Morning Report

A Northland primary school has achieved an almost complete measles vaccination rate.

Ninety-seven percent of the mainly Māori students at of Te Kura o Otangarei have now received the MMR vaccine.

At the start of the measles outbreak only around 60 percent of the children were immunised.

Te Kura o Otangarei principal Myles Ferris speaks to Corin Dann.

Hospitality businesses in the top of the South are struggling to fill summer job vacancies, with some reporting not a single application from the typically abundant visitor workforce.

They're blaming confusion over work visa changes being introduced over the next 18 months.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa also says fewer young people are now visiting New Zealand.

Tracy Neal has the story.

A Māori-led protest group in Kaikōura is threatening to occupy land to stop a walking and cycling path being built on burial sites at Mangamaunu despite assurances the developers are looking for another location.

There has been strong opposition from mana whenua to the cycleway which was approved without consultation with iwi, under the Emergency legislation brought in after the 2016 earthquake.

The rebuild alliance says its negotiating a resolution with the hapu to link up the sections of cycleway already built and in the meantime work at Mangamauna is on hold.

Meriana Johnsen has the story.

The country's newest Great Walk, the Paparoa Track, is expected to be be a much needed boon for the West Coast economy.

The $12 million track, designed for both trampers and mountain bikers, is 80-percent booked between now and the end of April.

It's been built as a tribute to the 29 men who died in the Pike River mine and over three hundred mostly West Coast locals were at the official opening in Blackball.

RNZ's Conan Young was there.

Summer is officially underway but if you live in the lower North Island and the South Island you can prepare for an unsettled week.

It's expected to turn wet and windy as a series of fronts approaches from the south.

Chris Brandolino is a NIWA meteorologist.

The London Bridge attack has pushed law and order towards the top of the British political agenda, with days to go before a snap election.

Usman Khan, wearing a fake suicide vest and wielding knives, killed two people before being wrestled to the ground by bystanders and shot dead by police.

Khan had been convicted in 2012 for his part in a plot to blow up the London Stock Exchange, but was released last year halfway through his sentence.

In total 74 people who were jailed for terror offences in the UK did not serve their full sentence.

The prime minister, Boris Johnson, has now vowed to end the automatic early release of some serious offenders.

RNZ's correspondent in London is Vincent McAviney.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson signalled there will be more spending on infrastructure over the weekend, but he won't say precisely where yet.

He told Corin Dann an announcement will be made in 10 days time.

"I said on Saturday it's transport, I'm not getting into that now. There's a range of needs across the sector and in other infrastructure areas."

Schools will get an early Christmas present to the tune of $400 million to spend on upgrades to school property and grounds.

It was the main pitch to members from the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at Labour's annual conference over the weekend - and to voters around the country.

RNZ political reporter Yvette McCullough was there.

District hospital staff in Samoa say more people are coming to get vaccinated as the death toll from measles continues to rise.

Forty-eight people are now dead due to measles - most of them children.

RNZ reporter Logan Church is in Samoa and speaks to Kim Hill.

Traditional Christmas community gatherings are being cancelled in Samoa as the death toll from measles continues to climb.

One in 50 people on the Pacific island has been infected with measles - and 48 have died.

Logan Church is in Samoa and filed this report.