Nine To Noon for Monday 19 July 2021

 

0905 Devastating flooding on the West Coast and Marlborough

The extent of damage from the weekend's flooding is now being assessed at homes, farms and vineyards in the Buller and Marlborough districts which have been swamped by torrential rains and overflowing waterways. On the West Coast, the Westport community is rallying around hundreds of people forced from their homes, some have spent  three nights in evacuation centres, or stayed  with family and friends.  Many homes are inhabitable, and boil water notices remain in place for a number of communities on the West Coast. To discuss the gravity of the situation and the clean-up, Kathryn speaks to  Marlborough Civil Defence Controller, Emergency Management  Richard McNamara and Lieutenants Grant and Lynda Pitcher, from the Salvation Army in Westport. 

09:20  Are school exclusions happening under the radar?

 

An early intervention specialist believes the number of students excluded from schools is higher than official statistics. The Ministry of Education says it is working with 171 students who have been officially excluded from school as at the start of July. Frian Wadia is an early intervention specialist with Autism New Zealand, a board member of the Parent to Parent advocacy group and is mum to three differently-abled children. She believes the exclusion figures fail to take into account the myriad ways schools can ask parents to keep their child at home - and in some cases, families are being bullied into thinking they have no power to challenge those decisions. Meanwhile, demand from teachers for neurodiversity workshops delivered by the organisation Mind Over Manner, have risen 400 per cent, and the complexity of needs within classrooms grow. Frian and Susan Haldane, founder of Mind Over Manner, join Kathryn.

09:45 Canada Correspondent Salimah Shivji

The national scandal and mourning in Canada as the inquiry intensifies with potentially thousands of children from Canadian schools for indigenous communities buried in unmarked graves. The first forensic evidence of unmarked graves has been located at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

10:05 Author, pathologist, violinist: Rupa Maitra on the many strings to her bow

Rupa Maitra was born in Dunedin after her Bengali parents migrated to New Zealand in the late 60s from India, via Uganda. She did a music degree at Otago and followed it up with one in medicine - gravitating toward pathology. Working part-time allowed her to pursue her music passion - she plays with Orchestra Wellington and the love of music is shared with her family - her husband and two daughters have performed together in a string quartet. Rupa is also a writer - completing her MA in creative writing at Victoria University's International Institute of Modern Letters in 2014 - she published her debut short story collection Prophecies in 2019 and was most recently included in A Clear Dawn, an anthology of Asian writing in New Zealand with her story The Two Aunties.

10:35 Book review: Things Are Against Us by Lucy Ellmann

Kiran Dass  reviews Things Are Against Us by Lucy Ellmann, published by Text Publishing

10:45 The Reading

Llamas & Empanadas, episode 6. Written and read by Eleanor Meecham.

11:05 How is a 1 in 100 year event calculated?

With the weekend's flooding events in Buller and Marlborough being the third in the country this year, questions are being asked what a 1 in 100 year event means. Kathryn speaks with NIWA Principal Scientist  Chris Brandolino and Ilan Noy , Chair of Disaster Economics at Victoria University Wellington.

11:15 Political commentators Mills & Thomas

In politics we talk about rising inflation, whether the government's investor rules have had any impact on reining in the housing market and how Judith Collins' first year as National Party leader has gone.

Stephen Mills is the executive director of UMR Research , which is the polling firm used by Labour.  He is former political adviser to two Labour governments.

Ben Thomas is a PR consultant and a former National Government press secretary.

11:30 Feasting on recycled food

Guests at a recent 3-course banquet in Dunedin made sure no food went to waste. Associate Professor Miranda Mirosa, from the University of Otago's Department of Food Science created a unique menu for 120 people using consumbable items that would overwise gone in the bin. 

11:45 Off the beaten track with Kennedy Warne

Kennedy speaks to Kathryn about Patricia Grace and her recently published memoir, "From the Centre."