Morning Report for Thursday 19 April 2018

6:15 AM.The chairman of Northland's Road Transport Committee John Bain says it's deeply disappointing that the government has shelved plans to rebuild State Highway One between Whangarei and Warkworth where… Read more Audio

6:17 AM.A new genus of baleen whale has been identified in New Zealand, providing new insight into the prehistoric ancestors of modern day whales. Skull and bones from the Toipahautea waitaki whale, which was… Read more Audio

6:22 AM.News from the rural and farming sector. Audio

6:37 AM.London Mayor Sadiq Khan has admitted he spent most of his meeting with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gushing about how privileged he was to meet her. Ms Ardern - along with her Canadian counterpart… Read more Audio

6:49 AM.News from the business sector, including a market report. Audio

7:11 AM.An Auckland company may be caught up in an international money laundering controversy after it was identified helping to manage a network of New Zealand-registered companies and trusts for its… Read more Audio

7:18 AM.Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has just finished a meeting on security and intelligence with her British, Canadian and Australian counterparts in London. The nations are all part of the Five Eyes… Read more Audio

7:29 AM.The government has told the police to catch more drunk drivers and stop pushing to saliva test drivers for drugs. Documents obtained under the Official Information Act show the Transport Ministry and… Read more Audio

7:39 AM.The previous government's promise of a four-lane dual carriage expressway on State Highway 1 from Warkworth to Whangarei has been scrapped by the new government, which says the cost would take up… Read more Audio

7:54 AM.The Crown has again been accused of rushing to finalise Treaty settlements at the expense of giving iwi a fair hearing. In a decision released this week, the Waitangi Tribunal found the Crown breached… Read more Audio

8:16 AM.New figures reveal a big drop in youth offending rates, with offending by young people aged between 14 and 16 dropping 63 per cent since 2010. But the degree of improvement has not been as significant… Read more Audio

8:39 AM.The mass evacuation of thousands of people from a Vanuatu island begins on Thursday. Ambae has been in a State of Emergency since Tuesday, when the volcano at the centre of the island began erupting… Read more Audio

8:44 AM.Areas of New Zealand may see localised extinctions of native trees as myrtle rust continues to spread. It's been just over a year since the invasive plant pathogen was detected in New Zealand. It… Read more Audio

8:51 AM.A British-led scientific expedition is hoping to find arguably the most famous ship in Antarctic history – Ernest Shackleton's Endurance. If the Endurance is found, there are plans to make it… Read more Audio

8:56 AM.It's a long way from Waipukurau to St Petersburg, but eight-year-old soccer player, Sophie Heywood, will be making the trip with her Mum in June after winning a global competition to take part in the… Read more Audio