Nine To Noon for Tuesday 7 October 2025

09:05 Significant increase in students needing counselling - schools

Three-quarters of schools have reported an increase in the number of students seeking counselling in the past year - with 40 percent of schools describing it as a significant increase. According to the survey - just released by the social services provider Barnardos - this is due to financial pressures, unstable home environments, bullying, and worries about the future. Barnardos found while schools were working hard to help students .. resources were lacking, with only 55 percent of schools having a counsellor on site, usually for 1 or 2 days a week, and principals reporting as many as half of their students would benefit from help if it were available. Schools say a lack of funding is the biggest barrier to getting more counsellors on site. Matt Reid is the chief executive of Barnardos and we'll talk also to Dave Lamont who is the principal of Koraunui School in Stokes Valley.

09:25 Growth of degree apprenticeships

Otago Polytechnic's work-while-you-learn engineering technology degree has been so successful it may expand, adding a new graduate diploma in asset management. Another three degree-apprenticeship programmes in architecture, construction management and quantity surveying are all in the pilot stage. They are being run by the Construction & Infrastructure Centre of Vocational Excellence (ConCOVE), in a move to grow degree apprenticeships in this country. A Bachelor of Architectural Technology could be set to launch at Canterbury's Ara Institute from the beginning of 2027. Those studying these degrees are employed and earning a salary, while using their day-to-day work to go towards the requirements in the degree. Katherine Hall is executive director at ConCOVE. Hana Cadzow is Otago Polytechnic's principal lecturer of engineering technologies. 

09:40 ASB settles on class action

ASB has agreed to pay $135.6 million to settle a class action lawsuit over historic breaches of credit disclosures. The amount is less than half of the $300 million initially offered to ASB to settle in July. However, the final settlement is still subject to court approval. The class action case against the country's biggest bank, ANZ, continues. RNZ business journalist Anan Zaki explains.

09:50 USA correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben

President Trump has been blocked from deploying national guard from other states to Oregon. The Government shutdown is underway, with national parks closing, and checks paid to Government employees expected to stop. Danielle also discusses the repercussions of a new Supreme Court term beginning, with a focus on Presidential power.     

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

10:05 Political scientist Carlo Masala on what happens if Russia succeeds in Ukraine

In a fictionalised account set a little over two years from now, the city of Narva in Estonia wakes to explosions. It's being attacked by Russia - and is conquered in a matter of hours. The same night, another city on the island of Hiiumaa is also taken - giving Russia the ability to impose a naval blockade of the Baltic states. This is the basis of a future imagined by political scientist Dr Carlo Masala in his book 'If Russia Wins: A scenario'. It's predicated on what could happen, if the conflict in Ukraine is settled on terms advantageous to Russia. How far is NATO really prepared to go to defend one of its member states? How sound is the commitment of the US, in particular? Carlo Masala is Professor for International Politics at the Bundeswehr University Munich. He joins Kathryn to talk about his scenario and its relation to recent developments in the Ukraine conflict and within Europe.

10:35 Book review: New Zealand Rustic by Kate Coughlan, Tessa Chrisp, Yolanta Woldendorp

Harry Broad reviews New Zealand Rustic by Kate Coughlan, Tessa Chrisp, Yolanta Woldendorp, published by Rough & Co publishing.

10:45 Around the motu: Jesse Archer in Taupō

The 10th annual Taupō Winter Festival is reported to have been another success with thousands turned out to enjoy the vibrant programme. There's a proposal to drop the speed limit on a key part of the road that goes around the lake from 100km/h to 60km/h. And Jesse talks about the Great Lake Film Society's involvement in the 48 Hours film festival. 

Jesse Archer from LakeFM in Taupō

10:55 Business sentiment drops to new lows

Business sentiment has fallen to its lowest level in the year with firms cutting staff and investment amid weak demand and stalled growth. The Institute of Economic Research's September quarter business survey shows a net 15 per cent of respondents think economic conditions will improve in coming months, compared to 26 per cent in the June survey. A net 14 per cent of firms reported a fall in their own trading, an improvement on the previous quarter, but the number expecting a future improvement halved to 9 per cent. Firms planned to keep cutting jobs and cut back on investment as they faced higher costs and are being forced to raise prices. Gyles Beckford is the RNZ's business editor.

11:05 Business commentator Victoria Young 

There's been a raft of departures of companies from the NZX as investors see value that local stakeholders do not. Victoria also discusses Futureverse, the company that took a half-a-billion-dollar bet on the Metaverse, and has now gone into receivership. And Deloitte have been caught using generative AI to write a report for the Australian Government that included a made-up quote from a Federal Court judgement, and three academic references that did not exist. 

BusinessDesk editor, Victoria Young

11:30 Understanding the discoveries of NZ's greatest scientist Ernest Rutherford

He's been described as the "father of nuclear physics", but even Ernest Rutherford was somewhat surprised to learn in 1908 he was getting the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. The New Zealand-born scientist remarked at the ceremony that of all the transformations he'd dealt with in his work, the fastest was his own from physicist to chemist. Rutherford's life and the his work has been diligently chronicled in a new book by Kiwi author Matthew Wright called Ernest Rutherford and the Birth of Modern Physics. The book details the man behind the science; the colonial son with a big booming voice who made ground-breaking discoveries and who mentored his students to discover their own. But more than that, it lays out his incredible work in an accessible way and the impact it's had on how we live now. The book is in bookstores now, and available through Oratia Books.

11:45 Sports correspondent Glen Larmer 

The All Blacks win in Perth, while the Silver Ferns fail to come to a resolution with stood-down coach Dame Noeline Taurua. Elsewhere, the Black Foils take second in SailGP in Spain and the Brisbane Broncos are Australian rugby league champions.