Morning Report

A top-level taskforce is now working on a priority list of shovel-ready projects for when the government relaxes lockdown measures.

Submissions to the infrastructure industry reference group closed on Tuesday.

Councils have been among the submitters with Auckland City presenting a list of thirty key infrastructure projects and Wellington Council prioritising ten.

Mark Binns is chair of the group preparing the list of top contenders.

Around 800,000 students are back at school again and yesterday we heard from a Napier teacher about how much she was looking forward to getting back to work.

So we thought we'd check in again this morning to see how her first day back went.

Shyna Kesha teaches at William Colenso College but because of the lockdown, she and her students are all at home.

A protest camp at Ōwairaka/Mount Albert has been removed because they have been breaching the level 4 lockdown rules. 

Protesters have been occupying the site since November over the planned felling of non-native trees.

The Tūpuna Maunga Authority says the protesters have been unlawfully encouraging the members to maintain a constant presence at Ōwairaka by working in surveillance shifts - though the protesters deny this.

The Authority's chair, Paul Majurey, told RNZ Māori News Director Māni Dunlop the protestors were in clear breach of the level 4 lockdown rules and the removal was necessary to protect health and safety.

Nurses at Middlemore Hospital in Auckland say they're alarmed by a Counties Manukau DHB plan to reuse personal protective equipment.

RNZ has been shown correspondence telling staff to collect old masks, visors and goggles in bins, so they can be taken away and decontaminated for reuse.

The nurses say they're worried about how safe the process is and the Ministry of Health says reusing PPE is not part of its current guidance.

RNZ has agreed not to publish the nurses' names and we've revoiced their words.

Chen Liu reports.

A brief update of movements in the financial sector.

A government memo leaked to RNZ suggests prisoners could be kept locked up past their release date if deemed a Covid-19 risk.

The Solicitor General has written to Crown solicitors and public prosecutors recommending measures to limit the risk prisoners pose to themselves and to the public during the pandemic.

The advice includes recommendations to decline bail for those who have tested positive for Covid-19 or are awaiting a test.

But the guidelines have been slammed by justice reform advocates who say they exacerbate the very risk they are designed to minimise.

Investigative Journalist Guyon Espiner reports.

We've since had a response from the Attorney-General David Parker. His office says decisions on bail are the preserve of judges and that the Health Act allows for extended detention by order of the Director-General but no such orders have yet been made.

Countdown has opened a supermarket with a difference, to help deal with the increased demand they're dealing with.

The store is in the Auckland suburb of Penrose and will be like a normal supermarket - but there will be no customers in sight.

Spokesperson is Sally Copland speaks to Corin Dann.

One of the Government's key pandemic advisors say he is still in the dark over whether this country has good enough border control, testing and tracing systems to keep the coronavirus at bay.

Cabinet will decide on Monday whether the country is ready to move out of four weeks of lockdown.

Epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker is on the Covid-19 technical advisory group but says he has not yet seen crucial data despite asking the Ministry of Health for weeks.

He told RNZ reporter Phil Pennnington one critical piece of information is how many days it takes to identify and quarantine all close contacts of a person who tests positive.

Businesses on the West Coast of the South Island say with only a handful of Covid-19 cases, they should be the first to be allowed to open their doors.

The government will set out today what Alert Level 2 and 3 restrictions will look like before deciding on Monday whether the country is ready to move out of Alert Level 4.

But as Conan Young reports, some on the West Coast believe their region is uniquely placed to move straight to a lower level.

Major media organisations are urging the Government to spend their advertising money locally rather than on global giants Google and Facebook.

They told Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee yesterday the industry is in a perilous state.

This week NZME cut 200 jobs after a 50 percent drop in advertising revenue.

Earlier this month Bauer media blamed the Covid-19 crisis for its decision to close its New Zealand titles including Metro, The Listener, North & South and Woman's Day.

Sinead Boucher is the chief executive at Stuff and spoke to the Epidemic Response Committee yesterday.

She speaks to Susie Ferguson.