TV3 News

Friday, 25 August 2000, 6:16 pm
Article: Alastair Thompson

Olympic Job Scam – 0800 Smikey – Golden Handshake – Student Loan Relief For Doctors – Submarine Sedation – Gulf Air Crash

OLYMPIC JOB SCAM: Hundreds of NZers have been caught out in a new Olympic scam. The 239 workers were hired to work as security guards at the Olympics. The workers were referred from WINZ to the a recruiting firm and paid for training. The group have arrived in Australia and can not work because they do not have licenses. The cost of the training was supposed to pay the cost of the license. TV3 tried to contact the recruiting office in Sydney – which WINZ said it checked out - but no one was home.

0800 SMOKEY: Police are working on new powers to give instant fines to smoky cars. 10,000 calls have been made so far to Operation Smoky. 0800 SMOKEY is now receiving 1100 calls a day. The operation has no power to do anything however. Pictures taken yesterday show the smog lying over Auckland. A law change will allow police to fine you for a vehicle that is smoky for more than 10 seconds.

GOLDEN HANDSHAKE: The $250,000 payment to an outgoing health boss being paid a golden handshake has outraged striking Junior Doctors. The payment follows after a rash of golden handshakes under the outgoing National Government…. listed….Carol Stigley has also received a golden handshake recently under Labour. The National Party says that Labour is being hypocritical. The Health Minister says she is not to blame.

STUDENT LOAN RELIEF FOR DOCTORS: Students are angry at the idea of subsidising Junior Doctors student loans. Student unions say that all graduates should be entitled to assistance. Nurses were particularly unhappy. Footage from the Student Loans summit held by Laila Harre. Laila Harre says she wants to look at the loans scheme again. Laila Harre says debt relief for doctors has highlighted problems with the scheme.

SUBMARINE SEDATION: Russian authorities are trying to explain why they involuntarily sedated a woman who was shouting at the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russians say the incident is being misconstrued by Western Media. Footage shows the doctor sedating the woman as she is surrounded by naval officers. Later at the submarine base relatives broke down at a memorial service.

GULF AIR CRASH: Gulf Air Crash at Bahrain. The wreckage is in shallow water. The two data recorders have been recovered. There were 32 children on the plane. Investigators are puzzled by several things. Was there an engine fire? Why was there no distress call? The US NTSB has been invited to help the investigation. One of the passengers was a courier carrying classified diplomatic documents.

© Scoop Media

Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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