• Christchurch Airport remains fully operational and is open to international and domestic flights.

• 200 people slept at the airport overnight. They were given blankets, water and free fruit.

• Free car parking at the airport will be offered until 2am Monday morning.

• A United Airlines aircraft landed early this morning with 25 tonnes of equipment and 80 Search and Rescue personnel from the US to help in the rescue and recovery effort. The aircraft is still on the Antarctic apron.

• Extra Air NZ flights and Qantas flights will come in today. As well as their full normal schedule, Air New Zealand are flying two extra 747s and one 777 to Auckland, and a 737 to Wellington, with additional aircraft as they can. There will be two extra Qantas flights, one from Melbourne and one from Sydney which are bringing Australian police to help with the rescue and recovery; the return flights will then be open to commercial travellers who want a flight to Australia. Qantas have also increased the size of their scheduled aircraft to a 767.

• Jetstar is running its normal schedule of flights in and out of Christchurch today.

• The Prime Minister and Minister John Carter are coming to Christchurch today.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On The 2013 Budget

Among Thursday’s main talking points:

We are apparently on track for a margin-of-error $75 million surplus, now in sight for 2014/15. But this sickly creature is hobbling out of the lab on the basis of all kinds of facilitative conjuring: such as trimming by $200 million the amount of new spending next time around.

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Budget Report, Lockup Audio & Images: Budget Day 2013 As always and especially after the managerial mishaps of the past few weeks and months, (e.g. Aaron Gilmore, the Mighty River Power share float, the GCSB mishaps) Budget Day 2013 was always going to be a pageant of reassurance... More>>

Budget 2013 Comment: Plain Sailing, But It's No America's Cup Pattrick Smellie: Compared to the last four budgets, this year's reflects an economy moving out of recession and into calmer waters... Yet if the fastest annual growth rate we can expect over the next two years is 3 percent - with the Christchurch rebuild in full swing - then you'd have to say New Zealand's underlying low-growth problem is far from fixed. More>>

Auckland Discord: Govt’s Power Hungry Housing Approach A Threat - Labour

Last week the Government said this, ‘The Government commits not to use any proposed or existing powers ... to override the council's planning and consenting processes’. But its housing Bill says this; ‘If an accord cannot be reached in an area of severe housing unaffordability, the Government can intervene by establishing special housing areas and issuing consents for developers’. More>>

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Extending Protest Ban, Relaxing Permit Rules: Govt Abuses Urgency To Extend Anadarko Amendment

The Government is trying to pass legislation under urgency which would make the Anadarko Amendment – which limits protest at sea – apply to an additional 1.7 million square kilometres, the Green Party said today. More>>

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