Morning Report

Residents in the Auckland suburb of Remuera say they're being plagued by dead eels, sewage floating down streams and smells so pungent it makes them gag.

The waterways around Hobson Bay have become a hotspot for contamination, and it could be years before the water runs completely clear again.

Katie Todd has the story.

Small businesses are crying out for government assistance, including a rent subsidy for all commercial tenants. The government is still considering a number of measures to help them out.

That can't come soon enough for a Rotorua businessman who told MPs at the Epidemic Response Committee that the government was offering little support other than to point them to bank.

Reg Hennessy owns and runs Hennessy's Irish Bar in Rotorua, and is the president of the Bay of Plenty branch of Hospitality NZ.

He speaks to Gyles Beckford.

A Taranaki business owner is warning leaseholders to read the fine print of their contracts after being asked to pay his rent in full despite a clause in his lease allowing for a rent cut if he couldn't legally access the property.

Clause 27.5 was included in the Auckland District Law Society commercial lease in 2012 in response to the Canterbury earthquakes, when many leaseholders were barred from their businesses.

RNZ reporter Robin Martin has more.

An immigration consultant is predicting an entrenched underclass of unlawful workers will emerge unless the Government provides emergency benefits to unemployed immigrants.

.About one in ten of the workforce is an overseas worker on a temporary visa.

Immigration adviser Alain Koetsier told RNZ reporter Gill Bonnett there could be unforeseen consequences of withholding welfare from immigrants who have lost their jobs.

As complaints flood in of businesses breaching Alert Level 3 Covid-19 restrictions there's uncertainty about who will clamp down on them.

The Government has set up a new investigation team - however it says it is focused on educating businesses and the public.

WorkSafe says it will be making 'proactive calls' to businesses to assure they are adhering to the guidelines.

In the last five weeks it has assessed 431 workplaces for Covid-19 readiness - by phone or video, not visiting - or 12 per day.

Of the 742 complaints lodged since Monday midnight against businesses, WorkSafe is looking into 17 of them.

Todd McClay is the National Party spokesperson on Workplace, Relations and Safety and economic development and small business.

He speaks to Corin Dann.

A terminal cancer patient has spent days in a half-full hospital waiting to have a procedure that should have taken an hour.

Some doctors have been urging hospitals to get back to business as usual after much of it was on hold for the lockdown.

Craig Gutry went into Palmerston North Hospital on Sunday to have a lump in his throat drained that was stopping him eating.

His wife, Jennie, says he initailly waited in the emergency department for hours before developing a slight fever and spending the night.

It wasn't until yesterday - three days after he went in - that Gutry's brief procedure was finally done but he had to wait one more time - for five hours - because staff could not find a doctor to discharge him.

Critics say Workplace is not doing enough to police and enforce the rules for organisations working under Alert Level 3.

Jo Pugh, the head of Worksafe's workplace inspectors speaks to Gyles Beckford.

Complaints are flooding in about businesses breaching Alert Level 3 restrictions meant to squeeze the life from Covid-19.

There is uncertainty and disbelief around who's policing the breaches and if there is the will to stop them.

Phil Pennington reports.

Coronavirus cases in the United States have topped 1 million, and 58,500 people have died - that's more than the total number of Americans killed in the Vietnam war.

It's bad news on the economic front, too: the Department of Commerce says the country's GDP shrank by 4.8 percent in the three months to March, the largest contraction since the global financial crisis of 2008.

Moreover, economists are warning those figures will worsen - expecting a further fall of 20 to 30 percent in the second quarter, which covers the period when many US states went into lockdown.

Washington DC correspondent Simon Marks speaks to Corin Dann.

News from the business sector, including a market report.