears – Christchuch Murder – Turia’s Claims – School Bus – Australian Human Rights – School Stabbing – Southland Telecommunications – Petrol Prices

- SCHOOL EVACUATION: Wellington’s Cardinal McKeefry School has been evacuated today because of a suspected underground fire in a nearby landfill. The pupils have been moved to another school. Latest reports say police think the fire is not in the landfill after all, but may be in gas pipes.

- DRUG HAUL: Napier police seized over $200,000 worth of drugs today. Police had been investigating gangs they suspected of manufacturing meth-amphetamine and morphine. Arrests are expected this afternoon.

- DOCTORS’ STRIKE: Talks are continuing in last ditch effort to resolve the junior doctors pay dispute in Wellington.

- ERO REVIEW: Former Labour cabinet minister Stan Rodger is to head a team carrying out the ministerial review of the Education Review Office. The review will look at whether ERO should be merged with the Education ministry.

- SHOPKEEPER FEARS: Workers in a block of Mangere shops say they fear for their safety after a liquor store owner was killed in a bungled robbery yesterday.

- CHRISTCHURCH MURDER: Christchurch police say they think they know the identity of the man found murdered on a walking track outside Christchurch, but may need to resort to dental records to make a positive identification.

- TURIA’S CLAIMS: Associate Maori Affairs Minister Tariana Turia has received qualified support for her claims that post colonial traumatic stress disorder is behind Maori family violence. But Douglas Graham, former Treaty Negotiations Minister, has attacked Ms Turia’s comparison of colonial land grabs to the Nazi Holocaust.

- SCHOOL BUS: A Rural school has gone to the beehive to deliver a letter asking for help from the Education Ministry to fund a new bus to take the school’s 11 pupils to school. The school’s aging minibus’s warrant ran out yesterday.

- AUSTRALIAN HUMAN RIGHTS: The Northern Territory Chief Minister has supported the Australian Government’s strong stance against United Nations committees. The Government has told the UN that its watchdog bodies must have compelling reasons for wanting to examine Australia’s human rights record before the Government would agree to visit. Committees have spoken out strongly on Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers and native Aborigines.

- SCHOOL STABBING: A 16-year-old youth appeared in Dargaville youth court in connection to a stabbing at Dargaville high school yesterday.

- SOUTHLAND TELECOMMUNICATIONS: Major concerns about the reliability of telephone services to Southland have been outlined to the ministerial inquiry into telecommunications today.

- PETROL PRICES: There’s been no move yet by other petrol companies to match Caltex’s 4c petrol rise.

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