Morning Report

News from the rural and farming sector.

A brief update from the business sector.

Those advocating for lung cancer sufferers say the extra funding announced for Pharmac in this year's budget is cold comfort.

Pharmac is getting an additional $160 million over four years to secure approved medicines.

The drug buying agency has already said the rising cost of medicines and extra freight costs due to Covid-19, means funding for the likes of Keytruda will have to be put on hold.

The head of the Lung Foundation, Philip Hope, told Conan Young, lung cancer sufferers should not have to wait any longer.

Germany has seen a spike in the rate of Covid-19 infections just days after the country eased its lockdown restrictions.

According to the Robert Kock Institue, Germany's reproduction rate - which is the number of people each confirmed paitient infects - is now above one.

This comes after Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a broad relaxation on national restrictions after talks with the leaders of Germany's 16 states last Wednesday.

Berlin correspondent Thomas Sparrow has more.

Top stories this morning Cabinet decides today if and when we can leave Alert Level 3. We'll look at whether the country's ready It could be back to school for all soon - but expect timetable changes, zoom meetings and a lot more hand washing An escaped prisoner's on the loose in the Hutt Valley. We'll have the latest on that. and we ask what should be done for people who've been denied a benefit because they got redundancy payouts.

It's Friday so we cross the ditch to Canberra to talk to our correspondent Kerry-Anne Walsh.

Having been successful in keeping out Covid-19, another crisis is emerging for Pacific countries with tourist numbers falling to zero.

There are fears that tens of thousands of people across the region could fall into poverty, with thousands of jobs already lost.

In Samoa, where first a measles epidemic and now the coronavirus have decimated the largest industry, it's already starting to show.

RNZ Pacific's Jamie Tahana reports.

There's been a surge in the rate of Māori being tested for Covid-19, but several districts are still lagging behind.

New Ministry of Health data shows Māori are being tested at a slightly higher rate than non-Māori on average.

But one third of District Health Boards still appear to be undertesting Māori.

Māori news correspondent Leigh-Marama Mclachlan reports.

An employment lawyer says a court finding that an Auckland courier was an employee, not a contractor could open the floodgates to similar cases.

Mika Leota was working for Parcel Express and had signed a contract to say he was a contractor, but yesterday a judge determined the actual conditions he worked under made him an employee.

Wellington lawyer Barbara Buckett says other employers who have mis-labelled an employees as a contractor could have a costly problem on their hands.

She speaks to Kim Hill.

A brief update of movements in the financial sector.