Sunday Morning for Sunday 4 November 2018

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7.11 Christopher Pugsley on the legend of Le Quesnoy

November 4 is a special date for a little town in France called Le Quesnoy.  It's a town that will forever be indebted to New Zealand. Many of its streets have New Zealand names - Rue Nouvelle Zélande, Rue Aotearoa, even Place Des All Blacks. If you were visiting the town, in the north of France not far from the border with Belgium, and didn't know the history, you might wonder what was going on. But the history, being remembered to mark 100 years since the Great War ended, is an important one. A battle there on that day has been described as New Zealand's Waterloo ... our last act of World War I. Military historian Christopher Pugsley has written a book called Le Quesnoy 1918: New Zealand's Last Battle, and talks to Sunday Morning from Le Quesnoy.

7.30 The House

This week on our parliamentary programme - Phil Smith chats with the minister of Justice - Andrew Little - and the opposition Spokesperson on Courts  - Chris Penk - about the proposal for a new independent body to investigate possible miscarriages of justice.

7:45 Update from Labour Party Conference

7:53 Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary rejected

An opportunity to create an Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary covering 1.8 million square kilometres has been rejected despite the support of 22 out of 25 attending government delegations including New Zealand. A meeting of The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources has been held in Hobart this week and the decision was made late on Friday night. Will McCallum from Greenpeace UK was there. 

8:10 Insight: the next pandemic - are we ready?

100 years after the great 'flu pandemic, Philippa Tolley explores how well prepared we are for the next one.

8.36 Herb Farrant: Le Quesnoy museum finally a dream being realised

Historian Herb Farrant talks about why a museum in the French town of Le Quesnoy has been such a mission. November 4 marks one of the final commemorative events of World War I - other than Armistice Day itself - and its significance in the little town in northern France. Farrant is President of the New Zealand Military Historical Society and has been the driving force behind the creation of a Memorial Museum in Le Quesnoy. With the formation of the NZ Memorial Museum Trust in 2011, Farrant, through his network of contacts in Europe, helped the Trust progress the project from concept to reality. After 12 years of endeavour, they finally bought the Gendarmerie Property in Le Quesnoy in January 2018.

9:06 Mediawatch

With Colin Peacock. This week he asks what's at stake in a major Maori media review - and how speedy scooters spooked the media. Plus how the royal couple conquered our media this week.

9.37 Josh Davis and the science behind super-recognisers

Dr Josh Davis stumbled across so-called super recognisers while doing his PhD on police use of CCTV footage. He discovered there was a group within the police force that had an incredible ability to identify people from grainy footage and find them on the street. His research quickly shifted to trying to work out why some people can remember a face in extreme detail and for much longer than most. He’s also devised a test that you can take to see if you are a super recogniser. If you are, you are in a group of less than one percent of the population.  

10.04 Anne-Marie Brady: ‘New Zealand has a lot of aspects of interest to China’

In a paper called Magic Weapons: Chinese Political Influence under Xi Jinping, published in 2017, Professor Anne-Marie Brady, from the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Canterbury, explains the origins of Chinese political influence. Chinese influence in NZ politics was one of the key issues that surfaced in the Jami-Lee Ross National Party debacle recently and Brady says China's foreign influence activities are part of a global strategy.

10:40 Jan Wright heads a new conservation effort in the south

Former parliamentary commissioner for the environment, Dr Jan Wright, is involved in a new conservation project. It aims to have the whole of Mt Cook/Aoraki National Park pest and predator-free in the coming two decades. Te Manahuna Aoraki has been launched to eradicate pests, weeds and predators from the upper MacKenzie basin through to Aoraki National Park. Dr Jan Wright is the chair of the organisation in charge of the ambitious project. She explains who’s involved, the impact it will have on native fauna and flora as well as who’s funding the mammoth task.

11:04 Colin Hogg: Sam Hunt no longer on the road

Journalist and author Colin Hogg is a long-time friend of New Zealand poet Sam Hunt. He’s now written a book - his second about Hunt, the first was Angel Gear  - that’s a tale of friendship between two men who have travelled the same road together for many years. Sam Hunt: Off the Road features many stories to capture the essence of the 72-year-old NZ poet, whom Hogg describes as a national treasure.  

11:22 Shane Warne sets record straight with No Spin

The headlines generated by cricketing great, Shane Warne, over the years have often had little to do with his incredible cricketing talents. From his weight to his love life, his drinking and smoking, he’s been a paparazzi target from the moment he outfoxed Mike Gatting in the 1993 Ashes series. His book, No Spin, addresses the rumours and tabloid lies that have followed his career. He explains how hard he worked to get to the top of his game and how he has coped with the constant criticism away from the game.