Scoop's Kevin List on Radio Active delivers his weekly New Zealand news roundup. Items discussed today include: the Roger Awards and whether Peter Dunne's party is the weirdest Christian-based party in the world… National Party Shadow Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee says cryptic answers offered in Parliament today lend weight to the suggestion that Labour is planning to "railroad the smacking ban under urgency". "Michael Cullen should come clean.

Either Labour plans to take urgency and ride roughshod over our democracy next week or it doesn't. See..

. KiwiFM's Wammo interviews National Party's State-owned Enterprises spokesman Gerry Brownlee regarding New Zealand Post opening a chain of souvenir and collectible stores called Real Aotearoa. Gerry also gives his opinion on the privatisation of SOE's and finishes up with a helpful hint on getting those wooden drawers unstuck.

Last evening Australian based Progressive Enterprises took out the much cherished Roger Award for being the worst Trans-national company operating in NZ. According to the events organisers it is no surprise that Progressive won the Roger after their September 06 national lockout of their supermarket distribution centre workers in an attempt to starve these low-paid workers into submission. See.

.. - As the United Nations celebrates World Water Day today we consider how much water is enough to survive.

As New Zealanders we don’t generally have to worry too much about our water supply. While we have endured water shortages at one time or another, New Zealand, unlike many other countries globally, is not faced with ongoing problems of water scarcity that hinders our ability to survive or make a living. See.

.. - The right for disabled people to be paid according to their ability and not where they work has been won with the passing of the Disabled Persons Employment Promotion (Repeal and Related Matters) Bill, said Disabilities Minister Ruth Dyson.

"For 47 years, disabled people have not had the same employment rights or protections as other New Zealanders," said Ms Dyson. See..

. - New Zealanders must stop buying palm oil products if they want to save the critically endangered orang-utan, according to a leading international conservation expert coming to Auckland this week. “Only 7000 orang-utans are left, in Indonesia and Malaysia, due to their homes in the rainforests being cut down,” says Dr Peter Pratje, the director of Sumatran Orang-utan Conservation Programme (SOCP).

See...

Labour Minister Ruth Dyson today welcomed statistics showing this government's Employment Relations Act compares much better than National's Employment Contracts Act across all work stoppage indices. "I have recently received a Department of Labour report measuring work stoppages under Labour's Employment Relations Act compared with the Employment Contracts Act of the 1990s." See.

.. KiwiFM's Wammo interviews Nandor Tanczos regarding The Criminal Proceeds Recovery Bill and whether it would allow the Crown to take assets even if the person has not been convicted.

It would be up to the targeted person to prove the property was legally obtained. On a glorious autumnal day in Wellington a modest crowd gathered outside Parliament to protest at, and remember, the United States invasion and occupation of Iraq. As well as protesting the United States led invasion of Iraq, New Zealand politicians such as Prime Minister Helen Clark and Defence Minister Phil Goff got a tongue lashing.

See...

- A Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and the United States may well be a longstanding goal of New Zealand governments going back to 1990. But in 2007, is an FTA with the United States a clever disguise, a red herring masking a more significant shift in New Zealand foreign policy? Scoop's Selwyn Manning analyses an emerging union of common foreign interests.

See...

- Plot Outline: An idealistic man joins the New Zealand Parliament filled with a selfless desire to make the world a better place for his constituents, and for many people from places quite removed from his constituency. However, he rapidly discovers that the administration has been corrupted by the powerful and ruthless children's lobby. See.

.. Significant attention is now focusing on what Australia, New Zealand and the United States are planning in an attempt to take the uncertainty and instability out of the Pacific region.

Scoop today releases footage (from November 06)) of NZ prime minister Helen Clark, US assistant secretary of state Christopher Hill and others discussing Pacific security; NZ/US free trade; how the US can make diplomatic use of NZ's anti-nuclear laws; and a renewed commitment by the US to increase its presence in the Pacific. Wallace Chapman talks to Scoop's Selwyn Manning about the up-coming New Zealand state visit to the White House. What does this mean for NZ and the Pacific?

NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark talks to Wallace Chapman about the response to Mt Ruapehu’s Lahar on Sunday, as well as her pending meetings in the United States with President George W Bush and other top U.S officials.