Morning Report

Calls are growing for Whanganui to review its open slather approach to freedom camping.

Campgrounds say they are missing out on valuable revenue while some residents say freedom camping in the city has got out of hand and popular sites are becoming overwhelmed.

RNZ Taranaki Whanganui reporter Robin Martin has more.

After 91 years of cigarettes being made just north of Wellington, Imperial Tobacco is calling it quits.

It's planning to close its Petone factory which will cost 122 people their jobs.

Imperial's Kirsten Daggar-Nickson says people aren't smoking cigarettes like they used to.

The factory has been in Petone since 1929, and was originally owned by British American Tobacco until Imperial took over in 1999.

Hutt City Mayor Campbell Barry speaks to Corin Dann about the closure.

A brief update on the movements in the financial sector.

The American fruit importer who coined the term 'kiwifruit' for chinese gooseberries from New Zealand has died in California at the age of 96.

Frieda Caplan became known as the Kiwi Queen after she came up with the term in 1962.

She said the new name came about when a customer asked for Chinese gooseberries and when she saw them she thought they looked just like a kiwi bird and 'kiwifruit' would be a much more marketable name.

An expert on refugee law says a new ruling from the United Nations would mean New Zealand has to take climate refugees.

In a landmark case the UN has found it is unlawful for governments to send people back to countries where climate change exposes people to life-threatening risks or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

The ruling follows the case of Ioane Teitiota from the tiny island of Kiribati who became the world's first climate change refugee in 2015 when his application for asylum in New Zealand was denied.

He took the case the UN claiming New Zealand had violated his right to life.

Professor Jane McAdam, director of the Kaldor centre for international refugee law at the University of New South Wales, speaks to Corin Dann.

A case of the deadly coronavirus has been diagnosed for the first time in the United States.

It's the first time a case of the virus has been found outside Asia and was detected in a passenger from China who arrived in Seattle.

In Australia a man in Brisbane who had visited Wuhan was being checked for the virus, but is now no longer in quarantine.

The Ministry of Health says the current risk to New Zealand from the deadly coronavirus is low but is awaiting further advice from the World Health Organisation.

The virus - which originated in Wuhan - has killed six people and infected more than 300 people.

Earlier Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay said there are no direct flights from Wuhan to New Zealand, but the Ministry of Health is keeping an eye on the situation in Australia.

Professor Michael Baker is a Medical Epidemiologist at the University of Otago and speaks to Philippa Tolley.

The American tennis great John McEnroe says he'll pledge $1,500 to the Australian bushfire relief fund for each set Nick Kyrgios wins at the Australian Open.

A recently widowed Marlborough dairy farmer says a logging operation that has sprung up on a neighbouring property is likely to destroy her farm.

Lone Sorenson is enraged a paper road through her property could be turned into a major transport route for trucks and heavy vehicles.

RNZ Nelson-Marlborough reporter Tracy Neal has the story.

The naming of eleven Māori as new District Court judges is being called a generational shift.

Attorney General David Parker says the move is aimed at improving access to justice and boosting diversity in the courts.

Fourteen new judges were announced yesterday, with another seven to be revealed later this year.

Marcia Murray is a co-president of the Māori Law Society.

She speaks to Philippa Tolley.

An Auckland ferry company is asking authorities to intervene urgently over delays it's blaming on cruise ships.

Fullers says two cruise ships forced it to cancel three ferries packed with commuters.

Mackenzie Smith reports.