Nine To Noon for Wednesday 29 March 2023

 

09:05 Should official govt data be hosted by overseas cloud providers?

A local cloud computing specialist is warning about the dangers of our critical data being held on cloud services owned by international companies. Data held onshore by an overseas owned cloud provider is not, and can never be, under the exclusive control of Aotearoa, according a legal opinion obtained by the cloud computing company Catalyst Cloud. A new digital strategy for the courts has just been released by the Office of the Chief Justice. Local cloud computing firm Catalyst Cloud is so concerned about prospect of our judiciary adopting a US-based cloud computing provider, that it sought an opinion from a Kings Council which concluded the only way to avoid jurisdictional risk is by holding government information exclusively in New Zealand. Police already use a US-based cloud computing provider, holding evidential material, including about sex crimes. Kathryn discusses with Doug Dixon, CE of local provider Catalyst Cloud.

09:30 Cyclone Gabrielle : Tolaga Bay still cleaning up as slash inquiry underway

Seven weeks on from the initial carnage hardest hit communities are still clearing debris. The day after the cyclone hit, we spoke with Bridget Parker whose property is near Tolaga Bay. She despairingly described the extensive damage caused to her home, farm and orchard by forestry slash that had washed onto her property. Following the storm, the government announced a long-awaited inquiry into woody debris , which includes forestry slash and sediment-related damage in Tairāwhiti and Wairoa. But earlier this week, Bill Bayfield, one of the inquiry's three panel members was forced to stand down after being found to have compromised his independence, and last night Stuart Nash was stripped of his ministerial portfolios for breaching the Cabinet Manual, including Minister of Forestry. Kathryn discusses the issue with the Forest Industry Contractors Association Chief Executive Prue Younger and checks back in with Bridget Parker.

09:45 Australia: Voice details, climate deal, anti-trans furore, Obama-mania

Australia correspondent Karen Middleton joins Kathryn to talk about the Prime Minister unveiling details of the wording to the proposed change to Australia's constitution to formally recognise Indigenous people and establish a permanent advisory body known as the Voice. A deal has been reached that will force big-emitting companies in Australia to decarbonise, after the Albanese government struck a deal with the Greens. The federal government is working on legislation to ban the Nazi salute and other Nazi symbols amid controversy over Posie Parker's protest last week, which has left a Liberal MP from Victoria narrowly avoiding being expelled from her party for attending the rally. And former US President Barack Obama is in the country on a speaking tour. 

 

10:05 How DNA led to the identity of an unknown WW2 Australian sailor 

It's been a long quest to solve an Australian military mystery, identifying a man, who for 80 years was the  'unknown' sailor. This is a case that had bugged the Royal Australian Navy for decades, trying to put a name to a World War Two crewman who was found to have initially survived a fierce nautical fight battle off the coast of Western Australia in 1941 between the HMAS Sydney and a German warship. Both boats sank and it was thought that all the Australian crew died. But months after the ocean conflict, a life raft with the remains of an unidentified HMAS Sydney     Crewman was found near Christmas Island. He was one of the 645 crew who died in what remains Australia's greatest naval disaster. No other bodies were recovered. But who was he? This is where DNA expert Dr Jeremy Austin from the University of Adelaide takes up the intriguing story. 
 

10:35 Book review: The Things We Do To Our Friends by Heather Darwent

Catriona Ferguson reviews The Things We Do To Our Friends by Heather Darwent, published by Penguin Random House   

10:45 Around the motu: Alisha Evans in Tauranga

Kathryn talks to Local Democracy Reporter Alisha Evans from the Western Bay Plenty about how the Tauranga CBD is in “crisis” and struggling for customers.  Meanwhile orchardists are relieved that a Bailey bridge has reinstated full access to No 4 Road in Te Puke -  just in time for the kiwifruit season.  

11:05 Blaxploitation: A genre, film movement - and great music

Music commentator Kirsten Zemke joins Kathryn to rewind 50 years to a time when black action stars were all but non-existent to the public eye. But as the real life-heroes of the civil rights movement began to reshape the US in the 1970s, a batch of fictional heroes captured the imagination of black America. Kirsten plays some music of the time. 

Kirsten Zemke is an ethnomusicologist at the University of Auckland's School of Social Sciences.

11:30 Violet's Scarf - extraordinary wartime story brought to life 

An extraordinary true story involving a Southland family during World War One has been brought to life in a new children's book. Written by well-known south Auckland local politician, community and disability advocate Colleen Brown and illustrated by Emma Lay, Violet's Scarf tells how a scarf knitted by a young girl for soldiers on the frontline, and sent among hundreds of thousands of other parcels, found its way into the hands of her own brother fighting in France. Colleen joins Kathryn to tell her how she came across the story and why she felt it was important to share it.

11:45 Personal finance: Should Kiwi investors be wary after SVB's collapse?

As hearings in the US get underway into what caused Silicon Valley Bank to collapse, Girls That Invest founder Simran Kaur joins Kathryn to look at what impact it could have on Kiwi investors. 

Simran Kaur is the co-host of the podcast Girls That Invest. This discussion is of a general nature, and does not constitute financial advice