Nine To Noon for Friday 15 March 2019

 

 

09:05 Insurance woes:  impact of IAG pull-back in Wellington

The Commerce Minister, Kris Faafoi, has ruled out the idea of a state-owned insurance company becoming a reality any time soon, and is urging people to `shop around' for their insurance. This follows the decision of IAG to stop issuing policies in the Wellington region. What will the effect of this be on the capital's housing market and the wider sector? David Middleton is former Chief Executive of the Earthquake Commission, with 40 years experience working in the insurance industry.  Also Jonathan Eriksen, an actuary specialising in general insurance, and managing director of Eriksens Global.

09:20 Boeing 737 Max 8 grounding: pilot concerns

The similarities between the two catastrophes with Boeing's 737 Max aircraft are raising  fundamental questions about the aircraft's safety.  After last weekend's Ethiopian Airlines crash, the entire global fleet of 737 Max aircraft have been grounded. The cause of the crash hasn't been confirmed but it is the second time in five months a Boeing 737 Max 8 has crashed within minutes of takeoff, killing a total of 346 passengers and crew members. Kathryn Ryan talks to the Pilot's Association Tim Robison and Mary Schiavo, the former head of the US National Transportation Board and an aviation lawyer.

09:45 Polyfest - huge celebration of Pacific dance

RNZ Pacific journalist Koro Vaka'uta talks to Kathryn about the world's biggest Pacific Island dance festival, Polyfest in Auckland is underway. Also Fiji Airways affected by the grounding of Boeing's Max 8 aircraft, and the oil spill on Rennell Island, Solomon Islands one month on.

10:05 Doctors saving lives and risking death in war zones

David Nott is a British surgeon, usually based in London, but he spends time every year volunteering to tend to the wounded in some of the world's most dangerous war zones. He has written about his 25 years of surgery in a new book - War Doctor  - surgery on the front line. David Nott has operated in combat zone field hospitals including:  Sarajevo, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Darfur, Yemen, Gaza and Aleppo. He says increasingly frontline medical staff are being targetted, particularly in Syria where, the work and lives of healthcare workers are  under threat as never before.

10:35 Book review - The Tempest

Stella Chrysostomou has been reading The Tempest by Steve Sem-Sandberg

10:45  The Reading - Barefoot Years

Barefoot Years, a memoir written and read by Martin Edmond. Part 5, final episode..

11:05 Julia Jacklin, Gang of Four & Kiki Gyan

New music with Grant Smithies - UK post-punk figureheads Gang Of Four are returning to Aotearoa this month to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their landmark 1979 debut album Entertainment! We hear two tracks from that album today, alongside a tender tear-jerker from Australian sensation Julia Jacklin and a classic slab of Afro-disco from Ghana's Kiki Gyan.

11:30 More details of  World rugby nations championship

RNZ sports reporter, Joe Porter has the latest from the world rugby meeting in Dublin overnight, with a $10 billion  dollar carrot dangled in front of national unions as they try to get the new Nations Championship plans across the line. Also the Warriors are kicking of their NRL season and the Black Ferns Sevens finally get a home tournament.
World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper.

11:45 Social media outage - don't call 111!

The week that was with Te Radar and Irene Pink, with the 'emergency' which sparked a warning from Canterbury police for people not to dial 111 to report the outage affecting Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. And from Italy, the Mayor of Bologna brands spaghetti bolognaise 'fake news'.