Morning Report

It's Friday so we cross the ditch to Canberra to talk to our correspondent Kerry-Anne Walsh.

The Tuia 250 Voyage flotilla will arrive in the capital this afternoon, performing a sail-by around Wellington Harbour between one and three o'clock.

The commemorative voyage has been travelling Aotearoa for the past two months to mark 250 years since Captain James Cook's landfall.

Tuia 250 Chief Operating Officer Maria Robertson speaks to Susie Ferguson.

Students from an Auckland primary school are fed up they're missing out on the bountiful and unspoilt North Shore beaches enjoyed by locals just one generation ago.

With the help of teachers, year six students from Long Bay Primary School have gathered over 3500 signatures on a petition calling for their beach to become a marine reserve.

The campaign has been so successful that MPs from the Environment Select Committee held court in the school hall.

RNZ's Matthew Theunissen went along to hear 10 and 11-year-olds grill the politicians about why they've been left with polluted beaches robbed of marine life.

The Black Caps head to Seddon Park in Hamilton on Friday with a one-nil lead in their two test series against England.

The English cricket team have rallied around fast bowler Jofra Archer who was racially taunted during the first test in Mount Maunganui.

Scyld Berry is cricket correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph.

A brief update on the movements in the financial sector.

The Māori Council has advocated for the rights of Māori for more than 50 years, but it's now facing tough questions about its role and relevance today.

It was created under the Māori Community Development Act in 1962, and allowed Māori as a collective to consult directly with the Crown.

Te Aniwa Hurihanganui reports.

Auckland Council's latest economic report shows the city's housing affordability has increased by 26 percent - the best in six years.

It says the unitary plan, a surge in industry capacity, income growth and low unemployment all played a part.

The council's chief economist David Norman spoke to RNZ reporter Chen Liu about what that means.

More than 300 of Uber's Jump scooters have been pulled off Wellington streets and piled up ready to be scrapped.

The scooters, some broken down and others intact are being sent to a recycling company in Auckland.

Uber says the scooters have reached the end of their life after arrriving in the capital just six months ago.

Charlotte Cook reports.

Protesters occupying Ihumātao are still in the dark about the future of the whenua despite Fletcher Building saying a solution is expected soon.

At the annual meeting yesterday, chair Bruce Hassall defended the company's record, saying it bought the land in good faith, and had done everything by the book, even delaying work on the site when asked to by the Government.

He said Fletcher Building had been advised that the government was hopeful of achieving a resolution by the end of the year.

Pania Newton, who is a Fletcher Building shareholder and a co-leader of the group leading the protection movement at Ihumatao, was at the meeting.

She speaks to Susie Ferguson.

The Education Ministry has dismissed safety concerns about school buses raised by a union.

The Ministry says in a letter to First union it is disappointed that parents across New Zealand have been unduly alarmed when there is no evidence to substantiate the concerns.

The union says the ministry's dismissal of bus drivers' reports is of "grave concern".

Phil Pennington is covering this.