Nine To Noon for Wednesday 15 April 2020
09:05 Business community reacts to rescue package
Does the government's latest rescue package provide enough relief, stimulus and certainty for struggling businesses? Under the new measures small and medium-sized enterprises will get 3 billion-dollars worth of tax breaks to help them survive the COVID-19 pandemic and there will also be law changes to ease pressure on firms struggling to pay commercial rents. Kathryn talks with Kirk Hope, Business New Zealand's Chief Executive and Paul Goldsmith, National Party finance spokesperson.
09:30 Lockdown lessons from prison: Dr Paul Wood
Dr Paul Wood spent nearly 11 years in prison for a murder he committed in when he was 19. During his time inside he attained a Bachelors degree, a masters in Psychology and was two years into his PhD which he finished in 2011. These days he is a motivational speaker, coach and mentor. He says at the moment he's talking a lot about what he learned from his time in prison - nearly a year of which was in solitary confinement.
09:45 Tasmania Covid party rumour retracted, plea to save Virgin Australia
Australia correspondent Karen Middleton joins Kathryn to talk about how Australia's chief medical officer Dr Brendan Murphy has retracted comments he made to New Zealand's parliamentary committee about a cluster of cases stemming from "an illegal party" as it was unconfirmed. The Labor opposition party and unions want a billion-dollar loan to save the airline Virgin Australia and Rugby League is determined to get its season up and running again by the end of May.
10:05 Steve Halligan: no spoke in his wheel
Adventure cyclist Steve Halligan is hunkering down between ultra distance races and bike-packing expeditions. He not long since completed his 3rd Tour Aotearoa, the 3,000 km cycle race from Cape Reinga to Bluff. With thirteen different start points, it's hard to pick an outright winner at the finish line of this year's Tour Aotearoa, but Steve features in the competition's Hall of Fame, and is something of a legend in cycling circles. In between multiple thousand km races in New Zealand and top four placings in endurance races elsewhere in the world, Steve runs a retreat in Hanmer Springs. You can follow Steve's progress on Instagram.
10:35 Book review - The One That Got Away by Jennifer Palgrave
Lisa Finucane reviews The One That Got Away by Jennifer Palgrave (pen-name for Lois Cox & Hilary Lapsley), published by Town Belt Press.
10:45 The Reading
Living as a Moon - part two, by Owen Marshall, read by Laura Hill.
11:05 Music With Charlotte Ryan
Music 101 host Charlotte Ryan joins Kathryn to talk about what local musicians have been doing in lockdown. She'll share an exclusive song from one of the live streaming sessions Neil Finn has been playing from his home in LA, as well as a new song created by 20 Kiwi artists in lockdown called...appropriately, 'Stay'.
11:20 Gardening as an antidote to cabin fever
One way to stave off lockdown cabin fever is getting out into the garden, even if you've never had greenfingers before. Landscape designer and gardener Xanthe White with a raft of ideas on what to do in the garden as the weather gets colder.
11:45 'Museum beyond walls' becomes a reality
Arts correspondent Nina Tonga looks at how a sector goal to bring art to the people has unexpectedly been realised, thanks to Covid-19. She joins Kathryn to talk about how different galleries and museums have got involved - from #MuseumChallenge, where people have been recreating works at home, to 'virtual walks' through galleries and opera watched 'alone together'.