Midday Report

It's a wet and windy start to autumn, with a severe thunderstorm watch in place on Monday for much of the North Island, as well as the top of the South.

Wind gusts have reached more than 140 kmph in exposed parts of Canterbury Monday morning.

MetService has placed much of the upper South Island and lower North Island under heavy rain, strong wind or thunderstorm warnings.

Metservice meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane spoke to Charlotte Cook.

The West Coast is being hit by wild weather with a roof being torn off a property in Greymouth.

Fire and Emergency say they responded to reports of the roof being lifted on a house in Cobden.

Grey District Council mayor Tania Gibson spoke to Charlotte Cook.

Trade Minister Todd McClay is investigating a possible trade agreement between New Zealand and the UAE, after meeting with his counterpart in Abu Dhabi last week.

Susan Murray has the rural news.

New Zealand won a second gold medal on the final day of the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow with George Beamish winning the men's 1500 metre final.

Major banks are cutting interest rates in the wake of last week's Reserve Bank statement and market hopes that rate cuts are coming.

Gyles Beckford has the business news.

Confirmation that the government-funded lunch programme is under review has sparked serious concern from health charities and school principals.

Associate Education Minister David Seymour says 10,000 'free' school lunches are wasted each day, amounting to $25 million of wasted surplus lunches.

A coalition of health charities are alarmed that Seymour has been given ministerial responsibility for the programme which he campaigned to abolish, and are seeking an urgent meeting with him.

The programme, Ka Ora, Ka Ako, introduced by the Labour government in 2019, now provides free healthy lunches to more than 220,000 students - about a quarter of all school students.

Westport South School principal Craig Adams spoke to Charlotte Cook.

New Zealand athletes are taking the World Indoor Athletic Champs by storm, winning another gold medal in Glasgow.

George Beamish has taken out the men's 1500 metre title.

Earlier Hamish Kerr won the men's high jump title while pole vaulter Eliza McCartney and shot putter Tom Walsh won silver in their events.

Other athletes have also had strong showings.

Athletics New Zealand high performance director Scott Newman spoke to Charlotte Cook.

For most people, competing an Iron Man is a mammoth achievement. But 75-year-old Whangārei man Brian Barach has done about 15 of them.

And on Saturday he'll be lining up again in Ironman New Zealand on the shores of Lake Taupō.

The swim alone is 3.8 kilometres, the bike ride 180 kilometres and then to top it all off, a 42.2 kilometre run along the lakefront.

Brian will be doing the race with his daughter Polly, but says it was his wife who first got him competing.

Brian spoke to Charlie Dreaver.

Despite strong opposition from conservation groups, the government has given final approval for the country's first open ocean salmon farm in the Cook Strait.

New Zealand King Salmon confirmed the news in a share market announcement this morning, marking the end of a near five-year consent process for the project, known as Blue Endeavour.

The farm, set to be seven kilometres off Cape Lambert, will be a world first in farming the King Salmon species in the open ocean.

King Salmon chief executive Carl Carrington spoke to Charlie Dreaver.

Waikato sheep milking farmers say they were blind-sided this week when their company Maui Milk, told them to stop milking immediately.

Sally Murphy has the rural news.