Morning Report for Friday 14 December 2018

6:00 AM.Midwives accuse ministers of interference in pay talks, Royal Commission sends abuse survivor's details to wrong person, Grant Robertson discusses 'Wellbeing Budget', Four-year-old killed in rugby… Read more Audio

6:06 AM.Black Ferns halfback Kendra Cocksedge has won the New Zealand Rugby Player of the Year award. Audio

6:10 AM.The British Prime Minister, Theresa May, has returned to Brussels for the second time in a week, seeking assurances to assuage the concerns around the Brexit "backstop". Arriving for an EU summit… Read more Audio

6:13 AM.The Government is set to take a less punitive and more health-based approach in dealing with people who are using illegal drugs. Over the past year more than fifty people have died as a result of… Read more Audio

6:20 AM.Australian Cardinal George Pell, a senior advisor to the Pope, is on bail awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of sexually abusing children. The 77-year-old will be sentenced in February on… Read more Audio

6:20 AM.Early look at the day's business news and catchup on overnight market action. Audio

6:22 AM.News from the rural and farming sector. Audio

6:45 AM.A Treaty expert says iwi are not to blame for lengthy delays in settling treaty claims. Ngāpuhi and the Crown have spent more than ten years just trying to figure out who should negotiate a settlement… Read more Audio

6:49 AM.Half year budget update forecasts stronger near term growth but lower surpluses, which turns around in medium term. CTU says FinMin needs to loosen fiscal straitjacket. Understanding blockchain… Read more Audio

7:06 AM.New Zealand's rugby player of the year Kendra Cocksedge says she couldn't have achieved what she did without her two families, the one on the field and the one off. Audio

7:24 AM.The government's new Budget focus has been praised by the Council of Trade Unions for "taking into account the wellbeing of working people and their families". But National Party leader Simon Bridges… Read more Audio

8:06 AM.The All Blacks coach Steve Hansen will announce his plans for after next year's World Cup, this morning in Auckland Audio

8:15 AM.Australian Cardinal George Pell, a senior advisor to the Pope, is on bail awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of sexually abusing children. The 77-year-old will be sentenced in February on… Read more Audio

8:25 AM.The Government is determined to focus on the nation's wellbeing - as well as economic health - in next year's Budget. Is this something to be welcomed? Can it be more than mere window-dressing? Or… Read more Audio

8:28 AM.An Aboriginal elder says a young man of her tribe will be cut off from his land and spirits if he's deported to New Zealand. Brendan Thoms, a 30 year old father of one, is in immigration detention in… Read more Audio

8:30 AM.A brief update of movements in the financial sector. Audio

8:30 AM.The Minister for Climate Change James Shaw says the IPCC report released a month ago has had a significant effect on rallying support for the need to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. Mr Shaw is at… Read more Audio

8:42 AM.A Wellington pharmacy's won an expensive legal battle with the Government, over the right to sell kombucha. Like any pharmacy, Wellness Works on Taranaki Street sells medicine and fills prescriptions… Read more Audio

8:46 AM.All Blacks coach Steven Hansen is set to announce his career plans at nine o'clock. He's been coaching the national rugby side since 2012. Let's talk to our resident rugby specialist, Joe Porter. Audio

8:50 AM.The Black Caps coach Gary Stead says the side is vulnerable heading into their first home test of the summer against Sri Lanka in Wellington. The Black Caps begin a lengthy domestic summer schedule… Read more Audio

8:53 AM.What is Bitcoin, the Keto diet and how do I cut a mango? These were some of New Zealand's most asked questions to the search-engine Google this year. Amongst some of the biggest news events of the… Read more Audio

8:55 AM.Scientists have discovered eight genes linked to red hair, helping to solve a mystery of how redheads inherit their flaming locks. The study - which also sheds light on blondes and brunettes - is the… Read more Audio