Nine To Noon

Evacuations have taken place in the middle of the night and Tolaga Bay Civil Defence expects some residents to remain cut off for four days or more, as a result of this week's flooding. A helicopter has been up this morning identifying damage to roads and infrastructure.

Almost half a metre of rain has fallen in two days.The Hikuwai River north of Gisborne peaked at higher than 12 metres - coming within a hundred millimetres or so of going over its banks and causing massive damage.

RNZ reporter Andrew Mcrae speaks to Lynn Freeman with the latest.

Adam Nicolson has been obsessed with the landscape we live in his entire life. Recently Adam has been staring into rockpools, trying to work out what might stare back. The journalist, broadcaster and poet has been writing books about how we interact with our environments since the 1980s and his newest tome The Sea is Not Made of Water: Life Between the Tides is no exception. In the book he wanders around the world to try and understand what the liminal space of the world's seas can tell us. He's also been captured by the way we think about that thin strip that isn't quite 'land' or 'ocean'.

UK correspondent Matt Dathan joins Lynn to look at what was in Rishi Sunak's spring mini-budget, including a 5p per litre cut in fuel tax and a future 1p reduction in income tax. It comes as Brits - like many around the world, experience a rise in the cost of living. New figures show inflation in the UK has risen to 6.2 per cent. And shoppers won't be buying free range eggs anytime soon - they're banned from sale after a rise in bird flu cases

A volunteer firefighter who made a complaint of sexual harassment against a senior officer has been stood down for two years waiting for the case to be resolved, while the respondent involved has continued in the brigade. Jane (not her real name) lodged her complaint with the Behavior and Conduct Office within FENZ in 2020. It is one of 58 unresolved complaints of sexual harassment and bullying reported to Fire and Emergency in the last three years - around a third of all complaints. The BCO was established in wake of the damning 2019 Judge Coral Shaw report, which found bullying and harassment was rife at all levels and across all regions within FENZ. An independent review last year found that while the BCO is well resourced and has support from senior leaders, unresolved historic complaints damage its perception among fire fighters. Jane says after what she's been through, she has little faith in the BCO and she doesn't believe anything has changed within the culture at FENZ since the Shaw report. She speaks with Lynn Freeman, along with the Secretary of the Professional Firefighters Union, Wattie Watson. FENZ Deputy Chief Executive Raewyn Bleakley responds.

Lynn Freeman speaks with Professor Sir David Skegg, chair of the Covid 19 Public Health Advisory Group, about the pathway forward for the country. The government announced yesterday that vaccine passes and scanning will be scrapped with worker mandates lifted in some sectors. The traffic light system will stay in place, but gathering limits are rising for indoor settings and lifted completely for outdoor events.

A look at how researchers have developed a natural antibacterial texture for use on food packaging based on the bacteria-killing properties of cicada and dragonfly wings.

His latest co-written work opens at Circa Theatre in Wellington on Saturday, with a season at Auckland's Centerpoint to come. Called Timberrrr!, it is set in Taranaki in the 1940s in the world of competitive woodchopping.

RNZ political editor Jane Patterson discusses the government's announcement on the next steps for covid restrictions.

David Hill reviews Burning Questions by Margaret Atwood, published by Penguin Random House NZ.

The area between Tolaga Bay and Tokomaru Bay has been particularly hard hit, closing the highway around East Cape to Opotiki, David Wilson is Tairawhiti's Civil Defence Group controller.