Saturday Morning

7.11 Election Day in Australia

Election booths are opening in Australia just under three hours' time.

Incumbent Labor leader Anthony Albanese is considered the favourite, but polls can be wrong - and a second term for Albanese was considered unlikely only a few months ago.

His nearest rival is Liberal-National Coalition leader Peter Dutton who's popularity surged when he tapped into a more Trump-ian approach.

Morning Report's Corin Dann talks to Susie live from Sydney.

7.17 The big wet weather mop up

There's still a state of emergency in Christchurch and many properties across Wellington, Wairarapa and Manawatū are still without power following the week's wild weather.

The main road to Akaroa on Banks Peninsula is still blocked, days after intense rainfall flooded State Highway 75.

But as some residents affected by flooding across Banks Peninsula and Canterbury continue to clean up - a little good news in the Far North. 

State Highway One was re-opened - again - yesterday after it was closed for 3 days due to another slip caused by heavy rain.

Mark Mitchell who is the Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery speaks to Mihi.

7.21 The latest from Gaza

An aid ship bound for Gaza has been hit in an alleged drone attack - while it was in international waters.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition is campaigning to end Israel's aid blockade of the besieged strip.

It comes in a week where pressure is mounting on Israel, which has not let any aid into Gaza since March 2.

Also, this week the International Court of Justice began hearings into Israel's humanitarian obligations to Palestinians.

In Israel itself, increasing number of army reservists are writing open letters calling for an end of hostilities - to prioritise the return of Israeli hostages.

Susie speaks to our correspondent Trent Murray in Tel Aviv.

7.32 Changes to KiwiSaver?

This week the government announced plans to cut the operating allowance in this year's budget by $1.1 billion.

Among many changes potentially on the cards, Finance Minister Nicola Willis has hinted at changes to KiwiSaver.

This week she wouldn't rule out means testing the government's KiwiSaver contribution of $521.

The head of the School of Accountancy and Finance at Massey University, Professor Claire Matthews, speaks to Mihi from Palmerston North.

7.41 Tackling caulerpa in Te Tai Tokerau

A hapū at the epicentre of the caulerpa outbreak in the Bay of Islands are calling for more concerted effort to deal with the invasive seaweed.

When hundreds of tonnes of caulerpa washed ashore after cyclone Tam it was a shock to many except Arana Rewha.

He's the chair of Ngāti Kuta hapū - and an award winning kaitiaki. He's also the first person to discover caulerpa up there after it was first found at Great Barrier in 2021. 

7.50 The speech competition aiming to improve race relations 

The Race Unity Speech Awards are on this weekend in Auckland.

They're a platform for senior high school students from around the motu to express their ideas on how to improve race relations in Aotearoa.

The competition is now in its 25th year and the theme this year is "Ocean of Diversity".

Its creator Bev Watson and one of the competitors Tanyn Wood from Mt Aspiring College in Wanaka speak to Mihi.

8.11 The name's Rimington. Stella Rimington 

What's better than 007? Stella Rimington, of course. She's the former director general of British counter-intelligence and security agency MI5. She held the position from 1992 to 1996, making her the first woman to take the role.

Now, at 89 years young, Dame Stella Rimington is still going hard, this time as an author, with a slew of espionage spy thrillers inspired by her previous line of work.

Her latest The Hidden Hand follows a Chinese student at Oxford caught in a covert operation to steal research.

8.40 What is inattentional blindness? Professor Anthony Lambert explains 

Have you ever missed something obvious right in front of you? Chances are you've experienced a psychological phenomenon called inattentional blindness - the failure to notice something obvious due to focused attention elsewhere.

One area that it can significantly impact is crime cases. Witnesses experiencing inattentional blindness can struggle to remember details, accurately describe events, or even identify the culprit, potentially leading to misidentifications and wrongful convictions.

Anthony Lambert is Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Auckland.

He explains how inattentional blindness works and if there's anything we can do to avoid it.

