Nine To Noon for Tuesday 11 March 2025

09:05 More taxpayer funded surgery in private hospitals - pros & cons

The government wants private hospitals to do more elective surgery - will this help ease pressure on the public system, or undermine it? Last Friday, Health Minister Simeon Brown announced a major overhaul of the public health system, including reinstating a board and "partnering" with the private sector. He says Health NZ will invest $50m between now and the end of June,  to reduce the backlog of people waiting for elective surgeries.  Long term, the minister says he wants as much planned care as possible to be delivered in partnership with the private sector, freeing public hospitals for acute needs, with longer terms, multi-year agreements with the private sector. The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists' Executive Director Sarah Dalton says public hospital medical specialists are already leaving, or reducing their hours, in favour of private practice , and Mr Brown's plan will only make it worse. Kathryn also talks with the President of the Private Surgical Hospitals Association Blair Roxborough.

09:30 Who should own IP when researchers and universities create value?

Should university researchers keep intellectual property rights relating to their work? It is one of the major suggestions in a report into the country's science and innovations sector led by former chief science advisor Sir Peter Gluckman. It proposed following a Canadian University system, where researchers own all of the IP of their discoveries. Here IP policies differ per university and many own stakes in companies spun out of those innovations. Former Minister of Science Innovation and Technology Judith Collins says the move to researchers owning IP would attract more top talent and better incentivise commercialisation. But critics say it is more important to create a supported, entrepreneurial environment with good connections to the business world. Auckland University's UniServices spun out 47 startups between 2021 and 2023. Kathryn speaks with its executive director of investment Will Charles, and Pierre Malou, chief executive of Victoria University’s UniVentures. 

09:45 USA correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben

President Trump has moved back and forth on tariffs and markets have dropped on the back of that uncertainty. Danielle also discusses the looming budget crunch and potential Government shutdown and what was the longest joint address a President has ever given to Congress.

Danielle Kurtzleben is a political correspondent assigned to NPR's Washington Desk.

10:05 Dick Frizzell's love letter to Hastings

Painter and printmaker Dick Frizzell's works are held in galleries and collections around the country. From large New Zealand landscapes to some instantly recognisable pop-art works like the Four Square Man.  Now,  Dick Frizzell has published a memoir about growing up in Hastings, which he says is a love letter to kiwi small towns in the 1950s and 60s.

10:35 Book review: Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears by Michael Schulman 

Dean Bedford reviews Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears by Michael Schulman published by HarperCollins

10:45 Around the motu: Jared McCulloch in Queenstown

Queenstown, Central Otago and Otago Regional councils sign off on a combined submission under the government's Regional Deal agreement, what's next for the the 128 year-old Roxburgh cinema after the devastating fire, and another A-list celebrity is in Queenstown.

Jared McCulloch is a 1 News Reporter in Queenstown,

11:05 Business commentator Dileepa Fonseka 

Four projects have been named by Treasury as ready-to-go public-private partnership projects as major banks and investment funds come to the country for an infrastructure summit at the end of this week. The Prime Minister is off to India to work on a trade deal as the US President's tariffs are disrupting worldwide markets. Dileepa also discusses the resignation of Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran. 

Dileepa Fonseka is a Senior Correspondent with BusinessDesk

11:30 Author, director and cop Stef Harris on his two new, dark and funny novellas

Two novellas. Two women who have arrived in New Zealand as immigrants and find themselves in desperate situations. But that's where the similarity ends for the characters in Stef Harris' new book The Girl from Sarajevo. It combines two novellas in one - with the first centred around would-be author Katia, her mysterious Croatian-poet neighbour Dragan - and the lie she finds herself trapped in. In the second, The Other Jasmine, Wong Ji Li is brought to New Zealand to be a bride - but finds herself stuck on a derelict farm and at the mercy of her new husband and his controlling mother. That story was based on Stef's experiences working as a police officer, dealing with migrant women in domestic violence cases. He's also just completed a short film, Sister Josephine, which was based on an experience he had when he lived at a boys' home. 

11:45 Sports correspondent Joe Porter 

The Black Caps lose cricket's Champions Trophy final and coach Gary Stead is pondering his future. In Super Rugby Pacific there were big wins for Moana Pacifica and Fijian Drua with an Australian side the only team to be unbeaten. And Joe talks golf after New Zealander Steven Alker wins a major PGA event in Arizona after a remarkable final round.