Morning Report for Friday 28 May 2021

8:57 AM.It's Friday so we cross the ditch to Canberra to talk to our correspondent Kerry-Anne Walsh. Read more Audio

8:52 AM.Cyclists in Wellington are set to get safe cycleways throughout the city after a last-minute turnaround by city councillors.

Mayor Andy Foster proposed an amendment to fast-track temporary cycleways… Read more Audio

8:46 AM.A crowd of hundreds conducted a powhiri this week to mark the inaugural Kiingi Tūheitia Portraiture award exhibition in Wellington.

A little under 130 Maori artists submitted their artworks which… Read more Audio

8:41 AM.An American clinical psychologist believes he has unearthed what makes New Zealand driver Scott Dixon so successful.

Dixon is among the greatest drivers in IndyCar history, having racked up more than… Read more Audio

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

8:26 AM.Kauri conservationists in Northland fear funding from Budget 2021 is nowhere near enough to protect the native tree from disease.

Twenty-eight million dollars has been allocated for to fight dieback… Read more Audio

8:22 AM.A teachers' union is mystified by the conclusion that $278 million is the right amount to settle Holidays Act underpayments to school staff.

The Educational Institute says it has been working on the… Read more Audio

8:18 AM.There's been tears from business owners in Queenstown after the resort town lost its chance to host a trans-Tasman rugby game this weekend.

The Melbourne-based Rebels had moved to Sydney this week in… Read more Audio

8:13 AM.The Australian state of Victoria is waking up to a seven-day "circuit-breaker" lockdown,

Twenty-six cases have been identified so-far, and a staggering 13,000 close or casual contacts have been… Read more Audio

8:06 AM.Tomer Hemed has kept the Wellington Phoenix in the race for the top six in football's A-League. Read more Audio

7:58 AM.A man who was hiding out in dense bush has been recaptured, after enjoying a meal of oysters, a bottle of champagne, and relying on the help of career criminal Arthur Taylor.

James Matthew Bryant had… Read more Audio

7:47 AM.The Department of Conservation is asking the public to report vandals and fly-tippers desecrating Te Kuiti's Mangaokewa Reserve - a site sacred to the Ngāti Rora hapū.

Caves in the Waitomo reserve… Read more Audio

7:44 AM.In a drama fit for the stage itself - a third of the board of New Zealand Opera has resigned.

The mass walkout is in apparent protest at the artistic direction of the company.

A letter from the… Read more Audio

7:38 AM.The Highlanders Super Rugby trans-Tasman match against the Rebels has been moved to Sydney because of the new week-long lockdown in Victoria.

The two teams were scheduled to play in Queenstown on… Read more Audio

7:34 AM.Because of the lockdown in Victoria, Waikato cancer patients will most likely stay in this country to finish their treatment.

Australia had initially been considered as a possible option for care… Read more Audio

7:24 AM.Rio Tinto is now saying it will pay $4 million to get rid of all aluminium dross and ouvea premix from Mataura and other sites around Southland.

Both the government and the Environmental Defence… Read more Audio

7:18 AM.Government officials are scrambling to work out how the Australian Prime Minister can visit New Zealand this weekend without having to go into isolation.

Scott Morrison is scheduled to arrive in New… Read more Audio

7:14 AM.The Australian state of Victoria is back in lockdown after a Covid-19 outbreak in Melbourne.

It's forced NZ to close the bubble with the state and ask 5000 people who visited the city and travelled… Read more Audio

7:10 AM.Victoria is back in lockdown, and so are New Zealanders living and travelling there.

The state and its capital city Melbourne are in the grip of new Covid-19 outbreak and the highly infectious… Read more Audio

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

6:52 AM.Cyclists in Wellington are set to get safe cycleways throughout the city after a last-minute turnaround by councillors.

Mayor Andy Foster proposed an amendment to fast-track temporary cycleways at a… Read more Audio

6:48 AM.Fears of a second volcanic eruption near Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have led to another mass exodus from the city.

Tens of thousands of people are evacuating - many on foot… Read more Audio

6:28 AM.News from the rural and farming sector. Read more Audio

6:26 AM.A brief update from the business sector. Read more Audio

6:21 AM.A Hawke's Bay woman has expressed her anger after the region's hospital delayed her mother-in-law's surgery for weeks, while she was waiting in a hospital bed.

On Wednesday, Jakie Livingston's… Read more Audio

6:19 AM.New Zealand's National Pest Management Plan for kauri dieback is incomplete, 3.5 years after government departments started working on it.

Budget 2021 allocated $28 million towards the plan.

But… Read more Audio

6:15 AM.A leading environmentalist is hailing ' a complete turnaround' over cleaning up Tiwai Point aluminium smelter by Rio Tinto.

The smelter's majority owner has given new undertakings worth at least $4… Read more Audio