Nine To Noon for Thursday 4 March 2021

 

 

09:05 Govt should release more detail around vaccine roll-out: GP

An Auckland GP and member of the Covid Immunisation Implementation Advisory Group says it's time for the government to reveal more of the detail around its vaccine roll out plans. Cabinet ministers have been sitting on advice regarding a nationwide vaccination schedule for weeks, but have yet to finalise or publish a complete plan. That's despite Australia unveiling an extensive framework almost two months ago, identifying various groups of the population and their order of priority. Yesterday the Covid response minister Chris Hipkins described the vaccine roll out situation as a "rolling maul". Kathryn speaks with Auckland GP Dr Rawiri McKree Jansen, who is on the Covid Immunisation Implementation Advisory Group.

09:20 Ruby Princess: quarantine failure - Duncan McNab

More than 900 passengers and crew of the luxury liner Ruby Princess caught Covid in the early months of the pandemic last year, in a super-spreader event that ended up as a massive cluster for Australia. The ship had just toured New Zealand before it returned to Sydney. A new book written by investigative journalist Duncan McNab examines events and decisions that lead to passengers disembarking from that fateful cruise on the 19th of March, disgorging into the veins of the city's road, rail and bus network. Duncan McNab's book is The Ruby Princess - the truth behind the 21st century plague ship: how negligence and corporate greed led to death and disaster.

09:45 UK to borrow a record £355bn, hunt for Covid variant, Duke 'improves'

UK correspondent Matthew Parris joins Kathryn to look at the Budget outlined overnight by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, which will see the UK borrow a peacetime record £355bn and retain the country's furlough scheme until September. The hunt for the Brazilian Covid variant narrows to 379 households, Scotland's Nicola Sturgeon appears at an inquiry into how the government handled her sexual harassment complaint against her predecessor and the Duke of Edinburgh is "slightly better", according to Camilla.

10:05 Dr Tobias Feakin on the challenges of cyber-diplomacy

Security threats to nations have changed in the technological era, something Dr Tobias Feakin knows a lot about. He's Australia's inaugural Ambassador for Cyber Affairs and Critical Technology. First appointed in 2017, his role was expanded to reflect the central place technology issues now have in geopolitics. He joins Kathryn to talk about his work leading Australia's whole-of-government international engagement to advance and protect Australia's national security and foreign policy.

10:35 Book review - The Crooked Tree by Una Mannion

Kiran Dass reviews The Crooked Tree by Una Mannion, published by Faber.

10:45 The Reading

2000ft Above Worry Level, part four. Written by Eamonn Marra and read by Jack Sergent.

11:05 Why aren't there more NZ-founded companies on the Nasdaq?

Technology commentator Peter Griffin joins Kathryn to talk about Rocket Lab's announcement of a merger deal that will enable it to list on the Nasdaq - why did it skip local exchanges and why is it only the second Kiwi-founded company to list on the Nasdaq, compared to Israel's 80? Who really won the pay-for-news stoush between Facebook and Australia and what is Microsoft Mesh?

11:25 Forget ABCs - get your preschoolers moving first

Kathryn talks with educator, speaker and author Gill Connell about the importance of movement in getting young children ready for the classroom and learning. She says kids are born to move, and in the early years it is the body actually teaching the brain how to accept, assimilate, process, and use information. Gill's books include A Moving Child Is a Learning Child and Move Play and Learn with Smart Steps. 

11:45 Film and TV: Supernova, Blackbird, Cousins

Film and TV reviewer James Croot joins Kathryn to talk about three new movies in the cinemas: Supernova, starring Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci, Blackbird, a US drama that stars New Zealand's Sam Neill and Kiwi drama Cousins, based on the 1992 novel by Patricia Grace.