Morning Report

News from the rural and farming sector.

A brief update from the business sector.

Advocates for healthy homes say the government's budget its Warmer Kiwi Homes programme will leave thousands in the cold.

The scheme has been expanded to cover 90 percent of the costs of insulation or heating retrofit for low-income households.

The $56m investment is expected to cover an extra 9000 houses.

The chief executive of the Green Building Council, Andrew Eagles says that leaves half a million households in substandard housing.

The Government's big spending budget yesterday laid out how it would fight the impact of Covid-19 and steer New Zealand's economy back on track.

Fifty billion is a big war chest, but it appears Finance Minister Grant Robertson is keeping some of his powder dry - with $20 billion as yet unallocated.

Its centrepiece is a $4 billion business support package, which rolls over the wage subsidy scheme for eight weeks beyond the initial 12 weeks.

But while the numbers are big, not everybody is happy and there are questions on the detail.

GPs say they've been passed over in the budget and want to be at the table when the extra health support the government has promised is divvied up.

The chair of General Practice NZ, Jeff Lowe, says the hope is some of the $4 billion allocated to DHBs earlier this week will filter down to general practice.

Kōhanga Reo say their staff have been underpaid and undervalued for too long and the budget's substantial cash injection will go some way to addressing that. 

The government is investing nearly $200 million over four years - the biggest funding increase to date. 

But Kōhanga Reo points out its still below the payout to other learning centres. 

Te Aniwa Hurihanganui reports.

Top stories this morning... A 20-billion-dollar war chest - or a 20-billion-dollar slush fund? We have all the reaction to Grant Robertson's Covid-19 budget We'll have political and economic reaction and we'll talk to business and community leaders and owners of small businesses and We reveal an unapproved police trial of facial recognition software carried out more than two dozen searches

In Auckland so many men are flocking to barbers you could be excused for thinking you were at Masterton's Golden Shears competition.

Reporter Anneke Smith is outside The Barbers Room on Dominion Rd which has a line round the block of men waiting to get their hair cut.

The divisive relationship between the Dunedin City Council and central city businesses may be ready to explode if proposed speed limit changes come into force.

The council will decide today on a suite of measures including a 10km/h speed limit in the central city to encourage people to venture out after the lockdown.

Business groups have slammed the idea - certain it will have the opposite effect.

RNZ Otago-Southland reporter Timothy Brown has more.

Hardware stores are among the hardest hit in the lockdown retail slump with the country's two big operators closing sites.

Bunnings Warehouse is proposing to close seven stores that are no longer viable, and at least one Mitre10 store has closed, albeit temporarily.

Twenty-three staff at Mitre10 in Whangaparoa north of Auckland were made redundant after earlier taking pay cuts to try to stave off job losses but in any level of lockdown during a global pandemic, redundancies are far from straight-forward.

Amy Williams reports.

Lockdown rules have meant nearly empty roads and a dramatic decline in car and motorcycle accidents over the past seven weeks.

There is concern about what will happen when rusty drivers get back behind the wheel under Alert Level 2.

Pete Daly worked for 13 years as a professional motorcycle patroller for the Ministry of Transport and the police, and is an ACC Injury Prevention Partner.

He speaks to Susie Ferguson.