Checkpoint for Tuesday 4 August 2020

5:07 PM.It is impossible to tell if the $3 billion Provincial Growth Fund spending is value for taxpayer money, according to the Auditor General.

John Ryan's report released today raises concerns about a… Read more Video, Audio

5:14 PM.There are questions about mental health care for those in managed isolation and quarantine following the sentencing of the first person to flee such a facility today.

Suzanne Marie Derrett was… Read more Audio

5:18 PM.New Zealanders are being encouraged to get tested for Covid-19, as daily testing rates are falling well short of the Ministry of Health's own targets.

On Monday 1,608 tests were completed, with a… Read more Video, Audio

5:27 PM.The Victorian government has brought in strict new penalties for those breaching home isolation rules as the state prepares for a tough Level 4 business shutdown tomorrow night.

A curfew is already… Read more Audio

5:35 PM.Video sharing platform Tik Tok could become part of Microsoft's empire in a matter of weeks after a political ultimatum from Donald Trump.

The US President has warned he will ban the Chinese-owned… Read more Video, Audio

5:40 PM.News from the business sector, including a market report. Video, Audio

5:44 PM.The eye-watering cost of keeping the Christchurch mosque gunman behind bars has reignited calls for him to be sent back to Australia to serve his sentence there.

RNZ deputy political editor Craig… Read more Audio

5:47 PM.The trial of a former school teacher accused of abusing teenage boys has now heard from two of the boys at the centre of the case.

Benjamin Swann is on trial in the High Court at Auckland for the… Read more Audio

5:50 PM.You may remember the provocative Canadian speakers Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux.

The High Court has previously upheld a decision to cancel their booking at the Bruce Mason Centre in 2018 for… Read more Audio

5:53 PM.The disgraced former Minister Iain Lees-Galloway has returned to Parliament for the first time since his sacking to give his final farewell speech.

The Palmerston North MP was last month stripped of… Read more Audio

5:56 PM.Truckies and local leaders are at breaking point over a dangerous highway between Napier and Taupō, where eight people have been killed in the last twelve months.

They say government ministers and… Read more Video, Audio

6:06 PM.An independent report into the Provincial Growth fund has found there's a lack of transparency and accountability when it comes to some spending, despite recent reporting improvements.

The report by… Read more Audio

6:16 PM.At least a thousand people have queued of for a Covid test in Queenstown today - after a recent visitor tested positive in South Korea.

WellSouth organised a temporary drive-thru testing site at the… Read more Video, Audio

6:20 PM.A government initiative to help fruit and veggie growers while also feeding hungry whānau is coming to an end - but food banks say demand for the service is only growing.

The Agriculture Minister on… Read more Video, Audio

6:25 PM.Pita Gus Sowakula might be playing in a losing team, but the 25-year-old Chiefs No.8 is stamping his mark on Super Rugby Aotearoa, and has his eyes on an All Blacks prize.

The Chiefs are winless in… Read more Audio