Nine To Noon for Thursday 18 May 2023

 

 

09:05 'Softening' of Auckland Council cuts - but to what degree?

Auckland's Mayor Wayne Brown has indicated he'll pull back on some of harsh cuts he had proposed to arts and social services.But he's signalling it will depend on council's decision on the sale of Auckland airport shares. Negotiations over the shape of Auckland's budget for the coming year are coming to a crunch point with the mayor set to reveal his final plan for balancing the budget in early June, and addressing the $325m deficit. In December, Mayor Brown indicated $41m would be cut from Citizens Advice Bureau, homelessness initiatives, regional grants, and funding for regional events, arts, and culture, promoting a record breaking number of public submissions. Now he says there'll be "significant softening" of the cuts but no full figures have been released. Kathryn is joined by Kate Anderson, general manager of the Central Auckland Citizens Advice Bureaus and Amy Saunders General Manager of the non profit arts space DEPOT, in Devonport.

09:15 Auckland's billion-dollar flood recovery programme

Auckland's mayor Wayne Brown has proposed pushing forward with a billion-dollar flood-recovery programme for the city. The 'Making Space for Water' programme is being developed by the Council's Healthy Waters stormwater department, with the mayor saying it'll be rolled out over six years - instead of the 30 it would normally take. Among the nine planned initiatives are things like daylighting streams, updating vulnerable bridges and culverts and better stormwater maintenance. It also mentions the need to work with property owners on engineering solutions, managed retreat and property acquisition - although the question of where the funding for this would come from is not settled.Joining Kathryn is Matthew Bradbury - he's a senior lecturer in landscape architecture and author of Water City: Practical Strategies for Climate Change.

 

09:30 'We need to make farming interesting and cool for girls'

Only six percent of school leavers go into jobs in the primary sector - and of those, most are male. Now a new organisation is on a mission to bring more young women into agriculture. Catherine van der Meulen is the co-founder of Girls Who Grow - a project to encourage, support and empower young women to explore a career in food and fibre. Catherine tells Nine to Noon she wants to change the narrative to make farming an interesting and cool career option,  and not just for those who've grown up in the country

09:45 UK: Immigration hits record high, rental changes, royal 'car chase'

UK correspondent Matt Dathan joins Kathryn to talk about why legal immigration is top of the political agenda, with new figures expected to show it's reached a record high of 700,000. There's been two right-wing conferences focused on how the Tories can close the large gap in the polls with Labour. Reforms to the rental market have been released and Matt will talk about reaction in the UK over a claim Harry and Meghan were involved in a "near catastrophic car chase" in New York.

10:05 Richard Wolfe and Kate Parsonson: Sure to Rise: The story of Edmonds

A Kiwi kitchen isn't really complete without one and now the history of The Edmonds Cookbook and family behind Edmonds company has been lovingly put together into a new book. It's not just a history of baking powder and a cookbook - It's also a social history of New Zealand through the years.  The book Sure to Rise: The Edmonds Story tells the story of a family business which, thanks to hard work, creativity and persistence, became an iconic business. It also contains more than 500 images to help document the story. Kathryn speaks to two of the authors Kate Parsonson, the great-great-granddaughter of Thomas and Jane Edmonds, who has been researching the history of her family and the business and Richard Wolfe an art, design and cultural historian.     

10:45 Around the motu: Matt Brown in Marlborough

Funding for Marlborough schools' long standing heritage education programme has been axed. The education programme teaching young people the history of the region has been running for 25 years - its future is in jeopardy unless new financial backing can be secured. Matt also has details on a recent plane runway incident at Omaka, the opening of Blenheim's new library, a stray cat shelter overflowing with felines and a popular robotics event.

Matt Brown is a reporter for Marlborough News based in Blenheim
 

11:05 Tech: Spanish cyber-crime arrests,  Genesis Market takedown claim queried

Cyber security expert Tony Grasso joins Kathryn to talk about Spanish police taking down a massive crime ring that had defrauded more than 300,000 people. A new hacking group has been running a very targeted campaign against government, aviation, education and telcos based in south and southeast Asia. Claims by an international police operation that hacker marketplace Genesis Market had been taken down are being queried, with evidence it's back up and running on the dark net, and it's Tech Week in New Zealand - so what's on?

Tony Grasso is Principal Consultant at cybersecurity firm TitaniumDefence. He worked at GCHQ in the UK and is a former Intelligence Officer in New Zealand.

11:25 Driving and the teenage brain

Neuroplasticity educator and parenting expert Nathan Wallis talks about driving and the teenage brain. He's teamed up with road safety expert Greg Murphy running a series of road safety talks for young drivers and their parents. Nathan discusses how the teenage brain works while driving, peer pressure, the perils of mobile phones, and how parents can get the best out of teenagers when talking about driving and the risks. 

11:45 Screentime: Still, Book Club: The Next Chapter, White House Plumbers

Film and TV correspondent James Croot joins Kathryn to talk about the new Michael J Fox documentary Still (Apple TV), which looks at his career and life with Parkinson's. He'll also review with star-studded second chapter of Book Club (cinemas), which sees the four friends travel to Italy for a wedding and White House Plumbers (Neon), which finds the funny in the Watergate break-in.

James Croot is Stuff's Stuff to Watch editor