Morning Report for Thursday 5 May 2022

8:56 AM.A statue of Jesus Christ has risen in the Brazilian town of Encantado - and it's even bigger than the one in Rio de Janeiro.

Construction of the towering new monument began three years ago; the final… Read more Audio

8:50 AM.Wellingtonians have until next week to decide what they want to do about the city's tip.

The Southern Landfill is due to overflow in four years, and the council is looking at three very different… Read more Audio

8:46 AM.The border's open, the peak of Omicron is over - but now it's flu season. It's time to get your flu shot, and Auckland's Covid-19 vaccination centres are starting to also give flu vaccines to those… Read more Audio

8:42 AM.Children who've missed their free routine dental check-ups in Auckland has hit a record high.

They're being urged to see private dentist - but not everyone can afford that. Health authorities warn… Read more Audio

8:40 AM.Critics of the multimillion dollar Reading Recovery programme want it overhauled or even scrapped following new research showing it's left some children worse off.

The United States study found those… Read more Audio

8:27 AM.Auckland council is voting today on a $2 billion cycling plan which would double the number of cycleways in the city.

Bike Auckland would like to see the plan brought in.

Its chair Tony Mitchell… Read more Audio

8:25 AM.Auckland council is voting today on a $2 billion cycling plan which would double the number of cycleways in the city.

Josh Van Veen from the Auckland Ratepayers Alliance, says not one cent more… Read more Audio

8:20 AM.The Government has unveiled an ambitious plan to cut the rapidly rising number of people waiting for non-urgent surgery in public hospitals.

Health Minister Andrew Little has set up a taskforce to… Read more Audio

8:10 AM.A decision by the coroner to investigate the role social media played in the Christchurch terror attack has been called a "landmark moment".

In an earlier decision, the Coroner's Court ruled that the… Read more Audio

7:57 AM.The Government is funding more driver licencing and training through a $86.5 million investment over four years, announced ahead of Budget 2022.

An estimated 64,000 New Zealanders will benefit from… Read more Audio

7:49 AM.A specialist criminal court for young adults, known as the Young Adult List, is being launched in Gisborne today.

It's been developed to recognise that young adulthood is a time of increased… Read more Audio

7:46 AM.A bureaucratic bungle left a disabled toddler stuck in Wellington Hospital for nearly three months.

Her mother had to provide intensive care-level nursing for her despite the rest of the family… Read more Audio

7:27 AM.The number of children who've missed their free routine dental check-ups in Auckland has hit a record high and health authorities warn it'll take over a year to catch up.

The Auckland Regional Dental… Read more Audio

7:20 AM.Parliament's Speaker Trevor Mallard has taken a hammering over his trespass order debacle which ended yesterday afternoon with an embarrassing backdown.

Having issued the two year bans to Winston… Read more Audio

7:12 AM.A new plan to tackle long waiting lists for non-urgent surgery is being compared to opening a pandora's box.

The Government announced yesterday that public hospital waiting lists will be managed… Read more Audio

7:09 AM.The Coroner's Court has announced this morning the scope of what will, and won't, be covered in its investigation of the March 15 terrorist attack in Christchurch.

Questions will include whether the… Read more Audio

6:50 AM.A former Speaker of Parliament says issuing trespass notices to former MPs was a "stupid move".

Political backlash and the threat of legal action appear to have forced Speaker Trevor Mallard to… Read more Audio

6:45 AM.An unprecedented leak from the US Supreme Court of plans to overturn the right to abortion nationwide has called into question the integrity of the court.

Protests are being held across the country… Read more Audio

6:40 AM.Three people were stabbed in an attack in the Waikato town of Cambridge on Wednesday evening.

Police said emergency services were called to a commerical property on Campbell Street just before 9pm… Read more Audio

6:08 AM.Several EU member states have raised doubts about a plan to stop oil imports from Russia, put forward by the Commission's president.

The Commission is proposing a complete ban by the end of the year… Read more Audio