News from the rural and farming sector.

A brief update from the business sector.

Bernie Monk, whose son Michael died in the Pike River disaster nearly ten years ago, is frustrated the Pike River Recovery Agency is not using remote sensing scanners to map the mine.

The agency says workers have pushed nearly two kilometres into the mine looking for clues to what caused the deadly explosion that killed 29 men.

Bernie Monk told RNZ reporter Anan Zaki the work would be faster and more accurate if they were using Lidar scanners.

An economist is calling for more social housing stock and better rentals to help ease housing pressure.

Real estate data shows the national average asking price was down on the previous month, but still up by 11.5 percent on last year.

Economist Shamubeel Eaqub told our Housing reporter Eva Corlett that the government's policies have had little effect on runaway house prices during its term.

New Zealand Rugby has doubled down on its insistence that it never agreed to the Rugby Championship extending into six weeks, which would leave the All Blacks in quarantine over Christmas.

Some doctors are walking away from the Medical Association over its stance on the cannabis referendum, Twelve new imported cases of Covid-19 were reported yesterday -- prompting calls for pre-departure testing, We'll talk to the chair of the New Zealand Rugby Union about the tensions over Super Rugby

We've heard about loud-mouthed election candidates but what about loud-mouthed parrots?

In Britain, the Lincolnshire Wildlife Park has had to separate a group of five African Grey parrots because their language was too strong for younger visitors.

The group are all domestic birds - named Eric, Jade, Elsie, Tyson and Billy - who have been rehomed from the local area.

Steve Nichols is the chief executive of the park.

An important election is kicking off in New Zealand this month, the candidates are diverse and they often disagree with each other.

They're also pretty cute, love fish and are only 25 centimetres tall.

The Little Penguins at the National Aquarium in Napier are vying to become Penguin of the Year.

Rebekah Cuthbert is the Supervisor of Birds at the National Aquarium.

She speaks to Corin Dann.

A Northland councillor is predicting kauri will be extinct on Crown land in the next 30 years because the Government isn't doing enough to control kauri dieback across the upper North Island.

Jack Craw says the disease is spreading unchecked in Northland's native forests.

But local iwi strongly disagree with that assessment.

Jean Bell reports.

Amnesty International is accusing the US company Palantir Technologies of contributing to human rights violations against asylum-seekers and migrants through its work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the US.

Palantir Technologies provides data analysis software and earlier this year pitched contact tracing technology to New Zealand's Ministry of Health.

Corin Dann spoke to Michael Kleinman, from Amnesty International's Silicon Valley Initiative.

He said he believed there was a chance the company is at least partly responsible for human rights violations.