Nine To Noon for Wednesday 27 May 2020

 

09:05 Majority of Kiwi households in financial difficulty: survey

Stark new research finds the majority of New Zealand households are in financial difficulty or at risk of falling into it, when the wage subsidy ends. The survey of three thousand New Zealanders was conducted over the last two weeks of April for the Commission for Financial Capability and is part of an international study in eight countries.34 per cent of New Zealand households reported being in financial difficulty, while four out of ten said they were at risk of tipping into financial hardship. Head of the CFFC, Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson, talks to Kathryn about the survey and its implications.

09:20 Playcentre future in doubt: funding insulting

An open letter to Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin, with fourteen and a half thousand signatures, warns about the future of one of the oldest players in New Zealand's early childcare sector. Playcentre General Manager Sean McKinley says Playcentre might not survive, unless it gets a bigger slice of the less than 1 percent of the Government's funding for the ECE sector. Sean McKinley tells Kathryn Ryan about his disappointment with the recent Budget allocation, and why he thinks it's insulting.

09:35 Squat Lobsters: seeing red in Otago

NIWA's squat lobster specialist Dr John Zeldis explains to Kathryn Ryan what causes the red swarms seen recently in Broad Bay and Edwards Bay near Portobello on the Otago Peninsula.

09:45 Scott Morrison talks of conciliatory approach to economy building

Australia correspondent Karen Middleton joins Kathryn to talk about Prime Minister Scott Morrison's desire to bring employers and workers together to rebuild the country's economy, as the A$250 billion stimulus spending package starts to wind down. And a livestock ship was allowed to dock in Western Australia last week - despite six crew members being sick.

10:05 Yasmine Mohammed - escaping al-Qaeda​ husband and becoming ex-Muslim

Yasmine Mohammed is a Canadian human rights advocate, academic, author and outspoken critic of radical Islam with an extraordinary personal story she shares in order to help others. Born and raised in Vancouver, her typical Western childhood was interrupted when her mother married a devout Muslim. As a teenager she was forced into a violent marriage with a man who turned out to be an an al-Qaeda operative. Two decades on, she is the founder of the Free Hearts, Free Minds Foundation which provides psychological support for those living in Muslim majority countries who are considering leaving Islam. Her book is called Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam, in which she criticises many in the West for what she calls  "a misguided attempt to curb anti-Muslim bigotry". She will speak this Sunday as part of a Think Inc event.

10:35 Book review - If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

Jessie Bray Sharpin reviews If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha, published by Penguin Random House.

10:45 The Reading

CK Stead's My Name Was Judas read by Stuart Devenie.  Final episode of 13.  

11:05 Music With Graeme Downes

Music correspondent Graeme Downes joins Kathryn to look at Bob Dylan's Hard Rain, Rolling Thunder Tour, keeping his live album theme going in a time of cancelled live gigs. 

11:20  The Luminaries - A right pair: shoes fit for a lead role

Christchurch-based Flora Knight is a shoe maker whose boots are getting a run on Eleanor Catton's sunday night TV One adaptation of her Booker Prize-winning The Luminaries. Watch carefully next time lead character Anna Wetherell steps out on the set of 1800's Dunedin and Hokitika. The costume team gave Flora the brief of designing Victorian-era boots, following a recommendation from her shoe making teacher Louise Clifton, who runs New Zealand's only shoe school, based in Newtown in Wellington.  Louise and Flora share some trade secrets with Kathryn Ryan.

11:45 Time to overhaul adoption laws in New Zealand

Legal correspondent Simon Jefferson joins Kathryn to talk about why he believes adoption laws are long overdue for an overhaul. He says the outdated model hasn't kept pace with the evolution of societal attitudes, and the laws don't work for Maori and Pasifika families.