Morning Report for Wednesday 4 December 2019

6:00 AM.More emergency measures are introduced to battle measles in Samoa, Andrew Little makes the case for cannabis legalisation, three women who say their children were abused by Peter Ellis say ongoing… Read more Audio

6:06 AM.Following their Test series win against England the New Zealand cricket team are now looking ahead to a three Test series against Australia. Read more Audio

6:12 AM.US President Donald Trump has lashed out at his French counterpart for his recent comments about NATO, amid an acrimonious start to the alliance's 70th birthday meeting in Britain.

Mr Trump said… Read more Audio

6:16 AM.Shopowners and residents of Wanaka braced for flooding overnight as heavy rain caused the lake to spill over. Queenstown Lakes District Council is providing sandbags for people from this morning as a… Read more Audio

6:20 AM.A brief update from the business sector. Read more Audio

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

6:39 AM.Fourteen grams a day, four plants per household and legal edibles.

Those are just some of the high points of draft cannabis legislation released yesterday which New Zealanders will be able to vote on… Read more Audio

6:48 AM.A bill aiming to ban foreign donations to political parties will continue being debated under urgency today, after only getting to its first and second readings last night.

The bill would see the… Read more Audio

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

6:51 AM.Aucklanders will have to pay up to nearly $630 million more a year for imports if its current cargo hub is moved to another city, according to a new study.

Economists at New Zealand Institute of… Read more Audio

7:06 AM.New Zealand sailor Blair Tuke was a little embarrassed by their capsize which cost them an almost perfect day to start the 49er World Championships in Auckland. Audio

7:10 AM.The haze surrounding the cannabis referendum is starting to lift - with more details revealing what a yes vote next year would mean.

The Government's released a draft bill setting out the rules which… Read more Audio

7:13 AM.The government has announced the suggested bill and wording for the 2020 cannabis referendum.

Under the law Kiwis over the age of 20 would be able to grow two plants and purchase up to 14 grams a… Read more Audio

7:22 AM.In Samoa, the government has issued a new raft of emergency orders in a desperate bid to get the deadly measles epidemic under control.

The disease has killed 55 people, mainly children, and the toll… Read more Audio

7:30 AM.The government is proposing to make it legal for those over 20 to buy up to 14 grams of cannabis a day.

All advertising of cannabis products would be banned. The details of the proposed law change… Read more Audio

7:45 AM.Three women who say their daughters were abused by Peter Ellis say a possible Supreme Court appeal is taking them to breaking point.

The fomer Christchurch Civic Creche worker, who died in September… Read more Audio

7:51 AM.New Zealand's worrying long-term decline in the international PISA tests of reading, maths and science has continued.

Overnight the OECD published the results of last year's tests of 600,000 15 year… Read more Audio

7:55 AM.President Trump called Democrats "very unpatriotic" for pursuing his impeachment while he is overseas meeting with NATO leaders.

The House Intelligence Committee is set to release a report detailing… Read more Audio

8:06 AM.An American sports administrator says moving away from specialisation in young athletes is pivotal to New Zealand's future success at the elite level. Read more Audio

8:10 AM.Ports of Auckland says shifting the port to Northland will add up to $630 million a year to the cost of imports, according to a study from NZIER.

It also says extra CO2 emissions from freighting… Read more Audio

8:15 AM.It's back to the drawing board for the country's biggest iwi with the Government announcing what it calls a "new opportunity" for Ngāpuhi to negotiate its Treaty claims.

For the past decade Maori in… Read more Audio

8:24 AM.It's been called the "Reefer-endum" - and as of Thursday the draft cnnabis legislation bill has been made public.

It proposes allowing people to buy up to 14 grams of the drug a day, making edibles… Read more Audio

8:30 AM.A brief update on the movements in the financial sector. Read more Audio

8:37 AM.The death toll in Samoa's measles epidemic has risen to at least 55, with children making up almost all of the dead.

As the Samoan government ramps up its mass immunisation campaign, it estimates… Read more Audio

8:43 AM.The Otago Daily Times is being told to make a substantial donation to the Red Cross in Samoa after being slammed for a cartoon considered racist, heartless and insensitive.

The paper has been forced… Read more Audio

8:47 AM.A man who admitted shooting dead a young south Auckland father-to-be has pleaded for forgiveness from his victim's family in court.

Yesterday, Semi Pilitati was jailed for at least 10 years after… Read more Audio

8:53 AM.Small island countries in the Pacific are demanding greater commitments at this week's Madrid climate talks, saying what's been done so far is far from enough.

The demand comes as the World… Read more Audio

8:57 AM.Researchers from Britain and New Zealand have built artificial neurons that could help people with conditions like Alzheimer's, certain types of heart failure, and other degenerative diseases.

The… Read more Audio