Morning Report

Civil Defence Director Sarah Stuart-Black speaks to RNZ political reporter Jo Moir.

The government will send commercial tenants and landlords who cannot agree on rent reductions to compulsory arbitration, Two of country's biggest public health units are refusing to use the government's national Covid contact tracing system, and The Minnesota Attorney General is expected to announce additional charges over the death of George Floyd

New Zealand Super Rugby teams will have new rules, some of them contentious, when the country's domestic competition starts on Saturday week.

Rugby reporter Joe Porter has the details.

He speaks to Corin Dann.

A Christchurch gallery has apologised and pulled down controversial art after complaints the works appropriated Māori culture.

Yesterday, Windsor Gallery removed Rhonye McIlroy's art, which included a painting of a white woman with a moko kauae, bare breasted, wearing bondage.

A Māori liaison at Ara Institute of Canterbury, Atama Moa, who wears a mataora - a facial moko - says the art was shocking and inappropriate.

He met with the gallery yesterday afternoon, and spoke to our Māori news correspondent Leigh-Marama McLachlan.

Windsor Gallery spokesperson Cameron Taylor says they are grateful for Moa's insight into tikanga Māori.

He said they assumed the artist had created the work responsibly, and took the art down when they realised it was offensive.

Marine scientists are again butting heads over a plan to protect endangered Māui and Hector's dolphins.

A threat management plan for the dolphins was the subject of vicious debate when it was released last year, labelling cat poo a greater risk to the dolphins than fishing nets.

Now a marine expert has published work tearing apart the methods underpinning the plan, prompting the man behind it to again defend his work.

RNZ's Rachel Thomas reports

Kaikōura businesses are just managing to scrape by but prospects for the largely tourist town are grim if the border doesn't open to international visitors by summer. 

Local leaders are worried about unemployment rising over the next six months, and are looking to construction projects as a way to keep people employed. 

Meriana Johnsen reports.

How badly family's incomes have been hit by Covid-19 will be a critical factor for schools deciding whether to be in or out of the government's school donation scheme next year.

Boards of trustees must make the decision during the next month and principals say they will consider their community's ability and willingness to pay donations.

The government's deal gives schools in deciles one through seven, $150 per student if they stop asking for donations for anything other than school camps.

RNZ education correspondent John Gerritsen reports.

Iwi and the wider public will now be allowed to have their say on the Gisborne District Council's plan to install two new small-scale models of Captain Cook's ship, Endeavour, in the city.

The district council provoked widespread backlash and disappointment when it voted last week to install the models on Gladstone Road without any public input.

Mayor Rehette Stoltz says she's changed her mind and regrets her decision to vote in favour of without consulting local iwi.

RNZ's Te Aniwa Hurihanganui has the story.

The Council of Trade Unions is campaigning for sick leave to be doubled, from five to 10 days per year.

They say Covid-19 has shown New Zealanders how important it is to stay home when you're sick, but five days is simply not enough.

CTU president Richard Wagstaff speaks to Corin Dann.

Course fees have been scrapped for all apprenticeships for the next 2.5 years.

In last month's budget, $320 million was earmarked for training and apprenticeships to support New Zealanders who had lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yesterday's announcement also includes free training in fields such as agriculture, forestry, road transport and community work.

Warwick Quinn is the chief executive of the Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation.

He speaks to Corin Dann.