28 Apr 2017

Top Stories for Friday 28 April 2017

From Morning Report, 6:00 am on 28 April 2017

Microbiologists are warning there could be thousands of cases of a dangerous potentially lethal superbug infection every year if action isn't taken immediately. Dr Joshua Freeman, a clinical microbiologist with the Auckland District Health Board says we need to treat this in the same way as a disease like ebola and have a national response plan. A French tourist is recovering after being attacked by a shark while bodyboarding at Curio Bay on the Southland coast yesterday. Shark expert Clinton Duffy thinks the shark was likely to be a Sevengill, a shark that can get as big as three metres long but which is not known overseas as an aggressive shark. In New Zealand, thought, it bite prey like humans reasonably frequently. But he can't say exactly where swimmers and surfers might encounter the Sevengill. Trying to determine where a shark attack might happen is, he says, "a bit like trying to predict where lighting is going to strike." Labour's Finance spokesman Grant Robertson isn't celebrating the government's infrastructure announcement. He says National is just trying to make up for its own infrastructure deficit and a lot more needs to be done. Steven Joyce says investment in roads is unprecedented and 'no one could have predicted' the rate of Auckland's growth. He says the growing pains means that the country is getting wealthier. Nathan Guy says there's a limit to how many dairy cows New Zealand can handle and the industry's future will rely on increasing the value rather than the volume of exports, as Jacob McSweeny reports. Former Prime Minister Dame Jenny Shipley says the nation needs to have a better discussion about who needs access to the most state support, as Demelza Leslie reports.