Nine To Noon for Thursday 18 September 2025

09:05  Public Service Commissioner on striking teachers and "reshape" of public sector 

Primary teachers are causing unnecessary disruption and should return to the negotiating table instead of striking next month, according to a clearly frustrated Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche, who is leading the negotiations. About 40-thousand primary school teachers, principals, and support staff will walk off the job on the 23rd of October. It will be the first time ever those groups have taken strike action together.Meanwhile, secondary teachers are today on their fourth day of rolling strikes this week. Kathryn speaks with the primary teachers' union, and Sir Brian, who is also overseeing a major reshaping of the public service, that could see some ministries merged or absorbed into others.  

09:20 Fishing industry moves on updating decades-old stock data 

After almost thirty years without fresh data on fish stocks around the Lower North Island, the fishing industry and scientists have developed a novel solution to finding out what's in the water. The most recent trawl survey of Area 2 was in 1996. Area 2 stretches from north Taranaki, right around the lower North Island and up to East Cape. Since then, officials and ministers have extrapolated that data to set catch allowances. But fishers found it wasn't accurate. Snapper - as an example - was being found in far more abundance than 1996 - but the catch allowances wouldn't acknowledge that. For other fish stocks it was the opposite - catch allowances were high and overfishing was a possibility. Gisborne Fisheries general manager Salve Zame, Seafood NZ general manager of inshore fishing Tiff Bock and Dr Richard O'Driscoll - the Chief Scientist for Fisheries at Earth Science New Zealand - explain how a partnership between industry and government is getting the information up to date. 

09:30 Scuba instructor brings her love of the sea to Art in the Park

From tonight Eden Park turns from sporting venue into giant art gallery, as Art in the Park returns. It's billed as Australasia's largest curated artist-led exhibition and sale, drawing thousands of visitors and featuring more than 3000 works. Among them those of Tyla Bow...she's a 23 year old artist, with a background in marine biology and fine arts - who is also a qualified scuba instructor. It's that love of the ocean that comes through strongly in her work - which incorporates recycled materials and has a strong sustainability theme.

09:45 UK: Trump's state visit, polling crisis for Labour, migration troubles return

UK correspondent Hugo Gye details how Donald Trump's state visit has gone so far, ahead of a state banquet with the King and tomorrow's meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer. It's just a year since Starmer's big election victory, but there's already questions over how long he can last given current polling. And this week was supposed to see the first asylum seekers who entered the UK from France deported to the continent, but a court has blocked the move.

Hugo Gye is Political Editor of The i Paper

10:05 Philippa Wright: the wool lady

For many years, Philippa Wright was known as 'the wool lady', reflecting the fact she was the only woman working in the male-dominated New Zealand wool sector. Philippa has spent nearly 50 years in the industry. Beginning as a shed hand in the heart of the Mackenzie Country, then into wool classing, and ulimately into brokering, in Napier. In the 1980s Philippa worked for what was then the Hawke's Bay Farmers' Co-op stock and station company. Before later buying into her own brokering company in Waipukurau - Wright's Wool - which she has owned for for 28 years. Philippa's Wright's life-time of effort in the wool industry was recognised in 2019 with a New Zealand Order of Merit. The recent sale of Wright Wool to WoolWorks, and Philippa's retirement is the end of an era. Her passion for the potential of the wool industry remains.

10:35 Book review: Kings of This World by Elizabeth Knox

Louise Ward reviews Kings of This World by Elizabeth Knox, published by Allen & Unwin.

10:45 Around the motu: Peter de Graaf in Northland

Peter reports on the sentencing of a man convicted of manslaughter after his dogs killed his friend, mayoral races in Northland and the return of a much loved woodchopping tropy.

RNZ Northland reporter Peter de Graaf based in Kerikeri  

11:05 Economy contracted in Q2

The economy contracted sharply in the second quarter of the year and GDP has now fallen in 3 of the last 5 quarters. Stats NZ says gross domestic product, a broad measure of growth, fell 0.9 percent in the three months ended June, following a rise of 0.9 percent in the first quarter. The numbers were higher than expectations. RNZ's business editor Gyles Beckford runs through the numbers. 

11:12 Tech: Govt AI funding boost, shape of US TikTok deal, Tesla's NZ 'self drive' launch

Tech commentator Peter Griffin joins Kathryn to discuss a $70m funding announcement this morning from the government for AI research. He'll also dig into the deal to move TikTok's US business onto an investor consortium, creating a new entity to operate the app in the US and ameliorating security concerns about its Chinese provenance. Will there be any changes for NZ TikTok users?  Tesla launches its "self-drive" features in New Zealand and Australia today. And two new studies have looked at what people use AI assistants for - including a finding that Kiwis are the 4th-biggest user of Claude - the large language model from US company Anthropic.

Peter Griffin is a Wellington-based science and technology journalist

11:25  Parenting: raising assertive children

How to help children to be more assertive and self confident, without being demanding and aggressive. Clinical Psychologist and mum of 3, Jacqui Maguire says assertiveness is a life skill, not a personality trait. She says children can learn it with practice, encouragement, and role models. But often parents don't really have a handle on this skill either...and assertiveness takes practice for everyone. 

11:45 Screentime: A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, The Longest Walk, Bad Guys 2

Film and television reviewer James Croot joins Kathryn to review the latest - and last - Downton Abbey movie. He'll also talk about Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell's new romcom called A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (out in cinemas today). He'll also look at The Longest Walk, a movie adapted from Stephen King's short story which has been described by The Guardian as "one of the grimmest mainstream movies we've had for some time". But to counter it - and just in time for the school holidays - is Bad Guys 2. James also looks at limited series Black Rabbit (Netflix) which stars Jason Bateman and Jude Law.

James Croot is film and television reviewer for Stuff