Morning Report

The direct descendant of one of the occupants of Kirikiriroa Pā says he supports a dual name for Hamilton. 

A former mayor of Hamilton has called for a public referendum on whether to restore the name of the North Island town to Kirkiriroa. 

Kirikiriroa Pā, where the Hamilton CBD now stands, was home for the hapū Ngāti Wairere up until 1864. 

The land was confiscated by the Crown in retribution for the Kīngitanga, made up of tribal chiefs from the Waikato area, refusing to swear allegiance to the British Crown. 

Wiremu Puke of Ngāti Wairere explained to Meriana Johnsen the significance of the name Kirikiriroa and why it should be reinstated.

Hospices will not be forced to help people to die if New Zealanders vote to legalise voluntary euthanasia at this year's general election.

A High Court judge has said there is nothing in the End of Life Choice Act that would require hospices to provide assisted-dying services if they did not want to.

Hospice New Zealand had asked the court to rule on several questions.

Lawyer Holly Hedley works in the health law arena and speaks to Susie Ferguson.

The first quarter GDP numbers will be released today, showing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced the shutdown of most businesses.

Broad expectations are for a drop in gross domestic product (GDP) of about 1 percent for the three months ended March on the previous quarter, the first contraction since the end of 2010.

Jarrod Kerr is Kiwibank's chief economist.

US President Donald Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton says President Trump sought Chinese President Xi Jinping's help to get re-elected during a closed-door meeting last year.

In excerpts of the book published in the Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, Bolton calls the president "erratic" and "stunningly uninformed".

He also told President Xi that building concentration camps to re-educate Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang was the right thing to do.

Washington DC correspondent, Simon Marks, has been reading the excerpts.

Fulton County District Attorney has charged the fired Atlanta police officer, Garrett Rolfe with felony murder for the shooting of Rayshard Brooks on June 12.

Another officer on the scene, Devin Brosnan, has also been charged and is co-operating with police.

Fulton County District Attorney, Paul L Howard, announced the charges.

A brief update of movements in the financial sector.

A Taranaki iwi says it has walked away from a track upgrade project in Egmont National Park after failing to find out where millions of taxpayers money is being spent.

Ngati Ruanui says its Official Information Act request went unanswered for months.

The iwi eventually appealed at ministerial level before 122-pages of heavily-redacted documents were released.

Taranaki Whanganui reporter Robin Martin has more

Investor confidence plummeted in the initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the economic fallout is about to start showing up on KiwiSaver statements.

For the first time, KiwiSaver members will be able to see a projection of how much they might have in their account by the time they reach 65 - and what that means as a weekly amount in retirement.

It might come as a shock to some, as the covid crisis starts to bite.

Martin Hawes is chair of the Summer KiwiSaver Investment Committee

Covid-19 testing times and contact tracing in Auckland have failed to meet the "gold standard" set by the Ministry of Health.

The Ministry of Health says because of privacy reasons it won't tell the public if all 12 public health units are hitting contact tracing targets.

Anusha Bradley has been looking at the figures.

There're still conflicting views on what sisters who have Covid-19 did on their trip from Auckland to Wellington.

It's now emerged the two women did, as National MP Michael Woodhouse said, have contact with two friends as they were leaving Auckland.

Director general of Health Ashley Bloomfield says they did not kiss and cuddle them after they helped them navigate their way out of the city.

Michael Woodhouse stood by his story when he spoke to us earlier.

 Behind all this is criticism of how people coming into the country are isolated and a lack of clarity over compassionate leave from that isolation.

Jane Patterson is RNZ's Political Editor.