TV3
Lead Item
Christine Rankin's man stood by her
today, giving evidence of how his wife now lives
with
fear, and in desperation. Rankin's husband took the stand in
the $818,000 bid to get
his wife's job back. Back to
court for Christine Rankin, but all eyes were on this
man,
Allan Hogg, former civil servant of 30 years, now
Senior Manager in Customer Services at
AXA Investment,
and husband of Christine Rankin. "Christine told me of the
time when
she was spat at, I have been with her at the
time when people have referred to her as an
effing bitch,
or have yelled at her from trucks from cars, and on one
occasion we feared
for our physical safety because of the
reaction that people had around her to her,"
says Hogg.
Hogg told the court that reaction has changed their lives,
probably forever.
Parliament Debate
The
Rankin case spilled over into Parliament again today.
Opposition leader Jenny
Shipley accused Prime Minister
Helen Clark of double standards by allowing
sexist
behaviour from Social Services Minister Steve
Maharey. Jenny Shipley's target was an
absent Helen Clark
- for not defending Christine Rankin.
Missing Patient
A large team of searchers is scouring the
Otago Coastline for a Dunedin psychiatric
patient who's
been missing for 24 hours. 26 year old Amos Cameron suffers
from autism.
When last seen he was wearing nothing but a
pair of red underpants and he's so timid he
could be
hiding from the searchers. Police and search and rescue are
tonight concentrating
on the beaches, bush and buildings
Qantas Money
The receivers
of Tasman Pacific airlines - which ran the failed Qantas New
Zealand -
say all the secured creditors will be paid.
Qantas New Zealand went bust in march -
putting staff out
of work and disrupting the travel plans of thousands of
passengers. The
receivers say the BNZ will be paid back
almost $10 million and staff will get up to $6000
pay.
Grapes
The grape harvest is down 11%
this year - after a terrible summer in 2 of our 3
biggest
wine making regions. A bad frost is being blamed
for cutting production in Hawkes Bay and
Gisborne. But
the industry's hopeful it won't hurt our premium export
varieties. At the
Kemblefield Vineyard they're looking
ahead to next year after a disappointing summer saw
them
harvest a fraction of their usual crop.
Save Our Southerner
South islanders are springing in to
action to save the Southerner train service
between
Christchurch and Invercargill. Tranzrail's
selling most of its passenger operation to an
Australian
company, but it's not interested in four other marginal
services, including the
Southerner. But moves are
underway to keep the Southerner on track.
Water Stealer
A South Canterbury farmer's been fined
$4000 for stealing river water to irrigate his
farm. Mark
Holmes admitted stealing nearly 900 cubic meters of water
from the Rakaia
River, but said he only took it when the
river's level was rising. It's the first time
Environment
Canterbury's charged anyone for stealing river water,