The Front Page podcast: Former PM and Mainzeal co-directors found liable for millions

Dame Jenny Shipley. Photo / Dean Purcell

Each weekday The Front Page keeps you up to date with the biggest news in New Zealand. Today it's Dame Jenny Shipley asked to pay millions for her part in the Mainzeal collapse, Labour goes on the defensive over capital gains tax, Air New Zealand slashes flight costs, and pies hit the streets in Auckland, literally. Hosted by Frances Cook.

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Former Prime Minister Dame Jenny Shipley has been found liable for millions in damages by the High Court, along with other Mainzeal directors.

The failed building giant had been trading while insolvent despite its high profile - and creditors would have been better off if the company had been put into liquidation earlier, according to the High Court.

The four directors have been found liable for a combined $36 million in damages.

High Court Justice Francis Cooke has ruled the group of Shipley, Richard Yan, Peter Gomm and Clive Tilby, breached their legal duties as company directors. Shipley's contribution to the total award is $6m.

Yan was found to have a higher level of responsibility by inducing the three other directors to breach their duties, the judgment says.

Mainzeal was put into liquidation in 2013, owing creditors more than $110m.

In a statement following the release of the judgment, the High Court says Mainzeal directors were reckless, "had adopted a policy of trading while insolvent", and "used money owed to trade operators, particularly sub-contractors, as working capital".

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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says small business owners and farmers will be at the top of her mind when it comes to making a final decision on a capital gains tax in the next two months.

In her post-Cabinet press conference yesterday evening she said they're crucial to New Zealand's economy, and she wants them to know, she hears them.

Ardern said she knew some of the discussions that would be happening in rural New Zealand and among small business owners about the tax.

But she used most of the press briefing in defensive mode, laying the groundwork for what looks likely to be a diluted capital gains tax.

Ardern says she's not going to give a definitive view on the recommendations while she's trying to get consensus among three parties, Labour, New Zealand First and the Greens.

New Zealand First appears unlikely to support a capital gains tax applying to farms and other businesses but may support one on property investments.

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And in his first major economic speech of the year, Finance Minister Grant Robertson has hit back at capital gains tax critics.

Speaking this morning at the Chamber of Commerce and Massey University business breakfast at Eden Park, Robertson reminded those who railed against the tax that "we are not bound by the recommendations".

He says the Government hasn't made a decision yet, and wants to ensure the country remains productive and innovative.

"It's now our job to go through and say 'does that really add to fairness?'"

Robertson says the proposal's capital loss treatment is more generous than most regimes in the world.

He also made comments about New Zealand's relationship with its international partners, that are worth noting.

On Brexit, Robertson says he's optimistic about a European trade deal. On a UK trade deal he says there are "a lot of issues to work through".

He says we're operating in a world where there is some volatility, such as the recent reports in Chinese media, which questioned New Zealand's treatment of Huawei.

Despite these concerns, Robertson says New Zealand's relationship with China remains good - and the Government will continue to develop it.

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Air New Zealand's slashing regional air fares, in a move that will see 750,000 seats a year available for less than $50.

The national carrier has revealed cheaper fares on 41 domestic routes in what is the biggest shake up of prices in more than a decade.

Fares between Tauranga and Auckland will start at $39, and flights from Tauranga to Wellington at $49.

The new fares can be purchased from today and will apply for travel from March 25.

Air New Zealand chief executive Christopher Luxon says "Regional New Zealand is one of the biggest winners out of today's announcement."

The domestic fare cuts will bring their prices in line with what Jetstar offers on some local routes.

Yesterday the Herald reported Air New Zealand was working on a strategy to try and stimulate its domestic market, especially the regional routes, since it announced a profit downgrade last month.

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The controversial plan to build a $1.4 billion high-density housing development at Okura, outside northern Auckland's city limits, has been sunk by drawn-out appeals.

Todd Property managing director Evan Davies says the company decided not to go ahead with an appeal in the High Court.

He says they considered the time involved with an appeal, and decided to focus on other developments instead.

