Nine To Noon for Friday 18 December 2015

09:05 Auckland Council accused of hijacking Unitary Plan process

The Auckland Council is being accused of hijacking the planned blueprint for the city's development by sneaking through housing density changes. After four years in the making, the 30-year Unitary Plan for Auckland's future is due to be considered by an independent panel next year. But after settling housing densities back in 2013, the Council has been reworking the zoning map, after early feedback from the panel argued that the plan didn't provide enough housing capacity.

Under the proposed changes, the proportion of residential areas zoned for single dwellings would fall from 31 per cent, to just over 26 percent. The other big proposed change is in the Mixed Housing Urban zone, which allows for medium-density up to three storeys high - from 11 percent of Auckland to 17 percent.

A lobby group focussed on the plan, Auckland 2040, says it's outrageous that communities are not having a say .Its spokesperson is Richard Burton. Auckland Counci's Deputy Mayor, Penny Hulse responds.

09:20 App for identifying endangered native orchids

There are over 120 native orchids in New Zealand  - with over half found nowhere else in the world. Many of them are threatened and have unique conservation values, but a big danger to them is that people often don't know how precious they are as they're so tricky to identify.With that in mind Landcare Research has come up with a free app called the NZ Orchid Key so the public can help identify and protect the threatened species.

With  the main flowering season starting, Landcare Reserach scientist Murray Dawson is hoping those walking in the outdoors spotting orchid-like flowers will stop and use the app - and take a picture - instead of pick them.

09:30 Le Grand Continental® dancers shake their thing

Back in October we brought you the story of the masses of Wellingtonians of all ages, shapes and sizes queuing up at auditions to take part in Kiwibank Le Grand Continental® the huge public spectacle that's kicking off the  New Zealand Festival next year. Today we're catching up with two of the lucky ones  who made it through, and have been practising furiously ever since. Le Grand Continental® will be a 30-minute show taking place in Wellington's Civic Square on 26th of February.

Alice Markwell, who's 12, is one of the youngest dancers taking part, and Tony Clarke is on the other side of the spectrum.

09:45 Pacific correspondent Michael Field

Michael Field reports on the big questions being asked around the sudden appearance in the Solomon Islands of three large Taiwanese super-seiners, with many in Solomon Island's government knowing nothing of them.

10:05 Afghanistan's 'mother of education' shares her vision for her beloved country

Education activist, Dr Sakena Yacoobi is the executive director of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), an Afghan women-led NGO she founded in 1995. After the Taliban closed girls' schools in the 1990s, AIL supported 80 underground home schools for 3,000 girls in Afghanistan. She was twice threatened by armed Taliban to stop teaching, but she never gave up.

Now, under her leadership, AIL works at to empower women and bring education and health services to poor women and girls in rural and urban areas, serving hundreds of thousands of women and children a year through training programs, Learning Centers, schools and clinics in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In 2005 she was jointly nominated with 99 other women for the Nobel Peace Prize. This year she was awarded  the 2015 WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) Prize for Education. 

John McIntyre from The Children's Bookshop in Wellington

Timeline by Peter Goes

Gecko Press ISBN 978-1-776570-69-0

Maps by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski

Big Picture Press ISBN 978-1- 76006-541-6

What Happened When In The World: History as You've Never Seen it Before

Dorling Kindersley ISBN 978-1-4093-5659-2

Grandpa's Great Escape by David Walliams

Harper Collins ISBN 9780008135195

10:45 The Reading:   Mother Maryam A Short story by Stephanie Johnson read by Geraldine Brophy

A St Heliers housewife delivers her husband an inspirational gift.

11:05 Music with Grant Smithies

Grant Smithies flaps a shell-like ear over recent works from South London poet Kate Tempest, Tuscon "desert noir" duo Calexico and Australian rapper Hau, three acts who are touring here over summer.

Artist: Kate Tempest

Song: Chicken

Comp: Tempest

Album: Everybody Down

Label: Big Dada/ Border

Broadcast Time: 2'46"

Artist: Kate Tempest

Song: The Beigeness

Comp: Tempest

Album: Everybody Down

Label: Big Dada/ Border

Broadcast Time: 3'09"

Kate Tempest is a 29 year old poet, novelist, playwright and poet from South London. She was nominated for the 2014 Mercury Music Prize for her album, Everybody Down, and was also the youngest ever recipient of the Ted Hughes Poetry Award for her 2012 book, Brand New Ancients. She's on her way here in a couple of week's time to play shows in Auckland and Wellington.

Artist: Calexico

Song: Cumbia De Donde

Comp: Burns/ Convertino

Album: Edge of The Sun

Label: Anti

Broadcast Time: 3'09"

A song from the ninth studio album by this "desert noir" duo from Tuscon, Arizona, who have been confirmed to play at the upcoming New Zealand Festival in Wellington and WOMAD 2016 in Taranaki.

Artist: Hau

Song: The Could Life ft. Che Fu

Comp: Hau Latukefu/ Che Fu

Album: The No End Theory

Label: Remi's House of Beige/ Delete Media

Broadcast Time: 3'51"

A song by rising Polynesian/Australian MC, Hau Latukefu, from his debut solo album, ably assisted and our own Che Fu. As with the above Calexico track, it's about travelling - this time the move from the Pacific Islands in the hope of a better life in New Zealand or Australia.

11:30 Sports commentator Brendan Telfer

Brendan Telfer has a review of the sporting year and a few predictions for 2016.

11:45 The Week that Was with comedians Te Radar and Michele A'Court