Nine To Noon for Thursday 1 June 2023

 

 

09:05 Conservation boss on ageing assets and "tough decisions"

The Director General of Conservation, Penny Nelson, discusses DOC's large and ageing assets, and the tough decisions that need to be made on what to replace and what to maintain. DOC administers New Zealand's largest recreation network including more than 14,000km of tracks, 326 campsites, approximately 950 backcountry huts and numerous heritage sites across one third of the country. Recent extreme weather events have caused extensive damage to infrastructure and the budget earlier this month allocated $12.6 million to DOC to plan and rebuild biodiversity, heritage, visitor and other conservation sites damaged in the weather. Last year's budget provided DOC with new funding of $60 million over 4 years for visitor asset management. But documents released under the Official Information Act recently show the Department has dozens of high risk structures overdue for maintenance, and a backlog of maintenance on its huts and tracks network worth over three hundred million dollars.

09:25 Auckland mayor: airport shares must be sold

Auckland's mayor Wayne Brown has just made public his plan to balance the city's books restating his intention to sell Council shares in the city's airport and promising to keep household rates under 6.7 per cent. Auckland has a $325 million hole in its budget, with another $50 million needed to fund storm recovery. The Mayor has spoken to some media this morning, saying this year's budget was one of the hardest in Auckland's history. RNZ reporter Finn Blackwell has been the announcement.

09:30 Why are so many schools ditching NCEA level 1 - and what are they doing instead?

An increasing number of secondary schools around the country are ditching NCEA Level One - ahead of a refresh to the qualification that's being introduced over the next few years. The changes to level one kick in from next year, but learners will only be able to earn it once they have met new literacy and numeracy standards. Changes to Level Two and Level Three are being introduced in 2026 and 2027.  That's led some schools to opt out of offering Level One - and concentrate instead on a longer lead-in time for Level Two. Other schools have opted to set up their own qualification instead/. So what is it about the change that's leading schools to make this decision, and what are they doing instead? Hobsonville Point Secondary School was one of the first schools to opt out of offering Level One. Principal Maurie Abraham joins Kathryn to explain why. And Christ's College Assistant Principal - Curriculum Nicole Billante talks about the school's experience of offering its own diploma.

09:45 UK: Covid inquiry gets WhatsApp messages, UK/NZ trade deal kicks in

UK correspondent Lara Spirit joins Kathryn to dive into the latest on the looming inquiry into how ministers handled the pandemic, as Boris Johnson says he's handed over all the WhatsApp messages and notebooks he's been asked to. And the UK's trade deals with New Zealand and Australia kick in today - but not everyone's convinced the UK got the good end of the bargain.

10:05 Author Chris Stuart on her new crime thriller, The Glasgow Smile

On a cold Melbourne night, the body of a woman is found in a grimy, graffiti-riddled alleyway. But the position she's found in  - and the giant mural she's found beside - makes the hairs on Detective Inspector Robbie Gray's neck stand on end. The detective is back in Chris Stuart's second novel The Glasgow Smile, which teases out the victim's possible links the civil unrest on Melbourne's streets and the secrets held by her dysfunctional family. Robbie Gray herself has her own issues -  some introduced in Chris' first novel For Reasons of Their Own - which earned her the Ngaio Marsh Best First Novel Award in 2021. Chris likes to draw on strong social justice themes in her books - which follows on from a career as a nurse and international aid worker. In fact, it was a brush with a bomb in Sudan that kicked off her interest in writing. Having travelled the world with her aid work, Chris has settled in Nelson, and joins Kathryn to talk about her latest novel.

10:35 Book review: Takahē by Alison Ballance

Murray Williams reviews Takahē by Alison Ballance, published by Potton & Burton

10:45 Around the motu: Alisha Evans in Tauranga

Alisha talks to Kathryn about how paid parking in Tauranga's city centre has reduced the number of people visiting.  Bill Campbell who owns the gift and souvenir store, Fancy That is leaving the CBD after 15 years. He's fed up with parking and ongoing constructions issues. Alisha has an update on Chopper, the rottweiler who bit a vet.

Alisha Evans Local Democracy reporter for the Western Bay of Plenty, based in Tauranga for Sun Media Limited
 

11:05 Tech: Ransoms drop, DDoS attacks hit gaming industry, GobRAT targets

Cybersecurity expert Tony Grasso joins Kathryn to talk about the big drop in earnings cyber-crime gangs are experiencing as victims refuse to pay ransomware demands. A new botnet called Dark Frost has been making DDoS attacks against the gaming industry - it's a new way to make money from an industry now bigger than Hollywood. A new attack makes it possible to get around Android's fingerprint lock - but it has some flaws. And Linux routers in Japan are the target of a new remote access trojan called GobRat - could New Zealand be vulnerable to attack because of where most of our routers are made?

11:25 What is childhood - and are we still letting kids have one?

Of all the species on Earth, we're the only one that has a prolonged period of dependence following our birth. But what is childhood and how has it changed? Dorsa Amir is a developmental scientist based at the University of California, Berkley and researches his dynamic time in human's lives and how it's shaped by different cultural environments. Back in January she wrote a thread on Twitter about the pressure western parents can feel they're under and shared what she called some "anti-advice". It clearly resonated with people because the thread went viral and if you're keen for a read, you can find it here. In short it suggested parents stop thinking everything has to be educational, let kids experience boredom and solve their own conflicts, learn how to process negative emotions and not feel guilty if they don't have 600 toys. Dorsa joins Kathryn to talk about that and the research she's involved in. 

11:45 Screentime: No Place Like home, The Clearing, The Great

Film and TV correspondent Tamar Munch looks at the second season of local documentary series No Place Like Home, screening on Stuff and YouTube, this time featuring the journeys of six refugee families as they settle in New Zealand. She'll also review The Clearing, the first "scripted" Australian series that's an eight-part psychological thriller based on the book by J.P Pomare and stars Miranda Otto and Guy Pearce. And The Great is back for a third season on Neon.