He says they're disappointed not to be able to create the 1000-house development.

When the Auckland Council turned down the application for the development, the company originally went to the Environment Court. But that bid failed last year, partly because the estuary was considered an important habitat for birds.

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Spark is understood to have pulled all its advertising activity from YouTube in response to evidence of unsavoury content targeted at children.

The move comes after a number of international reports exposing paedophile-type content contained within the comments of videos that are targeted at minors.

While the videos themselves may not violate YouTube's content policies, the comments underneath often feature inappropriate content loaded with sexual references and innuendo.

The story was originally broken by video blogger Matt Watson, who noted that videos featuring children talking to camera, performing gymnastics or playing with toys are often interpreted in inappropriate ways.

The comments beneath the videos often feature timestamps referring to moments when the children are in compromised positions. Other comments openly use sexually explicit language in reference to the children.

YouTube responded to the latest scandal by purging tens of millions of comments from the site.

The issue has sparked enough concern in the local market that the Association of New Zealand Advertisers (ANZA) sent out a statement warning brands of the risks associated with platforms such as YouTube.

In addition to Spark, major brands such as Disney and Nestle also halted their advertising on YouTube because their ads were played alongside videos with abusive or sexually explicit comments.

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Killer driver Rouxle Le Roux is going back before the courts, for breaching the conditions of her home detention.

The 19-year-old admitted a charge of dangerous driving causing the death of 15-year-old Nathan Kraatskow in May last year.

Le Roux had been drinking wine and smoking cannabis before she got behind the wheel of a Mercedes and hit and killed Nathan.

He was cycling home when he was killed.

In December Le Roux was sentenced to 11 months' home detention.

She was also ordered to complete 250 hours of community work and was disqualified from driving for two-and-a-half years.

A condition of her home detention was that Le Roux must answer the door and present herself to authorities at any given time.

On February 20 it is alleged she failed to respond to two visits where probation officers knocked repeatedly on the door of her home.

She has been charged with failing to comply with the conditions of her sentence and will appear in the North Shore District Court next month.

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Auckland researchers have developed a tool to make aspirin safer and more targeted in patients, potentially saving lives.

Thousands of New Zealanders take aspirin to reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke, but the drug's blood-thinning action carries a potentially fatal risk of causing internal bleeding.

The risk varies between patients and, until now, doctors had no objective way of assessing an individual patient's risk.

Now, researchers from the University of Auckland's Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences and Middlemore Hospital have developed bleeding-risk models, which provide a personalised estimate of a patient's risk of a major bleed.

The research, published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, can be used by doctors with their patients to predict the bleed risk if they were to start taking aspirin.

Lead author Dr Vanessa Selak, a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland, says it's mostly aimed at those who had not had a heart attack or stroke, but are high-risk and thinking about using aspirin.

Selak says the information is available to GPs now, but they want to make it very easy to find, possibly in the form of an app.

The aspirin benefit-harm calculator – likely to be a world-first – could be available by the end of the year.

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If ever there was an invitation to eat all the pies - this was it.

A truck spilled its load of pies across a Manukau road this morning, while rounding a corner.

The spill sent the trays of Big Ben pies all over the street near the intersection of Manukau Station Rd and Davies Ave.

A post in the Facebook group Manurewa Spread the News showed photos of hundreds, if not thousands, of pies scattered all over the road.

A Big Ben spokeswoman says the pies had to be loaded into trucks to be taken away, as from a food and physical safety perspective they couldn't give them away.

Big Ben says they lost 4000 pies, making it a sad day for pie-lovers.

They joked that people should go out and buy a pie for lunch in remembrance of the 4000 lost today.

They finished by sending their condolences to the meat and pastry families, saying "Rest assured we'll look after all the sausage rolls."

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That's the Front Page for today, Tuesday, February 26, making sure you're across the biggest news of the day. For more on these stories, check out The New Zealand Herald, or tune in to Newstalk ZB.

You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple podcasts here, iHeartRadio here, and Stitcher here.

If you like to stay up to date on social media, you can find host Frances Cook on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.