Nine To Noon for Wednesday 6 August 2025

09:05 Stricter rules for using facial recognition tech confirmed by Privacy Commissioner

The final biometrics code, which governs how technology such as facial recognition, is collected and used, has just been released by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. The Code, which is now law under the Privacy Act, aims to ensure agencies implementing biometric technologies are doing it safely and in a way that is proportionate. Facial recognition technology has come under increased scrutiny in recent years - particularly its use in retail stores. Retailers say with workers and other customers facing high rates of verbal and physical abuse from repeat offenders the technology is a necessary crime-prevention tool. Foodstuffs North Island recently trialled the technology - however the results suggested hundreds of shoppers a year could be misidentified. The Privacy Commissioner's review then made a range of recommendations to improve the system. Facial recognition also has a history of being less accurate the darker the skin of a person, though some algorithms are better than others, and the technology is improving. A Māori Reference Panel set up at the end of 2024 told the commissioner it opposed the use of facial recognition use in supermarkets. The Privacy Commissioner is Michael Webster, and Retail NZ chief executive is Carolyn Young. 

09:20 New fundraising tool aims to help schools struggling to pay for the basics

Students at a small northern Hawke's Bay kura have had an incredibly disruptive couple of years. Forced out of their classrooms by Cyclone Gabrielle, Nūhaka School's kids moved multiple times before finally getting into their warm, new and slightly elevated building. It's been a welcome return and now principal Raelene McFarlane can turn her attention to the other things her school needs: a bus shelter, a finished playground and money for teacher aide training. But when your community has been so stretched through disaster, how do you ask them for more? It's been weighing on Jenni Giblin's mind, as a Hawke's Bay local with ties to the Wairoa area, she knew well what people were going through. She'd already created Funding HQ to help community organisations navigate the tricky and time-consuming grants process. Now she's set up another branch called FundEd which is tailored to the education sector. Both Raelene and Jenni join Susie to talk about why they believe it'll help level the fundraising field, particularly for small rural schools like Nūhaka

 

09:30 Headspace Invaders: New online tool for helping kids combat online harm

Earlier this year Netflix's TV show Adolescence sent a shiver down the spine of parents around the globe. It centred on a family coming to terms with the online radicalisation of their son - and the crime he was accused of committing. A new interactive platform has now been developed for Kiwi kids to help them recognise mis and disinformation, identity-based harm and online extremism. Stuff that's at the "top of the rabbit hole", rather than the Adolescence scale of things. It's called Headspace Invaders and has been developed by Netsafe and Youthline, funded out of the Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Fund and - crucially - been co-designed by those it's aiming to help, kids aged 12 to 16. Netsafe's Chief Customer Officer Leanne Ross has been heavily involved in this project and talks about how it works and why it's the first youth-facing tool to combat this kind of material.

09:45 Australia: Law firms cash in on indigenous class actions, $10b illegal tobacco trade 

Australia correspondent Chris Niesche joins Susie to talk about how some law firms are making millions of dollars in payouts from class action lawsuits while their plaintiffs only get thousands. He looks at a recent outcome for a group of underpaid Indigenous workers who got roughly $10k, while lawyers received $41m. Chris also looks at how government moves to stamp out smoking has increased the trade in illegal tobacco and increased attacks on tobacco shops. And Victoria's government wants to enshrine the right to work from home two days a week - will the federal government intervene?

10:05 Two dames collaborate on a new documentary 

Dame Robin White is one of the country's most significant and prolific living artists. Dame Gaylene Preston is one of the country's foremost documentarians. The two met for the first time in 2021 at a Rita Angus retrospective at Te Papa. Dame Gaylene approached Dame Robin and, after a while, suggested she could make a film about her and her career which spans more than 50 years. The result is Grace: A Prayer for Peace - a feature length documentary about Dame Robin White, which had its premiere at the International Film Festival on Sunday night- with another screening on Friday in Auckland. Other screenings will be held around the country as the festival moves south. Susie Ferguson talks with Dame Robin and Dame Gaylene about their film, their friendship and the art of collaboration.

10:35 Book review: How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter's Memoir by Molly Jong-Fast

Leah McFall reviews How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter's Memoir by Molly Jong-Fast, published by Macmillan Publishers

10:45 Around the motu: RNZ's Northland reporter Peter de Graaf 

Peter canvasses a new twist in Kāeo's 10 year boil water notice saga, worries over the future of Northland's polytechnic, NorthTec and Kerikeri's  performing arts centre turns 20. 

11:05 Music with Kirsten Zemke: The short-lived Yé-yé phenomenon

Music correspondent Kirsten Zemke explores the Yé-yé style of music that emerged in France in the early 1960s in response to American rock'n'roll. It didn't last long, it faded in the 1970s - but it's had somewhat of a revival through its use in movies by Wes Anderson and Quentin Tarantino. 

Kirsten Zemke is an ethnomusicologist at the University of Auckland's School of Social Sciences

11:30 Feminist sci fi drama by New Zealand based writer returns to Edinburgh Fringe    

One failing spacecraft - and two female astronauts fighting to save the earth is the premise behind  the play "Alone", by New Zealand based writer, Luke Thornborough. It's currently making a re-appearance at the Edinburgh  Fringe Festival in a new streamlined version. The play has toured widely in New Zealand and Australia in past years, but this revisited version is being described as particularly relevant in a world where science is politicised, and climate change is being felt more and more. British born Thornborough, who lives on Great Barrier Island helping to restore native ecosystems, has taken this production to Edinburgh in collaboration with Alchemy Theatre, a Paris-based, female-led, international company. Staying up late to join us are Luke Thornborough and Alchemy Theatre's Charlotte Pleasants - formerly from Wellington, who is co producing.    

11:45 Wee chat: What you're afraid to ask about your pelvic floor

It's an issue that affects one-in-three women - or more than 200 million people worldwide - but isn't widely talked about: urinary incontinence. Dr Jenny Kruger is a researcher in the area of pelvic floor and muscle function and dysfunction in women and has led the Pelvic Floor Research Group at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute since 2011. Hannah Orr has had over 15 years of experience as a pelvic floor physiotherapist. Both of them will be part of a panel discussion being held in Auckland for Women's Health Week that looks at everything from incontinence to prolapse and pelvic pain. They join Susie to talk about moving beyond stigma and what people can do to strengthen their pelvic floor.