Nine To Noon for Wednesday 3 July 2019

 

09:05 Hong Kong protests: clean-up and fall-out

The clean-up is getting underway in Hong Kong after the unprecedented protests earlier this week, but the fall-out will be ongoing. Pro-democracy activists stormed the territory's parliament on Monday, occupying the Legislative Council for several hours and ransacking the building. The Chinese government has condemned the protest, meanwhile the British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has warned China of serious consequences if it breached the agreement guaranteeing freedoms in the city. Kathryn speaks with Bloomberg journalist Aaron McNicholas in Hong Kong.

09:20 The battle to get sick 9/11 first responders the money they deserve

Nearly 18 years after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York a battle is being waged to replenish the fund to support emergency responders and their families. The existing fund US$7.5 billion dollar fund is in danger of running out of money, and there are still some 19-thousand unpaid claims. John Feal was a 9-11 responder who was injured at Ground Zero and has set up the FealGood Foundation to help those who went to help others in the aftermath of the attacks. He recently met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to push him to get the September 11 Victims' Fund renewed.

09:30 Lake Taupo sewage spill, implications downstream

It could take several weeks to properly repair Taupo's wastewater pipes, following a massive sewage spill into Lake Taupo yesterday. Up to 80 per cent of the resort town's wastewater streamed into the lake and washed down the Waikato River when a water main burst, taking out the sewer line. The local iwi is calling for a full  investigation. Kathryn speaks with Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board chief executive Topia Rameka and Taupo Mayor David Trewavas.

09:45 After the election - back to a new reality

Australia correspondent Bernard Keane looks at the trouble facing the Australian economy, as interest rates hit record lows after a one per cent cut by the Reserve Bank. The government's own economic policy arm says productivity growth has slumped and innovation is vanishing, wage growth is non-existent. Is this the result of the government going to the election with no agenda of any kind?

10:05 Capital chaos: trains cancelled, limited buses & heavy traffic

Greg Pollock Metlink's General manager of Public Transport talks to Kathryn Ryan about Wellington's commuter chaos with up to 20,000 Wellington commuters believed to have been effected. No trains are running between Porirua to Wellington, Petone and Wellington, and Melling to Petone. Trains from Wairarapa are also cancelled. To make matters worse there are only very limited bus replacement services on the Hutt Valley and Kapati Lines.

Commuters are being told to check Metlink's website and Twitter account.

10:05 Nanfu Wang: the untold history of China's one child policy

Filmmaker Nanfu Wang uncovers the untold history of China's one-child policy and the generations of parents and children forever shaped by it.  Her documentary One Child Nation won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize this year, and will screen here later this month as part of the International Film Festival.

10:35 Book review - All the Juicy Pastures by Margot Schwass

Anne Else reviews All the Juicy Pastures: Greville Texidor and New Zealand by Margot Schwass, which is published by Victoria University Press.

10:45 The Reading

Part three of The Quiet Spectacular by Laurence Fearnley told by Katherine McRae.

11:05 Music for Matariki

Music reviewer Kirsten Johnstone joins Kathryn for some Matariki tunes, including some Whirimako Black and Dunedin rangatahi He Waka Kotuia. 

11.30 Tom Enright: the sky's the limit

New Zealand squadron leader, flying-boat captain and commercial airline pilot, Tom Enright's book Many a Close Run Thing celebrates 45 years of a career which he says has given him "a wonderful life, with a lot of experiences in demanding circumstances, always having to be very, very careful."  Indeed Tom's book tells of dramatic moments in the air: his own close run things; including rescue missions, and performing mid air acrobatics, as well as training new pilots, and stories of missions in the Pacific, among them flying KFC into the Cooks.  Tom tells his stories to Kathryn Ryan.

11:45 Cicada viagra, an honesty test and antioxidant downsides

Science correspondent Siouxsie Wiles looks at a fungus that infects cicadas to makes them mate non-stop, how Kiwis fared in a global honest test and how antioxidants may actually encourage the spread of lung cancer rather than prevent it.

Associate Professor Dr Siouxsie Wiles is the head of Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland.