Sunday Morning for Sunday 8 May 2016

7:08 John Thwaites - Fixing the World

John Thwaites is chair of ClimateWorks Australia and the Monash Sustainability Institute. He is the former Deputy Premier (Labour) of Victoria, Australia and was in New Zealand this week to talk about Agenda 2030 which focuses on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. NZ's Prime Minister was among 190 world leaders who last September pledged their commitment to the SDGs to end extreme poverty, fix climate change, and fight inequality and injustice, in a bid to attain an equitable, more prosperous and sustainable world.

7:30 News Headlines

7:32 The Week in Parliament

7:47 Warren Lindberg - Maori Health Symposium

Warren Lindberg, the CEO of the Public Health Association,  joins Wallace to talk about the challenges facing Maori in the health system today.

8:12 Insight: China and NZ's Free Trade Agreement

Eight years on from the signing of the New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement, it's now out of date. The Government says exporters are missing out on hundreds of millions of dollars, because Chinese consumers are demanding more products from New Zealand than is covered under the deal. After traveling to China with the Prime Minister, Demelza Leslie reports on what progress was made in improving the agreement.

8:40 Andres Ruzo - The River that Boils

When Andres Ruzo was a boy growing up in Peru, his grandfather told him fantastic stories about the Amazon - including a city of gold, and a river that boils. Years later, Ruzo is a geoscientist, explorer, and a storyteller himself - and he finds the boiling river. He talks to Wallace about the sacred waterway, the indigenous people who protect it, and the battle to save the Amazon jungle. Andres Ruzo has written a TED talk book on his adventures, called The Boiling River: Adventure and Discovery in the Amazon.

9:06 Mediawatch

A week of turmoil at broadcasting company Mediaworks. Also: Media rivals becoming 'frenemies,' threats to media freedom and a paper recycling its own stories.
Produced by Colin Peacock and Jeremy Rose

9:40 Alex Taylor and Frances Moore - Modern Day Dido and Aeneas

Dido and Aeneas is one of Henry Purcell's classic operas, and it is being recomposed for a new generation, with composer Alex Taylor taking the helm. Alex Taylor is one of NZ's leading young composers of orchestral and chamber music and he joins Wallace, along with opera director Frances Moore, to talk about bringing the story of Dido and Aeneas  firmly into the modern age.

Dido and Aeneas  plays at the Basement Theatre, Auckland, May 17th to 21.

10:06 Jim Lewis - Cyber Crime

This week the Government announced plans to spend $22 million over the next four years on setting up a cyber crime unit. So how real is the threat and what can be done to protect the country from cyber criminals and foreign governments? Jim Lewis is a senior fellow and programme director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and an expert on cyber security.

10:37 Nick Haslam - Trigger Warnings, Bullying and the New Sensitivity

Ever get the feeling that people are just too sensitive these days? From trigger warnings to claims of cyber bullying to demands that university campuses ban disagreeable voices … the concepts of trauma and abuse now encompass a much broader range than ever before. Nick Haslam, professor of psychology at the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, joins Wallace to talk about the notion of 'Concept Creep' and how it could have damaging effects on our society.

11:05 Helene Wong - Being Chinese

Helene Wong was born in Taihape and grew up in Lower Hutt. In her memoir, Being Chinese - A New Zealander's Story, she explores her personal and family history - it's a story of Chinese identity interwoven with the country she lives in. She talks to Wallace about the street taunts that she and other Chinese kids learned to ignore, becoming integrated and accepted into NZ society, and the struggle with the new wave of racism in the 1990s. She tells of her experience of being the "eyes and ears" into parts of NZ society for former Prime Minister Rob Muldoon, and the unexpected depth of emotion she experienced after visiting her father's village in China - "they said to me, this is your home".

Helene Wong is film reviewer for The Listener. She was also the first script development executive at the NZ Film Commission. She is giving the Michael King Lecture at the Auckland Writers Festival.

11:40 Xu Zhiyuan - The New China

Artist Ai Wei Wei calls Xu Zhiyuan the most important Chinese intellectual of his generation. In his book, Paper Tiger - Inside the Real China, Xu writes about the strangeness and complexity of contemporary China. He joins Wallace to discuss the book ahead of his Auckland Writers Festival appearances.