Midday Report

An update on the latest news from RNZ's rural team.

Air New Zealand has announced three new non-stop international flights from Christchurch to launch later this year. Christchurch International Airport chief executive Justin Watson spoke to Guyon Espiner.

A new report from the Ministry for Regulation says there are 267 bodies which regulate what New Zealanders can and can't do. The Minister for Regulation, David Seymour spoke to Guyon Espiner.

Craig McCulloch previews finance minister's speech; Top economist discusses potential public sector cuts; Tourism boss discusses current travel climate ahead of TRENZ; Latest news from the United States.

An update on the latest news and results from RNZ's sports team.

Rebecca Ingram the chair of the Tourism Industry Association spoke to Guyon Espiner ahead of the TRENZ conference taking place in Auckland.

The latest news from the United States with correspondent Laura Taglianetti in New York.

News from the rural farming sector.

News from the business sector.

Killian Destremau, Deputy Chief Economist at BERL spoke to Guyon Espiner. BERL does economic research and consultancy for private and public sector clients.

Deputy political editor Craig McCulloch previews Finance Minister Nicola Willis' pre-budget speech where she is expected to lay out big cuts to the public service. He spoke to Guyon Espiner.

Economic expert responds to Peters' plan to buy back BNZ; National's new policy for sex offender sentencing; Advocacy group responds to National's new policy; What happened when AI took over the radio; What happened when AI took over the radio.

An update on the latest news and results from RNZ's sports team.

Andon Labs ran an experiment where it told the big AI chatbots Grok, ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini to run radio stations. And the results were mixed both on the business side and on air. Axel Backlund, one of the co-founders of Andon Labs spoke to Guyon Espiner.

The latest news from Australia with correspondent Amanda Copp in Canberra.

An update on the latest news from RNZ's rural team.

The latest news from RNZ's business team.

Winston Peters says he will campaign on buying back the BNZ and merge it with KiwiBank. The Prime Minister thinks it's laughable. Michael Reddell has spent 30-plus years doing economic analysis and policy advice in a range of institutions, including at the Reserve Bank. He spoke to Guyon Espiner.

Russell Smith of the sexual violence advocacy group Te Ohaakii a Hine: the National Network for Ending Sexual Violence Together spoke to Guyon Espiner.

The National Party will campaign on a policy to prevent judges discounting sexual offenders' sentences due to good character. National's justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith spoke to Guyon Espiner.

Brad Olsen discusses latest cost of living figures; Air New Zealand forecasts nearly $400m loss; Kiwis turning to Afterpay for fuel and basics; Greens respond to government pausing of social media bill.

An update on the latest news and results from RNZ's sports team.

The government has confirmed legislation aiming to ban under-16s from social media is now on hold. Labour agreed to support National's proposal for a ban - but the Greens and ACT were opposed to the idea. Green MP and youth spokesperson Tamatha Paul spoke to Guyon Espiner.

Weekly chat about the week in politics with Patrick Gower and Guyon Espiner.

An update on the latest news from RNZ's rural team.