Nine To Noon for Friday 28 August 2020

 

 

09:05  Contact tracing report finds stress-testing 'urgently' needed

The long-awaited report into whether our contact tracing is fit for purpose has found strategic and structural planning work lacking, with an urgent need for scenario planning and stress-testing. The July report from the Contact Tracing Assurance Committee chaired by Sir Brian Roche has also highlighted the ongoing effort needed to improve NZ COVID Tracer and quickly investigate the potential use of the blue tooth technology. It is unclear how many of the report's recommendations from mid-July have yet to be addressed.

Since completing the report Sir Brian Roche has been appointed alongside Heather Simpson, to look ways to improve border efforts to keep out Covid-19. The question is now being asked as to whether the Ministry of Health is the right agency to lead the multi-faceted response to the pandemic.

09.25  Crisis-hit Air NZ to dip into huge Government loan

Air New Zealand is about to dip into a huge government loan, after reporting heavy losses yesterday. Chief executive Greg Foran has cited concerns over the airline's ability to fly internationally, if government funding to fly freight doesn't continue past November. The airline's domestic service has been struck again by the latest Covid outbreak, with social distancing requirements hitting revenue.  When the airline resumes flights in and out of Auckland on Monday, seat capacity  on larger aircraft will be only two thirds, on smaller planes, 50 percent.  Masks will be compulsory on all flights. Kathryn Ryan speaks with Air New Zealand Chief Revenue officer Cam Wallace.

09:40 Medsalv: The company recycling medical devices bound for landfill

As the government looks to make producers of certain products responsible for the waste they generate, a Christchurch company is stepping in to save medical devices from landfill. Medsalv takes "single use" medical devices, inspects them, cleans them and sells them back to hospitals and health facilities. While such recycling is common in some countries, particularly America, Medsalv is the only company of its kind in the southern hemisphere. Kathryn talks to Medsalv founder Oliver Hunt about the tonnes of waste generated by the health system, and what he's doing to reduce it.

09:45 Pacific correspondent Koro Vaka'uta  

 RNZ Pacific's News Editor speaks to Kathryn about PNG and French Polynesia continuing to struggle with fresh waves of the coronavirus.

10:05 Two years with an ancient oak tree

James Canton talks with Kathryn Ryan about the two years he spent visiting and studying an 800 year old oak tree in Essex. The Honywood Oak in Coggeshall was a sapling when the Magna Carta was signed in 1215, and once stood among a forest of 300. It is the lone survivor in that field today. James Canton's book The Oak Papers is a meditation on the life of the tree, the wider natural world and humans' connection with them. He says humans have had a close association with oak trees since pre-history.

10:35 Book review - Not in Narrow Seas by Brian Easton

Max Harris reviews Not in Narrow Seas: The Economic History of Aotearoa New Zealand by Brian Easton. This book is published by Victoria University Press.

10:45 The Reading

An Extraordinary Rendition, by Steve Danby. (part 5) 

11:05 Music reviewer Grant Smithies​

First released in 1968, the second album by Mississippi singer/ songwriter Bobby Gentry has just had the deluxe reissue treatment. We hear two tracks from that today, alongside a new single from The Phoenix Foundation and Nadia Reid, and a mighty Aotearoa-meets-Jamaica collaboration from Midnight Riders and The Naram Rhythm Section. 

11:30 Sports commentator Dana Johannsen

Dana reflects on Silver Fern Laura Langman's contribution to netball, as she bows out of international competition.

Stuff National Correspondent specialising in sport, Dana Johanssen

11:45 The week that was

Comedians Te Radar and Melanie Bracewell with some stories to make you smile.