Sunday Morning for Sunday 16 February 2020

Colin Peacock presents Sunday Morning this week

7.10 Boucher: photos a blatant attempt to intimidate reporting on NZ First story

'We took the photos'  -- that was the stark front page headline on the Dominion Post newspaper last Thursday. That was a quote from comments the NZ First leader Winston Peters made in an interview on the Magic Talk radio station the day before. Host Peter Williams was asking him about photos published by a  right-wing website - showing RNZ's Guyon Espiner and Stuff reporter Matt Shand meeting NZ First's former president Lester Gray in Tauranga. Both reporters have been reporting heavily on donations to the New Zealand First Foundation. But those photos made it look very much like someone was surveilling the two journalists and supplying the party with the pictures. Stuff's chief executive, Sinead Boucher joins Colin to discuss the issue.

7.20 Political party donations in New Zealand 

News broke this week that police and the Serious Fraud Office will investigate the New Zealand First Foundation to see if it has breached the Electoral Act. Electoral donation fracases are not new in New Zealand.Max Rashbrooke is journalist, researcher and writer and is the author of Government for the Public Good: The Surprising Science of Large-Scale Collective Action. He joins Colin to look at the wider context of political donations in Aotearoa. 

7.32 The House

A weekly digest of the events in Parliament with Daniela Maoate-Cox and Phil Smith.

7:45 Calling Home: Duncan Clarke in Costa Rica 

Technically, Duncan Clarke still lives at his mother's place in Wellington, but that's because his vocation as a long-haul tour bus driver means he is effectively of no fixed abode. The former Rongotai College student is currently stationed in Central America, where he is driving tour bases between Mexico and Panama.   

8:10 Insight: Farmers fear new water rules could push them under

The government's making plans to both stop freshwater quality getting any worse and to turn back the clock on years of neglect. Philippa Tolley talks to farmers who fear their livelihoods could be at stake.

8:37 How do we regulate death? 

New Zealand legislation around death is old and generally regarded as in need of a thorough refresh. The Ministry of Health is currently seeking public submissions on a review of the Burial and Cremation Act 1964. Many of the issues raised in it come from a report released in 2015 by the Law Commission which called for widespread reform. Wayne Mapp QSO was the commissioner of that report.  

8:49 Study finds optimistic partner is good for our health

We've all heard the old saying 'happy wife, happy life' trotted out before, but a new study by researchers out of Michigan State University shows that it actually has a large degree of scientific merit. William Chopik is an associate professor of Psychology at MSU and co-author of the study. 

9:10 A model for RNZ's new youth service?

RNZ's planning a brand new music-based outlet to hook younger people not well served by public broadcasting right now. RNZ's bosses and experts alike point to Triple J as a possible model. Mediawatch asks the Kiwi in charge of its content - Ollie Wards - what it does that's worth copying and would it work here?

9:20 TVNZ chief faces future dilemma

Kevin Kendrick leads the broadcaster that pulls in the biggest audiences in the country and the most money from advertising. But TVNZ - like RNZ - faces a future folded into a new public media outfit planned by the Government. Hows he planning for that?

Produced and presented by Colin Peacock and Hayden Donnell

9:37 Jon Duffy to take over as Chief Executive at Consumer NZ 

Consumer NZ is not a new organisation. The magazine recently celebrated its 50th birthday and the writers and researchers continue to scratch around the New Zealand markets to get the details on how consumers are being treated by businesses and advertisers. Jon Duffy has been appointed as the new chief executive of Consumer NZ.

10:04 The journalist who went undercover to infiltrate a white nationalist group 

When Winnipeg Free Press writer Ryan Thorpe saw flyers recruiting for white nationalist group The Base he had two choices: write a bog-standard reaction piece or take a more drastic approach and go undercover to infiltrate the hate group and find out about its members. He chose the latter, and one of the group's main recruiters is now facing as many as 60 years in prison as a result of his actions. 

10:28 Lessons learned from a year of trying to buy nothing 

Finland-based Australian teacher Ellen Heyting didn't know what she was getting herself in for when she decided she would try not to buy anything - apart from vital supplies like food and toiletries - in 2019. The move inspired many of her kids to follow in her footsteps and even incorporate this into their learning.  

10:44 The North's inhospitable hospitality towards refugees

The University of Glasgow's Professor Alison Phipps is an activist for an end to the awful and lengthy detainment and the inhumane treatment that refugees are put through when they turn up on borders seeking refuge. The UNESCO chair in refugee integration is currently in the country and will share her views on how New Zealand is managing with the resettling its refugees. 

11:05 The life and times of spoon-bender Uri Geller  

Celebrity psychic Uri Geller is a mystifier and probably the most investigated paranormalist of all time. He is also distantly related to Sigmund Freud and originated spoon-bending. And now he is putting his hat in the ring for a job with the British government after an advert encouraged "misfits" and "weirdos" to apply. 

11:32 Indonesia's football league set to begin again under the cloud of its violent past 

The Indonesian pro football league kicks off February 29 under a cloud - fan violence has resulted in many deaths and the league could be abandoned if trouble flares again this season. What causes the violence? Former ABC Australia Indonesia correspondent David Lipson joins the show to explain more. 

11.52 My Current Song: Kathy Bates Motel, Damaged Goods 

Kathy Bates Motel is a new music project by former Supergroove bass player Joe Lonie with a lot of help from his friends Morgan Albrecht (Cindy), Jolyon Mulholland (Mulholland) and Milan Borich (Pluto). Lonie joins the show to discuss the project and the story behind the debut single Damaged Goods.