Nine To Noon for Tuesday 2 August 2011

09:05 NZ's largest employers group breaks its silence following the outcry over Alasdair Thompson's productivity comments

Bruce Goldsworthy, the acting Chief Executive of the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA), who replaced Alasdair Thompson after he was sacked over his comments that women are less productive than men. Mr Thompson claimed women took more time off to cope with periods and to look after children.

09:25 Dairy industry

Dairy analyst Peter Fraser recently authored a report saying New Zealanders could be paying $195 million too much for milk from Fonterra each year. The report has been provided to the Commerce Commission which is conducting an investigation into whether a full milk price-control inquiry is warranted, after an industry complaint that Fonterra was artificially inflating the price and public disquiet about the high price of dairy products.

09:45 US correspondent Jack Hitt

10:05 Michael Farmer - Meteorite Hunter

Michael Farmer has travelled to the far reaches of the globe on his hunt for extraterrestrial fragments. Known as the meteorite man.

10:25 Book Review with Don Rood

Guns and Utu: A Short History of the Musket Wars by Matthew Wright
Penguin Group (NZ)

10:45  Reading. 'Five of the Family  by David Hill (Part 2 of 5)

11:05 Business commentator Rod Oram

11:30 Disputes resolution

Ways to keep disputes out of the courts, role of mediators and arbitrators. Deborah Hart is the Executive Director of the Arbitrators and Mediators Institute of NZ.

11:45 Media commentator Gavin Ellis

Gavin Ellis is the former editor-in-chief of The New Zealand Herald, he is based at the University of Auckland and recently submitted his doctoral thesis on weaknesses in the mainstream media's business model and the use of trust ownership as an alternative to profit-driven publicly-listed media companies.