Nine To Noon

RNZ Pacific Journalist Koroi Hawkins

Three Bay of Plenty friends are turning up the heat on the centuries-old Scandinavian tradition of sauna and giving it a distinctly kiwi twist. They're building handcrafted mobile saunas which can be towed and parked up in any location - from public spaces, to beaches and festivals. The aim of The Sauna Project is to promote health and wellbeing by making sauna more accessible. One of its directors is Luke Mexted. He speaks to Kathryn about his pop-up sauna creations and the dream to put a sauna in every town across Aotearoa.

Museum and heritage leaders say they are caring for precious taonga but outside of Te Papa in Wellington, there is no government funding for this work. They say they are also struggling with inflation, a downturn in visitors due to Covid and some museums cannot afford conservators or collections staff. They say if funding is not addressed, collection pieces could fall into disrepair, galleries close or important education outreach to school children be stopped. Ian Griffin is the Director of Tuhura Otago Museum, whose Conservation Manager has recently moved to another museum in London, and it cannot replace her, which will directly affect the care of national treasures. Kathryn also talks with Adele Fitzpatrick, Chief Executive of Museums Aotearoa Te Tari o Nga Whare Taonga o Te Motu, who says there is severe financial pressure on museums throughout the country.

The National Party has released its education policy, the same week a government document redefining the curriculum has also been released, termed a common-practice model. This is against a backdrop of NZ children's falling performance in reading and maths compared to international standards. Leader Christopher Luxon says two-thirds of secondary school students failed to meet minimum standards in reading, writing and maths, and 98% of decile one year 10 students failed a basic writing test. The National Party's 'Teaching the Basics Brilliantly' policy is promising to make primary and intermediate students spend at least one hour reading, writing and doing maths everyday. It also wants to rewrite the curriculum to clearly state what must be taught in these areas each year, and test students twice-yearly from Year 3. Kathryn talks to Professor Emeritus of Educational Psychology at Massey University, James Chapman.

Film and TV correspondent James Croot joins Kathryn to look at local movie Red, White and Brass (cinemas), about a Tongan church group that formed a marching band to get into a World Cup rugby match. He'll also look at a new film starring Keira Knightly, Boston Strangler (Disney+)and Lucky Hank (TVNZ) about an under-fire English professor at a US college.

The average Kiwi child first encounters internet porn at 12. To prevent the unsafe and unrealistic sex depicted in porn from being normalised for a child, therapist Jo Robertson recommends parents offer contrasting information a couple of years beforehand.

Technology correspondent Bill Bennett joins Kathryn to talk about the difficulties people face in recovering their social media accounts - particularly Facebook - if they've been subject to a hack or a hijack. Two dozen Facebook employees and contractors have been sacked for their role in this - does the business have any hope of improving when another 10,000 jobs are being cut? Bill will also unravel the TikTok ban for parliamentary devices and why Twitter is scrapping 2FA or two-factor authentication.

There's some course shrinkage at UCOL Te Pukenga Whanganui this year, controversy over plans to set up a water bottling plant in the city continues, an annual musical fundraiser for child cancer has been a big success and a Texan Doctor is filling a long vacant GP position in Waimarino, Ruapehu district.

Quentin Johnson reviews A Small Town in Ukraine by Bernard Wasserstein, published by Penguin Random House

Kathryn is joined by UK correspondent Matt Dathan to talk about former PM Boris Johnson explaining his position on Partygate at a heated select committee hearing overnight, telling MPs that 'unsocially distanced farewell gatherings' were allowed at work during the height of Covid. Matt has travelled this week with Home Secretary Suella Braverman as she revealed details of the £120m scheme to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda.