Afternoons for Thursday 16 May 2013

1:10 Best Song Ever Written - Gordon Paterson of Tauranga nominated 'Fill the World With Love' by Petula Clark

1:20 On Your Place today we head to the Maniatoto. It's 150 years since the discovery of gold there and there's a weekend of celebrations coming up.

2:10 Budget Special - Live coverage of the Budget announcement. The 2013 Budget Special will provide in-depth analysis and commentary from our team of specialist correspondents.

3:10 Pavarotti: 50 years since singer's forgotten UK debut - It's 50 years since a young, relatively unknown, Italian opera singer was waiting nervously in the wings of Belfast's Grand Opera House, about to make his professional UK debut.
That nervous young tenor was Luciano Pavarotti. It was also his first time he'd  performed in Puccini's Madama Butterfly.
Little did the rest of the cast know that their young star would go on to become one of the world's greatest opera stars, selling millions of albums and selling out shows across the world.

3:20  The Beat Street Cafe - Katy Gosset  - we head to Christchurch where the kindness of strangers continues to be felt, sometimes in the form of a free coffee.

3:30 Our Changing World - Alison Ballance -  Last Monday we heard how kauri dieback disease was killing kauri trees in the garden of Colin McCahon House in Titirangi. To find out more about this deadly disease - which has no cure and no vaccination - Alison heads off to meet some botanists and some tree-fellers. But before she steps foot in the forest in the Waitakere Ranges there's something she needs to do.

4:06 The Panel - Bernard Hickey and Finlay MacDonald are on The Panel and we'll discuss the Budget, and where the Mighty River Power money will go. Other financial topics as we have time, especially the role of GDP as an indicator  of economic health. People not online, do you remember what your life was like pre-internet, how you found out things? If you don't have a computer or a smart phone, no email etc., please tell us what it's like today. I'll use your comments on The Panel.  20% of households at last count weren't connected. Shunning changes to MMP, we'll get around to discussing that today, along with the surveillance of violent criminals, and the case of the woman who wouldn't give up her seat on the plane to a disabled woman. Is it the fault of the 40-something blonde, or is the fault of the airline? Tanya Black's already had a highly-publicised run-in with Jetstar.