Nine To Noon

There are reports of widespread flooding and communications in the northern Hawke's Bay town of Wairoa. Kathryn speaks to the town's mayor Craig Little who's trapped near Tuai, near Waikaremoana.

Urban issues commentator Bill McKay joins Kathryn to talk about what recent weather events might mean for city planning into the future. Which parts of the infrastructure network held up well and which ones need a rethink? Do we need to forgo the urge to concrete over green spaces and plant water-loving natives instead?

Cherie Metcalfe is a food writer and chef who's latest book Together has recipes for shared food. She's also the founder of the food brand Pepper and Me, producing a range of products including rubs, spices, butters, pastes and grinds. Her first book Keepers was a best seller. She joins Kathryn from Tauranga with a recipe for Chorizo-Loaded Queso.

Neale, Tim and Kathryn discuss how much central government funding should Auckland get for its flood and cyclone clean-up.Also, where National is left after Labour's so-called policy "bonfire". And how is the Act-National dynamic might play out this election year?

Nicky Walker reviews The Story of a Treaty He Korero Tiriti by Claudia Orange, published by BWB

As Cyclone Gabrielle bears down on the upper North Island, Kathryn speaks with Auckland lines company Vector's spokesperson Peter Ryan, Maungaturoto Civil Defence committee member Terri Donaldson and RNZ reporter in Whitianga Andrew McRae.

Most people do not regard hypocrisy as a case of inconsistent behaviour, experimental social psychologist Daniel Effron says.

Northland is getting a pounding from Cyclone Gabrielle. The intense tropical storm is sitting to the northeast of Cape Reinga and is expected to track down the northeast coast. A state of emergency was declared in Northland last night. 17,000 homes across the region are without power. Trees are down and the coast is being battered by a strong storm surge. Kate Malcolm from Tutukaka Dive joins Kathryn to talk about the conditions and concerns of what's still to come.

Europe correspondent Seamus Kearney joins Kathryn with the latest on the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria which has left at least 28,000 people dead. The majority of the deaths were in Turkey, where President Erdogan is facing growing unrest over his government's response to the quake, just as he was preparing for presidential and parliamentary elections. The government says it will investigate the collapse of new buildings - but will that quell the anger? And Ukraine is bracing for a new Russian offensive in the east.

Ransomware attacks are becoming more sophisticated and they're growing in number - there were 64 cases reported to government agency CERT last year. Over half of reported cases to CERT were at the end of the year when Mercury IT - a service provider for some big government departments including Justice and Health - was attacked. Data stolen in that event has been found on the dark web. Late last year the Australian government said it was considering whether new laws were needed to stop ransom payments being made to hackers, in the wake of a massive breach of customer data from medical insurer Medibank and telco Optus. Kathryn speaks with Dr Jeffrey Foster, an associate professor in Cyber Security Studies at Sydney's Macquarie University - who says there's pros and cons to a ban on ransom payments - and that perhaps a better option would be to ban insurance payments to companies hit by these attacks. She also talks to Jordan Heersping, threat and incident response manager for CERT about the rise of such attacks in New Zealand.