Nine To Noon for Tuesday 29 July 2025

09:05 Surcharge ban : will customers benefit?

By next May surcharges on purchases made with debit and credit cards or digital wallets will be banned. The government says it will give customers transparency on the cost of goods and save them up to $150 million a year. Some retailers warn they will still face some charges from payment companies for accepting cards, and those costs will probably be added to the prices paid for goods. Matthew Lane is the General Manager of the convenience store chain Night 'n Day which has 54 stores mostly in the South Island. Night 'n Day has never passed on surcharges to customers, preferring clarity for customers.  But he says the surcharge ban could see other smaller retailers shift away from contactless payments and revert to 'old school' EFTPOS which doesn't cost merchants.

09:15 The Social Service Investment Fund and the providers hoping for backing

The government's new way of funding social service providers is just weeks away from opening. The Social  Investment Fund aims to use data, evidence and different ways of working to achieve better outcomes for children, whānau and communities. It will closely follow the government targets for helping children and young people and countering family and sexual violence. Providers and funders alike recognise the need for evidence and information to show projects will deliver on what they are promising. But there are also worries that some organisations helping children and families won't have the capacity to deliver the details required and may lose out on funding. At the same time, community funders are being asked to provide money for organisations  to gather the information needed to put in applications to the investment fund. Kathryn is joined by Belinda Himiona the Chief Executive of Social Service Providers Aotearoa and Rahul Watson Govindan the Chief Executive of  Philanthropy New Zealand.

09:30 'There's no support': Whanau caring for loved ones with dementia

Too many rural Māori whanau are caring for loved ones with dementia -- or mate wareware - without support, diagnosis or the information they need,  according to two leading brain researchers. Sir Richard Faull, director of the Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland, and deputy director, Māori, Dr Makarena Dudley, say Māori and Pacific people are affected by dementia more than any other group. They are travelling around the country visiting marae sharing information and hearing stories. So far they've held hui at marae in the Far North and Whanganui, and more are planned. They tell Kathryn Ryan, there is great need for support in rural communities. 

09:45 USA correspondent Ximena Bustillo

US President Donald Trump has been in Scotland and has agreed on a lower tariff for the European Union. Mr Trump also says more work will be done to provide food more accessibly in Gaza. 

Ximena Bustillo NPR politics reporter based in Washington 

10:05 The former gang member and prison inmate who became a doctor in his fifties 

Dr Timoti Te Moke survived family abuse, state care, gangs and prison before training as a doctor in his fifties. By age fourteen, living with his mother and abusive stepfather, he became embroiled with gangs, then found himself behind bars. On his return to New Zealand, he became a paramedic and started studying medicine in his fifties. Dr Timoti Te Moke is now a fully qualified doctor on a mission to support children not given opportunities to thrive like himself. In his book, The Unlikely Doctor, Timoti describes one moment in a prison cell - a glimpse of blue sky - which provided clarity and got him wondering if there was more to life. He speaks to Kathryn. 

10:35 Book review: Invisible Intelligence: Why your child might not be failing by Welby Ings

Louise Ward from Wardini Books reviews Invisible Intelligence: Why your child might not be failing by Welby Ings, published by Otago University Press.

10:45 Around the motu: Alisha Evans in Tauranga

The Greens are calling for regional passenger rail to be relaunched in Tauranga.

Businesses and residents don’t want paid parking on their streets and  a “plague of hoons” on motorbikes are riding illegally in Tauranga parks.

Tauranga based local democracy reporter Alisha Evans has all the details.

11:05 Business correspondent Dan Brunskill

The Housing Minister wants to decouple the economy from relying on house price rises - economists say it is possible, but will make the recovery slower. Dan discusses a mismatch between the cost of household basics, such as butter and electricity, and how the Reserve Bank measures inflation, as well as whether the fear of tariffs has been worse than the actual tariffs themselves. 

Dan Brunskill is an economic policy reporter for Interest NZ

11:30 New book Eden captures the incredible mountain-biking trails of New Zealand

Roughly thirty years ago a revolution took place in the world of adventure biking. It was the advent of suspension - something many riders probably take for granted - but it was key to improving off-road performance and allowing the sport of mountain-biking to take off. Now a new book, edited by Wanaka-based film-maker Nick Stevenson, showcases the best of what New Zealand has to offer mountain-bikers. It's choc-full of stunning imagery taken from photographers with a real passion for the sport themselves. Nick joins Kathryn to talk about Eden: A portrait of mountain biking in Aotearoa New Zealand, and his own interest in biking.

11:45 Sports correspondent Joe Porter 

Kiwi cyclist Ally Wollaston gets third on stage three of the Tour de France Femmes, the Black Caps win a series in Zimbabwe under new coach Rob Walter and the Black Ferns squad for their Rugby World Cup defence in the UK. Are they ready? Joe also discusses a controversial call in the second rugby test between the Wallabies and the British and Irish Lions and Liam Lawson's recent result in the Belgian GP.