Morning Report for Thursday 17 December 2020

6:15 AM.Community housing providers are alarmed that Treasury forecasts house prices will rise at roughly double the rate of wages - hitting a 29 percent increase by 2025.

The government says it will… 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

6:38 AM.The National Party plans to pile more pressure on Parliament's Speaker, indicating it will declare a vote of no confidence when MPs return to the Capital in the new year.

Trevor Mallard has been… Read more Audio

6:41 AM.The Police Association President says the Police now needs to step up and enact the change they're promising.

A survey, released yesterday, found one in four staff have experienced bullying from… Read more Audio

6:48 AM.Northland Fire and Emergency is considering completely banning open air fires to prevent out of control blazes this summer.

Last year the region suffered a drought which lead to firefighters battling… Read more Audio

6:53 AM.News from the business sector, including a market report. Read more Audio

7:10 AM.Parents and former teachers have told the Ministry of Education that the owner and manager of a childcare centre in Feilding locked toddlers in rooms, fed children moudly food and smacked them.

The… Read more Audio

7:15 AM.A new investigation into the sex ring known as the Roast Busters is giving one criminologist hope police are moving away away from presuming victims are to blame.

Seven years since the gang prompted… Read more Audio

7:17 AM.At least five wealthy backers of the challenger teams to the America's Cup are struggling to enter the country in time to watch their yachts race.

Information provided to RNZ shows the owners of the… Read more Audio

7:20 AM.After months of off-the-water turmoil and Covid-19 complications, the America's Cup sailors finally get to go racing today.

The three-day America's Cup World Series regatta, followed by Sunday's… Read more Audio

7:28 AM.Treasury's Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update lays out a rosier than expected scenario for the New Zealand economy over the next few years, with a snappier bounce back from the economic trauma of… Read more Audio

7:37 AM.A lawyer representing hundreds of survivors of abuse in state care says their voices are coming through loud and clear in a Royal Commission of Inquiry.

The commission released its interim report… Read more Audio

7:42 AM.The Government will honour its election promise of raising the minimum wage. From the first of April next year the rate will increase to $20 per hour - up from $18.90.

For someone working 40 hours on… Read more Audio

7:47 AM.National Party finance spokesperson Michael Woodhouse says the government should not be raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour, especially not now.

Woodhouse told Morning Report the wage increase… Read more Audio

7:54 AM.Moves towards returning the famed rose window to Christ Church Cathedral begin today.

An eighteen-tonne steel frame is being installed onto the cathedral's west facade as part of restoration work.

… Read more Audio

8:06 AM.The racing gets underway today in the America's Cup World Series in Auckland and the four day regatta provides a unique opportunity for the teams to assess their rivals' strengths and weaknesses Read more Audio

8:11 AM.A woman who demanded action against the so-called Roast Busters gang is welcoming news of arrests.

The police have arrested two 24-year-old men formerly involved in the gang, which boasted online… Read more Audio

8:14 AM.People across Fiji have been boarding up their homes and preparing to evacuate, with Cyclone Yasa forecast to hit the country later tonight or tomorrow.

The cyclone is a category five, the highest… Read more Audio

8:21 AM.Overweight people in South Auckand are facing delays to gynaecological cancer diagnosis because the hospital can't see them quickly enough.

Counties Manukau DHB says women with a body mass index over… Read more Audio

8:24 AM.Rotorua's parking system has been called "ludicrous", "nuts" and a "waste of money".

The i-Park system has cost the Rotorua Lakes Council over $1.7 million in the last year - almost 84% of its… Read more Audio

8:29 AM.A brief update of movements in the financial sector. Read more Audio

8:38 AM.Friday marks the official end of a school year that some hope has permanently changed the way classrooms work.

The national and Auckland lockdowns forced hundreds-of-thousands of students and their… Read more Audio

8:42 AM.The mayor of New Plymouth wants to hike rates by 12 percent to get on top of the city's crumbling water infrastructure woes.

That bumper rise would only mark the start of a decade of steep rises to… Read more Audio

8:48 AM.The fourteen accomplices to the 2015 attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris have been found guilty.

A French court delivered the verdict, following a three-month trial. Seventeen… Read more Audio

8:53 AM.A renowned Ngāti Kahungunu spiritual leader - remembered for the wisdom and guidance she imparted on her iwi - is being laid to rest near Gisborne today. 

Dr. Rangimarie Rose Turuki Pere will be laid… Read more Audio

8:57 AM.Smart whales are one upping their predators by learning how to mirror them.

The finding comes from new research from Australia which says the long-finned pilot whale is outsmarting killer whales by… Read more Audio