Nine To Noon for Wednesday 7 November 2018

 

09:05 Water bottling expansion could threaten Chch drinking supplies: councillor

A Christchurch City Councillor is strongly opposing the application by a Chinese owned bottling company to take 1.5 billion litres of water from a deep aquifer - saying it could threaten the city's drinking supply. Cloud Ocean Water owns an existing 33-metre deep bore in the northern suburb of Belfast, from which it is extracting and bottling 4.3 million litres of water a day. It has now applied to the Environment Canterbury for permission to extract water from a 186- metre deep bore at the plant so it can sell it abroad. Vicki Buck the former mayor of Christchurch and chair of the Council's Innovation and Sustainability Committee,  says this could compromise Christchurch's water supply. Kathryn also talks with Steve Lowndes, Chair of Environment Canterbury.

09:30 Can NZ do without animal testing?

While cosmetic animal testing is banned in New Zealand, and has been for the past 3 years, cosmetic products tested on animals elsewhere can still be bought here, and at the last count animal testing in our agricultural industry actually went up from the previous year. So what are the alternatives to animal testing? The Auckland University of Technology's Dr Robert Borotkanics is an expert in the field.

09:45 PM begins life as leader of a minority government

Australia correspondent, Bernard Keane on how the Prime Minister is navigating his role as leader of a minority government with confirmation of Kerryn Phelps' win in Wentworth. Meanwhile, Scott Morrision is starting his election campaign with a tour of Queensland and there's been criticism of an airline giving preferential treatment to defence force veterans.

10:05 Javid Abdelmoneim: working in disaster zones

Dr Javid Abdelmoneim has been a Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders (MSF) doctor for almost 10 years. In that time he has been in some of the world's most distressing and challenging disaster zones from Haiti to Sierra Leone to South Sudan. Along the way, he has also developed a television career - fronting programmes about his work with MSF and also medical and cultural issues facing the UK, where he was born and raised. Javid is in New Zealand to deliver a talk at AUT's Auckland campus about life on the front-line. He joins Kathryn to talk about how his work has given him perspective and what more needs to be done.

10:35 Book review - The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Laura Caygill reviews The Lost Man by Jane Harper, which is published by Macmillan.

10:45 The Reading

The final episode of The New Ships by Kate Duignan read by Nick Blake

11:05 Songs of War and Protest

With Armistice Day coming up this Sunday, music commentator, Gareme Downes has been listening to protest songs. He chosen 3 that still resonate - Talkin World War III Blues by Bob Dylan, Shipbuilding by Elvis Costello and What Bells for these who die as cattle War Requiem.

Graeme Downes is a musicologist and senior lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of Otago.

11:20 Flourishing gardens and the women behind them

Celebrating a sisterhood of gardeners from the Far North to Stewart Island. Juliet Nicholas and Barb Rogers take us on a journey through a diverse array of gardens developed to suit landscapes and locales throughout the country. Juliet is the photographer of the two - and she took all the pictures of the extraordinary gardens featured in their book Flourish.

11:45 Compensation increasing for employee grievances

Employment lawyer Charles McGuinness on the increase in employment grievance compensation. When an employee has a personal grievance there may be an award of compensation as a remedy to recognise "humiliation, loss of dignity, and injury to the feelings of the employee".  Charles talks about how a new banding approach to awards is starting to be used.