Morning Report for Monday 25 November 2019

6:00 AM.Neighbours are shocked after police in Tauranga shoot dead a man holding children hostage.

Safety concerns stop the awarding of tenders for school bus routes.

Andrew Little rules out changes to the… Read more Audio

6:05 AM.New Zealand are on track to go one nil up in the test series against England heading into the final day of the first test at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui. Read more Audio

6:14 AM.An Auckland MRI technician says staff are literally running between patients as they try to get their work done and slash growing backlogs.

More than 2000 Auckland patients are on waiting lists for… Read more Audio

6:18 AM.Groups supporting beneficiaries have written an open letter to the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, calling for urgent changes to the way the welfare system defines relationships.

At the moment… Read more Audio

6:21 AM.A brief update from the business sector. Read more Audio

6:25 AM.News from the rural and farming sector. Read more Audio

6:39 AM.The police say they had no choice but to shoot a man who held children hostage at knife point yesterday.

The standoff started just after midnight on Sunday, when the police say the man's partner… Read more Audio

6:41 AM.Twenty-seven protesters who stormed an oil company's support ship in Timaru yesterday morning, spent the night on board, and are still refusing to leave.

The activists allege the ship's owner, the… Read more Audio

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

7:06 AM.Spinner Mitchell Santner shapes as the trump card for New Zealand heading into the final day of the first cricket test against England at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui. Read more Audio

7:10 AM.Residents of a quiet Tauranga street have described hearing multiple gun shots as armed officers moved in on a man holding two young children hostage.

The police say they had no other option as fears… Read more Audio

7:16 AM.Police have shot and killed a man after a 14 hour standoff in Tauranga.

The man was holding two children hostage yesterday when police moved in and shot him.

Police say there was no other option due… Read more Audio

7:18 AM.The Government has delayed the awarding of tenders to run school buses that carry 40 million children a year after a union raised safety concerns.

Documents show these concerns being raised with… Read more Audio

7:24 AM.The Justice Minister Andrew Little is not considering changes to the kinds of evidence juries can hear about a murder victim's sexual history in the wake of the Grace Millane trial.

A bill before… Read more Audio

7:41 AM.Beneficiary advocates want urgent changes to the rules around relationships in the welfare system.

Child Poverty Action Group, Auckland Action Against Poverty and Action Station have written an open… Read more Audio

7:45 AM.The government's rejected a UN request to increase the number of African and Middle Eastern refugees.

New Zealand is due to accept 1500 refugees next year, about half of them from Asia-Pacific.

The… Read more Audio

7:51 AM.The government has rejected a UN request it increase the number of African and Middle East refugees it takes in.

It was asked to increase the number of Middle Eastern refugees taken to 35 percent… Read more Audio

7:54 AM.Senior doctors are warning our public hospitals are in crisis - without enough staff to provide good, safe and reliable healthcare to New Zealanders.

Medical specialists are reporting crying on the… Read more Audio

7:56 AM.Black Caps all-rounder Mitchell Santner starred with bat and ball on day four of the first test against England, to give New Zealand a shot at victory today in Mt Maunganui.

In reply to England's… Read more Audio

8:05 AM.New Zealand's dominant batting display in the first cricket Test has shown the tourists just what it takes to make big scores, says England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler. Read more Audio

8:10 AM.Police officers who shot a man holding two children hostage are being stood down for 10 days.

It followed a lengthy standoff after a man in Tauranga threatened his partner with a knife, before… Read more Audio

8:13 AM.A man who spent more than 16 years in a US Prison for his part in murdering tourists at a gorilla watching saunctuary, has been deported to Australia.

Francois Karake, 55, was released from an… Read more Audio

8:17 AM.Back to our story on a campaign to move Auckland's port to Whangarei:

A spokesperson for the Waterfront 2029 campaign, Michael Goldwater, said Auckland had a once-in-a-generation opportunity to… Read more Audio

8:25 AM.In the wake of the Grace Millane trial there are calls to broaden a bill before Parliament to ensure a dead victim's sexual history isn't also dragged through the courts.

The legislation, aimed at… Read more Audio

8:38 AM.National's agriculture spokesperson Todd Muller wants more balance in how the country's education system portrays farmers.

His comments come in response to a question in a Level 3 English paper that… Read more Audio

8:42 AM.Local building owners with potentially flammable building cladding are being urged to join a class action seeking compensation from manufacturers.

The law firm Russel McVeagh and an Australian… Read more Audio

8:47 AM.Mobile phones across the country were set off by the latest test of the national Civil Defense cell phone alert system on Sunday night.

About 60 percent of phones were alerted in previous tests of… Read more Audio

8:54 AM.Polling has begun in Bougainville's referendum on whether to have independence or greater autonomy within Papua New Guinea. Read more Audio