Nine To Noon for Friday 15 June 2018

 

 

09:05 Tourism tax 'won't even touch the sides' - Mackenzie mayor

Mackenzie District mayor Graham Smith responds to the government's announcement that it will impose a tourist tax of $25 to $30 on most short term international visitors from the second half of 2019.  He says it is too low,  and won't deliver the relief that popular tourism regions need to cope with high visitor numbers.

09:15 Para-cyclist: railway ramps too steep

Disability advocates are outraged out-dated ramps at Wellington train stations are posing a barrier to wheelchair users getting to work. Support worker and wheelchair user Samantha Eddie works in Porirua.  Her preference is to use public transport to get there, but isn't able to because the ramps at the station are too steep.  While the rail network operator is apologetic, it says upgrading is not a priority. Metlink admits access ramps at the majority of Wellington railway stations don't meet modern standards, and that many also lack any suitable flat rest areas. CCS Disability Action says people with mobility issues shouldn't be further hindered from going to work by poor accessibility.  Sam Eddie is a former NZ para-cycling competitor.

09:30 Fresh concerns over Facebook's data practices

Facebook is back on the defensive after revelations about its extensive data sharing partnerships with device makers. Just a few months ago the social media giant assured the public and Congress that developers had been cut off from the kind of data access that had been exploited by the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. However it  did not disclose that makers of cellphones, tablets and other hardware were exempt from such restrictions. So what does this mean for users and how can we be reduce the amount of data that's kept on us? Serge Egelman is a privacy researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies the security of mobile apps.

09:45 Hawaii volcano still erupting

RNZ Pacific journalist  Sara Vui-Talitu reports on the state of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano after six weeks, calls for a formal system to help the descendants of "black birded" Pacific Islanders find their relatives, and the controversial demolition of Samoa's Apia Courthouse.

10:05 Surviving gay conversion therapy

Author Garrard Conley was 19 when he was outed as gay and given an ultimatum by his father: undertake gay conversion therapy or be cut off from his family. Garrard was the only son of Southern Baptist preacher in rural Arkansas and throughout his teen years had struggled to suppress his sexuality which was at odds with the beliefs of the people closest to him. The conversion therapy had the effect of sending him spiraling towards suicide - a journey he has written about in a memoir, Boy Erased. The story is being made into a movie starring Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe to be released later this year. Garrard joins Kathryn to talk about his memoir, his life now and how he is still fighting for an end to conversion therapy.

10:35 Book review -  The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh

Jessie Bray Sharpin reviews The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh, published by Penguin Random House.

10:45 The Reading

The Stove Rake by Denise Keay read by Tandi Wright (Part 5 of 10)

11:05 The spanking new Wild Things redux 

Way back in 1990, Flying Nun records released a compilation of early NZ garage rock'n'roll called Wild Things. It's just been reissued with a bunch of new tracks but still in glorious punchy MONO! Music reviewer Grant Smithies plays three key tracks, alongside an overlooked hip hop classic from New York trio, Jungle Brothers.

11:30 Football World Cup Kicks Off

Sports commentator Brendan Telfer reports on sports' most popular show and the opening World Cup match between Russia and Saudi Arabia, the controversial defensive tactics employed by the new coach of the Football Ferns, who effectively has said his team wasn't good enough to beat Japan and the extraordinary all round performance from 17 year old Tawa College pupil , Amelia Kerr playing for N.Z against Ireland.

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

What our eyebrows say about us, the Nelson furniture thieves' genius plan to avoid detection, and the sky scraper-climbing racoon.