Nine To Noon

The green light has been given to import 300,000 rapid COVID-19 tests into NZ. Some of our largest companies will be able to introduce rapid antigen testing to their critical worksites this month The Government has responded to calls from 25 of our largest businesses. One of them is Auckland Airport, whose CE Adrian Littlewood joins Kathryn Ryan on Nine to Noon.

Tech commentator Peter Griffin joins Kathryn to look at the legal action being taken by Uber drivers to try to force the company to treat them as employees, not contractors. It follows similar, successful, moves in the UK. He'll also look at investment by Facebook in undersea internet cables, including the massive 2Africa which snakes around the whole continent.

Phil Vine reviews Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney, published by Allen and Unwin.

Kiwi physiotherapist and breathing dysfunction specialist of some 30 years, Dr Tania Clifton-Smith is co-founder, along with Dinah Bradley, of the first independent Breathing Pattern Disorders clinic in Australasia, and co-developer of the BradCliff breathing method to reduce stress, improve sleep, think clearly and improve performance in sports and at work.

UK correspondent Matthew Parris joins Kathryn to talk about the demands from large energy-reliant industries as costs spiral and the claims by Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng that have led to a public bust-up with the Treasury. Amid the energy crisis, the PM has been holidaying at a luxury villa in Spain owned by one of his wealthy ministers. The Police Force is facing criticism over the sheer number of sex claims against officers, and there are concerns over the state of polluted British rivers.

Katherine Mansfield was a writer who had a lot of feelings, and had a lot of love to give. It's her birthday today! Katheleen Mansfield was born on the 14th of October in 1888 in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. To celebrate her birthday the Katherine Mansfield House & Garden has published a book titled Woman in Love - a collection of her love letters of all sorts. It includes romantic love, but also lots of other types of affection. The book's foreword is by British filmmaker Richard Curtis of Love Actually fame, and his daughter Scarlett. It turns out that Richard Curtis was actually born in Wellington and he and his daughter have both been long fascinated by Mansfield. The editor of the collection is president of the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace Nicola Saker.

Computer simulations of dinosaurs has yielded an accidental discovery, their tails wagged when they walked. Historically it has been accepted that the giant creatures' tails were a counterbalance, helping to keep them steady. Studying locomotion in fossils has always been tricky, but a research team at the Royal Veterinary College in London has found dinosaurs' tails actually moved and helped them to walk efficiently. Dr Peter Bishop, who is currently a research fellow at Harvard University, says high tech simulations have revealed their tails could actually swing up and down Photo: Peter Bishop

More people are working from home while sick, rather than taking sick leave.

Southern Cross and Business New Zealand's Fifth Workplace Wellness Report shows the average amount of leave taken by employees was about 4.2 days last year. Southern Cross Health Insurance chief executive Nick Astwick told Nine to Noon that's the lowest average in the last 10 years.

Landscape gardener Xanthe White is with us this spring day - with some tips on how to keep the costs of gardening down. Just how can you get plants for free?. This is particularly pertinent for Aucklanders who is recent times have not been able to head to the garden centre.

Music correspondent Charlotte Ryan joins Kathryn to celebrate the Beatles and the release next month of the Peter Jackson documentary Get Back, a single from Cat Power's new covers album and a track from Canadian instrumental group BadBadNotGood.