Nine To Noon for Friday 13 June 2025

09:05 Expanding investment in voluntary nature credits     

The Government is backing the expansion of a New Zealand voluntary nature credits market. The market's aim is open income opportunities for farmers and other landowners who have projects on their land, by linking them with investors interested in projects designed to protect nature. The Associate Minister for the Environment, and Agriculture, Andrew Hoggard, says the credits will appeal to international and domestic investors - including corporates, banks, and philanthropists who are seeking high-quality nature credits that meet global standards. Some privately funded pilot projects are already underway to test how a voluntary nature credit markets can work in the New Zealand context. Forest and Bird has cautiously welcomed the announcement, of what's planned to be a high integrity model, but expressed reservations that it could become a vehicle for offsetting environmental harm. Associate Minister for the Environment Andrew Hoggard is on the programme. 

09.25 New facility to recycle construction waste near Huntly 

A new facility near Huntly will process more than 60 tonnes of construction waste per hour, aiming to divert over 100,000 tonnes of construction waste from landfill. Building researchers BRANZ say typically 40 to 50 per cent of all construction waste goes to landfill. The $16 million Green Gorilla facility in Rotowaro opened this week. The project was co-funded by a $4 million grant from the Ministry for the Environment’s Waste Minimisation Fund. The facility will be taking waste from South Auckland, Waikato, Thames-Coromandel, and the Bay of Plenty. Green Gorilla chief executive is Elaine Morgan. 

09:35 New music for the silent Len Lye film, Tusalava

Artist Len Lye was known for not only his kinetic sculptures, but also his experimental films. One of his best known films  is Tusalava - an animated black and white short form film showing the evolution of a cellular creature. The work was created in 1929 and while the film still exists the sound track has been lost. However Samoan composer Andrew Faleatua has written a new composition to be performed with the film as part of Wellington's midwinter arts festival  Lōemis. He joins Kathryn to talk about writing the new music for a piece that heavily features  Māori and Pacific motifs.

Tusalava will be played along with a number of other silent, avant-garde films, featuring new scores played by the music ensemble Stroma at  Wellington's Roxy Cinema, Monday 16 June.

09:45 Asia correspondent Ed White

The latest after the plane crash in India, where there was just one survivor. Ed also discusses the China-US trade deal, as Indonesia tries to fix its trade woes with economic stimulus. 

Ed White is a correspondent with the Financial Times based in Shanghai

10:05 The story of identical  twins born in China under the one child rule, raised on opposite sides of the world

In 2000 twins girls were born in a small village of the Chinese province Hunan. What was to follow was the heartbreaking story of how the identical twins were torn apart by China's one-child policy and the rise of international adoption. A new book tells the story of the twins separation and traces how their lives were taken in different directions. It also shines a light on the origins, cruelty, and long-term impact of China's one-child rule, the rise of international adoption and the religious currents that buoyed it; and the rare phenomenon of twin separation. Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins is the work of award winning journalist and author Barbara Demick. 

10:35 Book review: Towards Modernism: The Walter Cook Collection at Te Papa by Justine Olsen 

Gail Pittaway reviews Towards Modernism: The Walter Cook Collection at Te Papa by Justine Olsen published by Te Papa Press

10:45 Around the motu: Ian Allen in Marlborough

Picton’s Kent St is to become the new State Highway 1, a row over eligibility has erupted over five ‘year 14s’ in the controversial Marlborough Boys’ College first XV, an Australian mining company has been granted an exploration permit in Marlborough Sounds, and clusters of mushrooms which sprouted around trees in a Blenheim subdivision have caused a stir with the locals.

Ian Allen is an editor for Stuff based in Marlborough.

11:05 Music reviewer Grant Smithies​

Grant reviews a debut album from  Auckland band Bub  a long-lost post punk classic from Brisbane band The Apartments and some cosmic jazz from local heroes The Circling Sun.

11:30 Sports commentator Sam Ackerman

All eyes are on the Super Rugby semi-finals as the Crusaders and the Blues go head to head in Christchurch on Friday night. In the other semi-final final the Chiefs play the Brumbies. The US Golf Open is underway and Ryan Fox has made a good start, while in tennis, the WTA is making changes to make sure players who take a break to have a baby are not punished in the rankings. 

11:45 A few laughs to end the week with Michele A'Court and Pinky Agnew