09:05 Payroll problems 'could affect hundreds of thousands'

What is the scale of New Zealand's payroll problems and what needs to be done about it? The Unite Union, which began investigating problems with underpayment of holiday pay a year ago, estimates that hundreds of thousands of workers around the country could be affected in both the public and private sectors.

Mike Treen is the National Director of the Unite Union and Olivia Grant is an Associate with the Duncan Cotterill law firm. 

09:20 Solar panels vs electric cars - what's greener?

Last week the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright, suprised many when she came out in support of a report written by Wellington based Concept Consulting. The report says that the uptake of solar energy by householders will cause an increase in carbon emissions from the electricity sector. On the other hand, it finds that electric cars can do a great deal to reduce carbon emissions. Brendan Winitana, chairman of the Sustainable Electricity Association of New Zealand, argues the anti-solar report is flawed.

0935 Hobbit' didn't last long

New excavations in Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores suggest that the diminutive early human Homo floresiensis (nicknamed the 'Hobbit') disappeared much earlier than previously thought.The Indonesian, Australian and New Zealand researchers say the new evidence indicates that the species used the cave until around 50,000 years ago, not as recently as 12,000 years ago as previously suggested.

Brent Alloway of Victoria University is one of the researchers

Matthew Parris

Matthew Parris Photo: The Times

09:45 UK correspondent Matthew Parris

Journalist and former Tory MP, Matthew Parris has himself hit the headlines in the UK this week, after using his column in The Times to denounce the London Mayor Boris Johnson, for alleged dishonesty, vacuity, sexual impropriety and veiled homophobia.

10:05 National Geographic Explorer Sarah Marquis

Sarah Marquis

Sarah Marquis is a Swiss adventurer who spent three years crossing deserts and jungles alone, on foot with a cart carrying all she needs to survives. The Siberia to Australia expedition was two and half years in the planning, in which she gathered sponsors, worked on the logistics and support, mapped the routes she would take and prepared herself physically. Her new book Wild by Nature documents her 20 thousand kilometre trek across Mongolia and the Gobi desert, through Asia and back to Australia ending it in 2013 at a tree she befriended ten years before, and to which she had promised to return .Last year she completed another ultimate challenge  - as a National Geographic explorer she spent three months in the Kimberley region -  surviving off the land.

10:35 Book review: A History of New Zealand Women by Barbara Brookes

Reviewed by Carole Beu

Published by Bridget Williams Books

10:45 The Reading: 'One Girl, One Dream' written and told by Laura Dekker (Part 7 of 8)

11:05 New technology with Sarah Putt

FBI cracks iPhone - what next?
Netflix's global reach
Replacing politicians with robots

11:25 Transitioning from school to University

Liz Morris is the Career development Services Director for Diocesan, and has spent more than a year looking at why so many first year students drop out of tertiary study, and how best to help them make the transition from school to university.

11:45 Viewing with Paul Casserly

Reviewer Paul Casserly on why Taika Waititi's Hunt for The Wilderpeople is the director's best yet, the charms of the oddball SBS comedy Wilfred, now showing to the world on Netflix and staying up late to watch the T20 World Cup.