Nine To Noon for Tuesday 10 May 2016

09:05 Review finds local authorities lacking on building checks

A review of  local councils finds nearly half are ignoring their legal requirement to check that buildings are safe and to issue infringement notices. The Ministry of Building, Innovation and Employment has looked into the performance of 13 councils around the country, including Auckland, Kapiti Coast and Taranaki. Under the Building Act 2012 , local councils and regional councils are required to carry out on-site audits of non-residential buildings. But of the 13 councils reviewed, six were not carrying out any on-site audits to check that their Building Warrants of Fitness are being complied with. This covers systems like fire alarms, sprinklers, automatic doors and lifts, to make sure they work as they should in case of fire or power outages. Of those that were doing on-site audits, there were long time lags between audits. The review has also found that some of the councils were overly "customer-friendly" and not pulling building owners up enough. To discuss this, Dave Gittings is the Team Leader of the Consent System at MBIE and Kevin Collins from Timaru. Mr Collins  - who retired last month after 45 years as a fire fighter and 27 as a fire investigator and risk management officer.

09:20 The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy, Joe Cannataci on Orwellian levels of surveillance

Joe Cannataci is the United Nations' first Special Rapporteur for the right to privacy. Appointed last year, he's wasted no time in laying into what he's described as an Orwellian level of state surveillance of citizens by CCTV and other means. He's been particularly critical of the UK which is currently legislating to allow bulk hacking and interception of data, saying countries should be scaling back surveillance of their own people. He also says it's regrettable that so many people willingly sign away their digital rights through their use of social media. Joe Cannataci is a professor of law at the University of Malta where he is the Head of the Department of Information and Policy. He is speaking at events in Wellington tomorrow and Auckland on Thursday as a guest of the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner.

09:36 Concerns after party ban will drive events underground

Some schools and parents in Canterbury say moves by the police to crack down on school after ball functions will only increase alcohol related harm. The police have sent a letter to schools in the region pointing out that after ball functions where alcohol is consumed and money changes hands are illegal. After-parties at two high schools have been scrapped because the organisers fear they will be prosecuted. But those same organisers have said the move will only drive teens to underground unsupervised events. Julia Whaipooti is the co-chair of the youth justice organisation JustSpeak

09:45 US correspondent Susan Milligan

With the latest on the Republican and Democrat race for the White House.

10:05 Jonathan Gil Harris: Becoming Indian

Jonathan Gil Harris is a Shakepearean scholar who's written a history of the weird and wonderful people came to make India their home in the 16th and 17th centuries. First of the Firangis weaves the stories of these historical migrants together with Gil's own personal experiences - he himself moved to India three years ago to take up a position as a professor of English at Ashoka University in New Delhi. Now GiIl is working on a new project closer to his prior area of expertise, Masala Shakespeare - looking at how the Bard's work has been adapted and re-imagined in an Indian context.

10:35 Book Review - The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
reviewed by Sonja de Friez, published by HarperCollins

10:45 The Reading
Where The Rekohu Bone Sings by Tina Makereti (Part 12 of 15)
read by Maria Walker, George Henare and Kura Forrester

11:05 Business commentator Rod Oram

11:20 Changes in the way we work

Demographer, Paul Spoonley of Massey University discusses employment and where the labour market is trending.
Professor Spoonley is Pro Vice-Chancellor of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Massey University.

11:45 Media commentator Gavin Ellis

Gavin Ellis will look at the collaborative effort on the New Zealand dimension to the Panama Papers.

And he'll also examine whether Fairfax will follow APN in carving off its New Zealand assets.  There is speculation in The Australian that the publisher of the Dominion Post and The Press will look at a demerger after APN releases details of the uncoupling of NZME on Wednesday.

Music played in this show

Artist:   Iva Lamkum
Song: Dollar Paper
Composer: Lamkum
Album: Black Eagle
Label: Sony 
Time: 10:05

Artist:   LA Mitchell
Song: Lose the Game
Composer: Mitchell
Album: Kiwi Hit Disc 2
Label: NZ on Air
Time: 10:42