Morning Report

City Rail Link in Auckland is giving the public the job of choosing a name for its tunnel boring machine. And it wants it named after an inspirational woman.

Voting has opened and the three candidates are the late Maori treaty rights campaigner Dame Whina Cooper, Antarctic researcher Doctor Margaret Bradshaw and the world's first elected trans MP Georgina Beyer.

Beyer speaks to Corin Dann.

Questions are flooding in to an online emergency business advisory forum set up almost a week ago as a place for expert advice.

Initially questions focused on wage subsidies but now talk is turning to redundancies.

Pat MacFie is a small business owner and a co-founder of the forum Manaaki.

He speaks to Susie Ferguson.

Government agencies are working overtime to get wage subsidies to people during lockdown but many are still in the dark over what they are entitled to and when they will get it.

Eva Corlett reports.

If you're stuck at home with time on your hands why not learn a new skill or a new language? 

Hemi Kelly is a Māori language lecturer at AUT and created a Facebook group called "A Māori Phrase A Day" encouraging people to learn te reo Māori. 

He speaks to Susie Ferguson.

A brief update of movements in the financial sector.

Queenstown will have to try to sustain itself on domestic tourism as it looks towards a future with no international tourists arriving.

Otago University epidemiologist Michael Baker says the spread of Covid-19 will likely continue for one to two years around the globe, so visitors to New Zealand will need to be restricted for some time.

Queenstown Mayor Jim Boult speaks to Corin Dann.

Some employees are refusing to work because they don't believe their jobs are essential.

Among them is a 68-year-old storage worker, who says she's prepared to go without pay for a month in order to keep herself safe from Covid-19.

Te Aniwa Hurihanganui has the story.

MBIE has told us self-storage facilities can operate only to facilitate access for essentials.

It says people can retrieve things they need to carry out essential services or to retrieve essential goods, such as fridges, if the fridge at home breaks down.

Air New Zealand is facing a drop in revenue of more than $5 billion and so is dramatically reducing its workforce.

The company has had to cut more than 95 percent of its flights in New Zealand and around the world.

Its staffing will be reduced by up to 3500 in coming months, beginning first with the international workers.

E tū aviation union organiser Savage speaks to Susie Ferguson.

President Donald Trump has said federal coronavirus guidelines such as social distancing will be extended across the US until at least 30 April.

He had previously suggested that they could be relaxed as early as Easter, which is next week.

Trump says the highest point of the death rate is likely to hit in two weeks.

White House medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci had earlier warned that the virus could kill up to 200,000 Americans.

The US now has more than 140,000 confirmed cases and 2,400 deaths.

Washington correspondent Simon Marks speaks to Corin Dann.

Workers looking after disabled people are sewing their own face masks to keep themselves safe from Covid-19, and others are considering not going to work at all until they get the right equipment.

Now the Disability Rights Commissioner, Paula Tesoriero is urging the Government to change its advice that community care workers do not need masks.

Matthew Theunissen reports.