The Front Page

Malcolm Rewa has gone on trial today - charged for the third time with killing Auckland woman Susan Burdett 27 years ago.Chief High Court judge, Justice Geoffrey Venning, acknowledged many in the jury would have heard parts of the case before, particularly because of the high-profile connection to Teina Pora. The case found infamy when Teina Pora was twice wrongly convicted for murdering Burdett.He spent 22 years in prison before the Privy Council quashed his conviction in 2015 and has since received an apology from the Government and $3.5 million in compensation.A stay of proceedings for a murder prosecution against Rewa was applied by the Solicitor-General in 1998, but in 2017 the Deputy Solicitor-General, on behalf of the Attorney-General, reversed the stay.A stay had never before been lifted in New Zealand's legal history.And new hope on day seven of the Nelson fires, as Wakefield residents are allowed back into their homes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The country's polytechnics are in for a shake-up. Jacinda Ardern gave her 'State of the Nation' speech to a business audience this morning, outlining the economic challenges facing New Zealand, and foreshadowing a major restructure of polytechnics and institutes of technology. The restructure is to be released next week. It's expected to recommend turning the vocational education sector into a flexible network, which focuses on greater cooperation between institutions to meet the needs of business. Polytechnics and institutes have cost the Government 100 million dollars in recent bailouts.Ardern told the business audience the reforms would be far reaching. She said the system was struggling, and had been left to drift and muddle through. She questioned why at a time when they're facing critical skill shortages, polytechs and institutes are going broke. Also today, more evacuations have taken place as the Tasman wildfire continues to rage out of control. The town of Wakefield has been evacuated, and now more families have been forced from their homes in Nelson City, after a new fire broke out.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Prime Minister says as she flew into Nelson she could see the true scale of the massive Tasman bush fire. Jacinda Ardern has met emergency services battling the blaze in Pigeon Valley today.Ardern says trying to control the fire is a massive undertaking. Incident controller John Sutton says it's almost certain the fire was the result of agricultural machinery. He says it was a highly accidental event with a totally unintended consequence. While yesterday had been a good day, making progress in containing the fire, the firefighters had a lot of work ahead of them. Sutton said some firefighters were experiencing fatigue and they were trying to fly in more firefighters.Also today: unemployment figures have risen higher than expected, and the Grace Millane murder-accused continues to fight to keep his name secret.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A massive blaze in Tasman continues to ravage the district. And, authorities are scrambling after a second fire has broken out in the region, at Rabbit Island.The fire in Pigeon Valley started yesterday afternoon but doubled in size overnight, spreading to cover 1870 hectares within a perimeter of 20kms by 3am.A Civil Defence state of emergency has been declared. Sources have told the Herald the fire's thought to have been sparked by a farmer ploughing his field. The Nelson District Council says 170 homes have been evacuated near Pigeon Valley Further evacuations are now taking place near Rabbit Island. There have been no reports of injury.However, there have been some animal welfare issues and at least 13 animals have had to be euthanised.Also today, hundreds have gathered at Waitangi today to mark the 179th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Politicians from all parties were greeted with a rousing powhiri as they were welcomed onto Waitangi's Upper Marae this morning.For the first time all MPs, including Jacinda Ardern and National's Simon Bridges, arrived in one group.Last year, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told those gathered to hold her and the Government to account. Today she has acknowledged there’s still more work to do. She says she doubts anyone expected the Government to turn around decades of issues in 12 months.But she says they have made progress, as Maori unemployment, and prison numbers, and young people not in education, jobs or training - have all come down.And New Zealand First MP and Cabinet Minister Tracey Martin says she personally witnessed a National Party MP instructing online "trolls" to attack former Labour leader Andrew Little.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government is ploughing more than $100 million into regional employment, focused on Māori and Pasifika people.It's one of a series of announcements made in the lead-up to Waitangi Day.The lion's share of the funding will go to five regions the Government says need extra help. They are Northland, Bay of Plenty, Tairāwhiti, Hawke's Bay and Manawatū-Whanganui.Those regions face issues including high unemployment, low wages and lower productivity compared with the rest of New Zealand. And some Tauranga families are turning to foodbanks for school lunches, as back-to-school costs mount.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wage and salary earners paid out $1.7bn in what's been called "stealth" tax last year. According to advice to the Tax Working Group, it was after inflation increases pushed workers and their pay packets into higher tax brackets. Officials have warned the public could see the money as having come through a stealth tax and Government may want to change it as a "value judgement".They've also said if the Government did change tax rates, it would increase transparency and account for inflation but money would need to be found to pay for public services.The extra tax was scooped up after the former government left tax brackets largely unchanged during its time in office, with the highest tax bracket fixed to kick in at $70,000.Since 2008, inflation combined with pay rises has doubled the number of workers paying the full 33 per cent tax rate on earnings over $70,000. Those in the highest tax bracket increased in 10 years from 335,000 people to 665,000 people. In some countries, tax brackets are automatically tied to inflation, but in New Zealand they are not.Also today, disappointment from the CTV families on learning the building designer Alan Reay is appealing a court ruling, and new data suggesting NZ might not need to build as many houses as we thought.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A report on how to address fair pay is out, but it's led to division; with Labour versus National, and employers versus unions. The working group was led by former National Prime Minister Jim Bolger, and has come back with 46 recommendations, including that fair pay agreements cover all employers and that workers should be able to initiate a Fair Pay Agreement if they have a minimum group of 1000 people, or 10 per cent of workers in the sector, whichever was lower. Bolger says it will be most useful in work where competition is driving a ‘race to the bottom’ in wages and conditions. He says the changes would not only tackle inequality, but also boost productivity. As much as $14 billion worth of council infrastructure is threatened by rising seas, thanks to climate change.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Air New Zealand's boss is vowing to be directly involved in looking at the airline's books. The national carrier has cut its pre-tax earnings guidance to a range of $340 million to $400 million for the June year, due to slower-than-expected revenue growth. The previously announced guidance was for underlying earnings before tax of $425m to $525m.Air New Zealand's share price took a tumble in the opening minutes of trade this morning. In an internal email to staff, Christopher Luxon said the revised guidance reflects updated revenue forecasts based on recent forward booking trends but that "difficult decisions" lay ahead. Luxon did not specifically mention job cuts. He said markets showing signs of slower growth include domestic leisure travel and softening inbound tourism traffic. Luxon says he's committed to turning things around. Also today: National's proposed tax plan is set to give the average worker an extra $430 a year, the Housing Minister plans to "re-calibrate" the KiwiBuild policy, and Hellers has been fined $40,000 after three children suffered allergic reactions due to mislabelled Sizzlers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government is reassessing its targets for the troubled KiwiBuild scheme. It now looks like they could not only miss targets for this year, but the next ten. As well as targeting 1000 KiwiBuild homes by July 2019, Twyford had previously committed to building 10,000 in 2020/21 and 12,000 every year after that until 2028. Addressing media at the post-Cabinet press conference this afternoon, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern would not re-commit to those previous KiwiBuild goals.And the heatwave starts to bite, with farmers worried about the impact on their crops, and workers sweltering.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.