Newstalk ZB Headlines - midday

A disciplinary action against a police constable. The Police Complaints Authority has found there were delays alerting the fire service to a blaze on Mangere Mountain last year. It centres on a homicide investigation into the death of Claire Hills on the mountain last year. The report says the constable received a call about the blaze at around 6am but failed to alert the Fire Service. A second member of the public telephoned alerted the Fire Service about 20 minutes later. When they arrived the fire was out and the car was extensively damaged. Claire Hills was found dead inside the car. No one has ever been charged over her death. The PCA investigation has found that Claire Hills’ life would not have been saved if the call had been passed on but that the delay did result in the loss of forensic evidence. It found the constable involved was in neglect of duty. The constable was found $450.

Aucklanders cannot wait for 20 years for its second harbour bridge. That’s how long it will be before another bridge is built, according to Regional Land Transport. Committee members want to first look at other ways of reducing traffic congestion from the North Shore. But Manukau mayor Sir Barry Curtis says that 20 years is too long to wait. He says population growth in the Rodney District and in Whangarei will insist that another harbour crossing will be introduced well before the 20 year period.

And there is more money for education and school classrooms. The Government has announced a total of $1 billion to be spent on school buildings over the next three years. That’s around $670 million more than announced than was announced in the coming year in the Budget. Education Minister Nick Smith says the money is much needed with school maintenance not being up to scratch. He says secondary schools in particular need to be improved.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>