Nine To Noon for Tuesday 2 September 2025

09:05 Donation tax credit hike could boost charitable giving: report 

A new research paper suggests philanthropic donations would increase by up to 73% if the donation tax credit was boosted. The report is by financial advice and planning firm Bloomsbury Associates in collaboration with a range of economists and tax experts. It argues that the current tax credit of 33.33 cents per dollar donated be raised to 50 cents per dollar donated. It also suggests that the tax credits be carried forward across multiple years. Report author, Phil Stevenson, says this would boost philanthropic giving by hundreds of millions. Kathryn also speaks with Chief Executive of Philanthropy NZ, Rahul Watson Govindan.

09:25 Country's first autism research centre opens

The country's first-ever Autism Research Centre launched in Christchurch yesterday, it aims to turn research towards the needs of autistic people. The centre will be hosted the University of Canterbury but will have networks around the country. Its vision is to improve the wellbeing of autistic people with an alignment with the neurodiversity framework, which treats autism as natural human variation rather than a disorder to be fixed. It was launched at a symposium yesterday and will be led by inaugural director Professor Laurie McLay. The keynote was delivered by Professor David Trembath, head of autism research at CliniKids in Australia. David speaks to Kathryn about what the new centre here could achieve. 

09:35 How the world's measurement body wants to upsize its membership

Much of modern life relies on the shared language of measurement - but how to get more countries using that language is a challenge for the global body about to be headed for the first time by a woman - and a Kiwi.
Annette Koo has been chief metrologist for New Zealand's Measurement Standards Laboratory since 2021, after starting there as a research scientist in 2008. From next week, she'll head the BIPM - the Paris-based International Bureau of Weights and Measures that was created 150 years ago. It's the home for the International System of Units - or SI - and UTC, the primary time standard around the world. The organisation has 64 member states, another 36 are associates. A focus for the BIPM is getting the remaining nations - some of which are in the Pacific - to take part in its activities. Annette joins Kathryn to talk about this further and the benefits it could bring.

09:45 US correspondent David Smith 

What are the repercussions of the US President's move to take over the Federal Reserve? David also discusses the proposal to turn Gaza into a US-managed tourist location. The President is also talking about mandating voter identification for all elections, which is widely expected to be challenged as unconstitutional.

Washington bureau chief for The Guardian, David Smith. 

10:05 Kiwi's memoir details close calls as Vietnam war medic

Kiwi Kelvin Davis spent thirteen years in the New Zealand Navy, including as a medic during the Vietnam War and later as a Navy diver. He's written a memoir called Nine Lives of a Soldier and Sailor that explores his incredible experiences: how he was the de facto postie during tours to Scott Base... his near court-martial over a New Year's Eve concoction and a close call running out of air while assembling underwater pipes for the Marsden B power station. But much of the book is focused on the gruelling work he did in Vietnam - and it's been aided by his extensive diaries and photos he took at the time. One of the nine lives he lost, was an ambush on Thanksgiving 1968 in which he and three US soldiers were injured. Kelvin's spent nearly 40 years trying to track down the trio he knew only by their surnames - and he hopes this book might afford one last chance to find them.

10:30 Amazon opens data centres, promises 1000 jobs

Amazon Web Services has opened its new Auckland data centres today, claiming the move will add 1000 jobs.
The so called "AWS region" has been launched this morning,  attended by the Prime Minister. Amazon says as well as 1000 jobs, the investment will add $10.8 bn to New Zealand's GDP. RNZ political reporter Russell Palmer joins Kathryn from parliament. 

10:35 Book review: Fires Which Burned Brightly: A Life in Progress by Sebastian Faulks

Gail Pittaway reviews Fires Which Burned Brightly: A Life in Progress by Sebastian Faulks, published by Penguin Random House.

10:45 Around the motu: Jonathan Leask reports from mid Canterbury

Residents at the flood prone Upper Selwyn Flat Huts learn their fate, possibly the most hit bridge in the country and Selwyn and Timaru's Local Water Done Well plans.

Jonathan Leask is the Local Democracy Reporter with the Ashburton Guardian 

11:05 Business commentator Rebecca Stevenson

The Government has announced wealthy foreigners on a so-called 'golden visa' will be allowed to buy a luxury home in New Zealand once more. Rebecca discusses where the investment from the visas has been going - with two debt funding firms leading the way. And Rebecca will be speaking to Kathryn from Xerocon in Brisbane, 'the coachella for accountants'. She recounts the journey of Xero from a much-beloved product among the accounting sector to an international business with high-profile hires.

Rebecca Stevenson is a senior journalist at BusinessDesk

11:20 Voices of those who built Manapōuri hydro power station

Manapōuri is the largest hydro power station in New Zealand. Located on the edge of Lake Manapōuri’s West Arm in Fiordland National Park - construction began in 1964 and over eight years, 1800 workers toiled on it in punishing conditions - constructing the power station 200 metres below a granite mountain in an underground cavern. Oral historian Dr Rosemary Baird has interviewed 18 workers who were part of the project - she's written a book about them - called The Middle of Nowhere - published by Canterbury University Press. She joins Kathryn with excerpts her interviews, who bring the story to life.

11:45 Sports with Sam Ackerman

It's the start of a big week for the All Blacks, can they defend their Eden Park record having not lost a rugby test there since 1994. Sam continues to discuss rugby as Portia Woodman-Wickliffe sets the Rugby World Cup alight, and back home the Ranfurly Shield changes hands two weeks in a row. Ultramarathoner Ruth Croft makes history, and how will New Zealand's athletes go at the World Athletic Championships in Tokyo?