Nine To Noon for Friday 13 December 2019

 

 

09:05 Ministry of health responds to surgical mesh report

Specialist surgical mesh clinics for men and women who've experienced complications are to be set up on the back of a report highlighting the severity of harm it's caused in some cases. From January the Ministry of Health will also be establishing a credentialing committee to investigate how best to ensure more thorough checks on surgeons. Meanwhile ACC says it will review the claims it has declined for people who have suffered pain and health problems after having surgical mesh implants. The announcements follow the release of a restorative justice report into the harm suffered by patients. Kathryn Ryan is joined by MOH's Chief Medical Officer Dr Andrew Simpson, Chief Nursing Officer Margareth Broodkoorn, and Mesh Down Under's co-founder Patricia Sullivan.

09:25 Russia's world sports ban - has Moscow got off lightly?

Russia has been banned from competing hosting or bidding to host major global events for four years. The suspension was announced by The World Anti-Doping Agency earlier this week after finding Russia guilty of supplying doctored  lab data. However, WADA's vice president and US Anti-Doping Agency chief executive both claimed Russia got off lightly by avoiding a blanket ban. Individual Russian athletes who can prove they are untainted by the scandal can compete as neutrals and Russia can compete at Euro 2020 next year, as the football championship is not a global competition. Sportswriter Ian Herbert talks to Kathryn Ryan.

09:45 Asia Correspondent Ed White

Ed talks to Kathryn about a new report based on interviews with hundreds of North Korean defectors, which has revealed the healthcare for women and infants in the country is likely in a far worse state than previously thought. Also, Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has been in The Hague this week attempting to defend charges of genocide in her country. 

Ed White is a correspondent for the Financial Times, based in Seoul.

 

10:05 Courtney Johnston to become Te Papa Chief Executive

Courtney Johnston is to become Te Papa's new Chief Executive. She is currently Director of Audience and Insight at Te Papa - and Nine to Noon's long-standing arts commentator. At 40 she is the youngest person to ever lead the national museum and the first woman since its founding Chief Executive Cheryll Sotheran. She takes over from Geraint Martin, a former DHB chief executive,  who has held the role for the last two and a half years. Courtney Johnston's appointment has been announced to Te Papa staff this morning.

10:15 Exposure: A lawyer’s fight against ‘forever chemicals'

Rob Bilott knows more than most about the dangers of so-called ‘forever chemicals’ - the substances used in things like non-stick cookware, food packaging and firefighting foam. He was working as a corporate lawyer in 1998 when he was contacted by a West Virginia farmer who was convinced a creek on his farm was being poisoned by an old landfill. It led to a major legal battle with chemical giant DuPont, which had been hiding decades of studies about the health effects of PFOA in contaminating drinking water. In 2017 he won a US $671 million settlement with DuPont which he documents in his new book Exposure and in a new film called Dark Waters starring Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway. He joins Kathryn to talk about the events documented in Exposure and the lawsuit he’s currently bringing on behalf of an Ohio firefighter against a number of chemical companies over the manufacture of PFAS, or ‘forever chemicals’.

10:45 The Reading

Chute Thru by Janice Marriott read by Michael Whalley - final episode.

11:05 Whakaari / White Island: recovery operation

RNZ reporter Ben Strang updates Kathryn Ryan on the recovery of bodies from Whakaari / White Island, which have been put on board HMNZS Wellington.

11.10 UK election exit polls: Boris Johnson has a clear majority

UK correspondent Matt Dathan updates as the exit polls indicate Boris Johnson has an outright majority with 368 seats.

11:15 Book review - Life: Selected Writings by Tim Flannery

Tilly Lloyd from Unity Books reviews Life: Selected Writings by Tim Flannery, Text Publishing.

Tim Flannery is one of the world's great thinkers, environmental scientists and writers. Sir David Attenborough once described him as being 'in the league of the all-time great explorers like Dr David Livingstone.This definitive collection of his work brings together thirty years of essays, speeches and occasional writing on paleontology, mammalogy, environmental science and history. 

Flannery's book for young readers will also be mentioned: Weird, Wild, Amazing! (Hardie Grant)

 

11:20 Music reviewer Jeremy Taylor

Reissues from Queens Of The Stone Age's golden era, Courtney Barnett (pictured below) offers an Unplugged set, and local mod revivalists Jamie And The Numbers

11:35 Sports commentator Brendan Telfer 

Is the new All Blacks coach, Ian Foster, the best person for the job?. 

11:45 The week that was

Our comedians Te Radar and Pinky Agnew with a wrap of funny stories, including New Zealand's worst personalised plates.

Music played in this show

Artist: Tom Cunliffe
Track: Primrose Hill
Time played: 11.46