Nine To Noon for Friday 5 April 2024

09:05 Primary health services buckle to financial, staffing pressures

General practices are buckling under financial pressure, with a large clinic in Tauranga shutting its doors, and the after-hours medical service in Invercargill at risk of closure. Pāpāmoa Pines Medical Centre is closing its Domain Road site, which serves 6000 patients, as it cannot find enough staff to keep it running. Further south, the collective of GPs who pull extra shifts at Invercargill's after-hours service have thrown in the towel due to financial pressures. Primary Health Organisation WellSouth has stepped in to keep it running for now, until a permanent solution can be found. WellSouth CEO Andrew Swanson-Dobbs says of the 77 clinics it supports across Southland and Otago, 28 have issued Clause 14 notices - a notification that the practice holds concerns it cannot perform the services it is contracted to do. Kathryn Ryan speaks with Pāpāmoa Pines owner Dr Davitt Sheaha, WellSouth CEO Andrew Swanson-Dobbs, and Martin Hefford from Te Whatu Ora.

09:20  Deidre Brown: Pioneering Maori Architecture 

Architectural academic Professor, Deidre Brown, has been awarded the the highest honour from the New Zealand Institute of Architects': the gold medal for 2023. It is the first time the award has gone to an academic, and Professor Brown is also the first wahine Maori recipient. In 2019, her appointment as Head of Te Pare School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland,  made Deirdre Brown the first Indigenous woman in the world to hold such a position. An academic, teacher, mentor, art historian, and author - Professor Brown is also a co-directer of MĀPIHI Māori and Pacific Housing Research Centre, alongside former student Dr Karamia Müller. MĀPIHI is aimed at supporting Māori and Pacific whānau to live in healthy, affordable and sustainable homes.

09:30 Picton's Flower Ladies: 30 years of posies for cruise ships

The cruise ship season is drawing to a close, and in Picton that marks the end of very busy few months for the Picton Flower Ladies. They're a group of volunteers who've greeted every ship in port this summer and for the past three decades  - with buttonholes and posies for passengers. Margaret Frisken and Yvonne Rigby are two stalwarts of the Picton Flower Ladies

09:45 Pacific correspondent Koroi Hawkins

An appeal of the sentencing of Fiji's former leader Frank Bainimarama and suspended police chief has been moved to next month. In Niue, four amendments to the constitution have passed their first readings. And the French Senate has endorsed new election rules for New Caledonia. 

10:05  'Novel' debut from academic turned murder mystery writer

The new director of the Mt John observatory is found dead on the eve of its 50th anniversary celebrations, with academics from around the world attending. That is the scene and the setting of retired academic Marie Connolly's debut novel Dark Sky. Criminal psychologist Nellie Prayle takes it upon herself to help police discover who has killed the observatory's new young director. Nellie and Detective Jack Simmons find themselves in a plot of academic rivalries, infidelities and emotional turmoil as they try to solve this murder in the heart of Mackenzie Country. It's Marie Connolly's first shot at a murder mystery story - after a career as a leading expert in child protection systems. It's a career that took her from Canterbury University to becoming the Government's chief social worker before a professorial chair role at the University of Melbourne. She retired in 2019 and moved back to New Zealand where she's been writing from her Akaroa home.

10:35 Book review: How to Win an Information War by Peter Pomerantsev

Tilly Lloyd from Unity Wellington reviews How to Win an Information War, by Peter Pomerantsev, published by Faber.

10:45 Around the motu: Chris Hyde in Hawkes Bay

A new 40 kilometer bike trail is opening in Eskdale on land left devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle; Napier rates are doubling, and 83-year-old Sir Tom Jones is set to rock Napier this weekend.

11:05 Music reviewer Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy has new music from indie guitar gunslingers Ride and Luke Buda, along with country queens Kacey Musgraves, Tami Neilson and Beyonce.

11:30 Sports commentator Sam Ackerman

The Wellington Phoenix has their biggest game of the A-League season coming up, as they vie for a spot in the finals. And in a huge move for women's sport, professional basketball league Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa will double player wages this year. Pressure is mounting on All Blacks coach Scott Robertson as players go down injured as selection looms, and the NRL is open to banning the kick-off.

11:45 The week that was with Irene Pink and Michele A'Court

Comedians Irene and Michele take a look back at the funny stories of the week including the April Fool's joke that backfired on German grocery chain Aldi, when customers began demanding a joke icecream flavour be made available for sale.