9.06 Choir Games captured on film: Leanne Pooley

In 2024, Auckland hosted The World Choir Games.

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Leanne Pooley captured this choral extravaganza event for documentary series The Choir Games.

The four-part series follows two very different choirs, New Zealand's Kaitāia Community Voices and the Young People's Chorus of New York City, on a life-changing journey to compete with the best of the choral world.

Leanne speaks to Mihi about what what’s known as the Olympic Games of singing.

The Choir Games shows from 4 May on Sky Open and Neon.

9.32 What have we learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic? 

Shaun Hendy is a well-respected New Zealand physicist and the chief scientist at climate innovation company Toha.

He was the founder and first director of Te Pūnaha Matatini from 2015-2021 where he and his team modelled Covid-19 scenarios for the Government during the height of infections in New Zealand. 

His new book The Covid Response: A Scientist's Account of New Zealand's Pandemic and What Comes Next details New Zealand's strategy against the virus – what we got right, the mistakes that were made, and the lessons we can learn from to prepare for future pandemics. 

Shaun shares his findings with Susie.

10.06 Trans writer Torrey Peters on provocative new novel Stag Dance 

Stag Dance, the latest novel from trans writer Torrey Peters, is made up of three short stories and the provocative titular tale of male loggers exploring their sexualities together. 

Set at an illegal 19th-century logging camp, Stag Dance follows a lonely logger and his male lumberjack friends  gather in the woods to dance. 

Romance, obsession and jealousy ensue deep in the woods, all culminating in a big night with thrilling themes around gender and transition. 

Her 2021 novel Detransition, Baby received mainstream critical acclaim and was selected as one of the New York Times 100 best books of the 21st century.  

Her work has thrust Peters further onto the front line of the culture wars.  

Ahead of her appearance at the Auckland Writers Festival, Susie speaks to Torrey Peters about the reaction to the book and what it means to be trans in an increasingly hostile world.  

10.35 Outgoing Wellington mayor Tory Whanau: “Politics has become an ugly place”

Tory Whanau has announced she will not stand again for the Wellington mayoralty.

Her announcement came shortly after former Labour leader Andrew Little confirmed he would be contesting, with Whanau saying she didn't want a Greens vs Labour narrative to swamp the election. Instead, Whanau plans to run for the council's Māori Ward.

Whanau has previously said she would consider quitting the mayoralty after facing scrutiny for her political and personal challenges including the appointment of a Crown observer for the Council.

The outgoing mayor speaks to Mihi.

11.06 Yael Van Der Wouden: debuting at the Bookers

Yael Van der Wouden's first novel The Safekeep is a twisted tale of desire, obsession and loss set in the post-war Netherlands. 

It was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, and now the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction.

15 years after the end of the Second World War, the quiet life of a lonely young woman is upended by secrets and sex due to the arrival of an outsider, the "graceless young girlfriend" of her brother.

Yael's a creative writing lecturer and even has her own advice column, Dear David, where she channels the beautiful spirit of David Attenborough to help strangers through life's tribulations.

She catches up with Susie ahead of her upcoming Auckland Writers Festival event on May 17th.

11.35 Opening Night! A new era for Ōtautahi's Court Theatre

There’s a big weekend in store for Christchurch where the curtain is being raised on the new Court Theatre.

The new $56 million playhouse is the theatre's first permanent home since the 2011 earthquake destroyed its Arts Centre venue.

Since then, the theatre has masqueraded as "The Shed" in a converted warehouse in Addington. The new theatre is the latest act in a four-decades-old saga involving multiple venues and reinvention.

Court Theatre artistic director Ross Gumbley and Lara Macgregor, director of opening show The End of the Golden Weather, speak to Susie.

11.45 Kate de Goldi's favourite winter reads 

Novelist, children's writer, and Arts Foundation Laureate Kate de Goldi is back with her favourite winter reads.

This week she reviews The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey, Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah, and Greater Sins by Gabrielle Griffiths.