Nine To Noon for Wednesday 28 January 2026

09:05 Charities could cease to exist if they don't re-register    

Time is running out for charities, sports clubs and other incorporated societies which could cease to exist if they don't re-register under new legislation. There are nearly 24,000  Incorporated Societies currently registered. Of that, 13,000  or just over half that number, have re-registered under the new Act,  but 2 thousand of those are brand new societies. The Business Registry at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, estimates nearly 5,000 are charities. The re-registration is quite a complex process and societies only have just over two months to get it done or they will lose access to bank accounts, the rights to their names and any contracts will become null and void. Kathryn speaks to  Rahul Watson Govindan, the former chief executive of Philanthropy New Zealand.

09:30 Opening up Government services in South Africa

Accessing Government services to apply for the likes of a passport or maybe some kind of funding, can often be a frustrating experience, with long queues or waits on the phone. But a New Zealand tech company says it has built a one-stop-shop digital services app for the government of South Africa that could cut many of those delays. The app is called MyMzansi and on it residents can access a digital ID, including driver's licences, as well as a payments gateway and a digital wallet. The New Zealand company Silverstripe was brought in to help build the app - and did so within a 10 -week period, something many countries have taken years to build. 

09:45 Australia: Anti-hate speech law used, Liberal leader's tenure under pressure

Australia correspondent Chris Niesche details how new hate speech laws have been invoked following a man's arrest at an anti-immigration rally on Australia Day. Opposition leader Sussan Ley has faced increasing speculation about her tenure, following the resignation of Nationals members en masse from the shadow coalition. And a 'baggy green cap' belonging to Don Bradman has sold at auction for more than half a million dollars. 

10:05 Colin Carruthers KC on his heroic uncle - a merchant seaman in WWII

In 1942 a German U-boat approached the entrance to New York's Lower Bay - surprised to see the lights of Manhattan blazing as usual. It was just weeks since Germany had declared war on America, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. The next day U-123 would attack and sink a merchant ship carrying over a million gallons of oil - of the lives lost, a New Zealander, 27-year-old Colin Watt. His nephew and namesake, Colin Carruthers, has detailed his story in a new book: Twice Torpedoed: A Merchant Mariner's Heroic War.  It details his time plying waters around the world, delivering desperately-needed supplies to the Allies. Colin Carruthers has had a distinguished legal career, having been appointed a Kings' Counsel in 1990 and was head of the Criminal Cases Review Commission when it was established in 2020. He tells Kathryn why the time was right to tell his uncle's extraordinary story.

10:30 Waitomo fossils shed new light on ancient birdlife

Million-year-old fossils have been found in a cave near Waitomo painting a picture of New Zealand wildlife in a period very little was known about. The fossils were found at a cave in Waitomo known as Moa Eggshell Cave, and among them were 12 ancient bird species and four frog species. There are ancient relatives of the Kākāpō and the Takahē. The fossils were analysed by a team of palaeontologists from Flinders University and Canterbury Museum along with volcanologists from around New Zealand. Volcanic ash deposits surrounding and preserving the fossils were able to be dated, giving a window into a specific period from between 15 million and 1 million years ago - a period mostly absent in the country's fossil record. The research is published this week in an Australian paleontology journal. Co-author and Canterbury Museum senior curator of natural history is Paul Scofield.  

10:35 Book review: Three of the best from 2025

Jenna Todd of Time Out Bookstore reviews her favourite books from last year: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible by Rabith Alameddine, published by Little Brown Books, Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte, published by HarperCollins, and How to End a Story: Collected Diaries 1978-1998 by Helen Garner published by Text Publishing.

 

10:45 Around the motu: RNZ's reporter in Dunedin, Tess Brunton

Tess discusses a health watchdog's criticism of staffing levels at Oamaru  Hospital, problematic Gore campground about to close, the Kākāpō camera giving remote viewers an opportunity to watch a nest  on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island and a woman who was the model for a Peter Pan themed sculpture returns 60 years later.

11:05 Music with Maggie Tweedie

Maggie Tweedie serves up fresh summer sounds, from new local jazz outfit Groove Council to Goldie Boutilier’s pop and former Wellingtonian Rachel Andie’s laidback soulful grooves.

11:20 Judith Collins announces her retirement from politics

Senior National Minister - and former National Party leader Judith Collins - has announced her retirement from politics ahead of this year's election. She is set to become head of the Law Commission. Acting political editor Craig McCulloch talks with Kathryn about the announcement and Collins' political career.

11:25 The award-winning cop-turned-author on his latest West Coast crime thriller

For his latest novel, Chris Blake has stepped out from behind the pseudonym with which he published his first. He used it to distance himself from his day job with the New Zealand Police. Chris' debut novel The Sound of Her Voice was a double finalist in the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Awards and introduced us to his main character, an Auckland-based detective called Matt Buchanan. Softly Calls the Devil follows Matt to the rugged West Coast of the South Island, where his peaceful life as a sole-charge officer is about to be interrupted. His predecessor is found dead, and Matt is dragged into two decades-old cold cases - one of a family who went missing in the bush and the death of a French backpacker. Chris joins Kathryn to talk about how he balances police work with writing.

11:45 How to make your New Year's fitness resolutions last beyond January

If you made a resolution to get fit at the start of this month - and you're still sticking to it, congratulations. Research suggests about 70 percent of people make some kind of New Year's resolution, and "more exercise" is one of the most common. But if you have fallen short already - should you give up entirely? Richard Beddie is the head of Exercise New Zealand  - he says definitely not. He joins Kathryn to talk about ditching the guilt and building good  - and realistic - exercise habits.