Nine To Noon for Monday 21 January 2019

09:05 Tourism industry braces for China 2019

With the launch of the NZ-China Year of Tourism now just a month away, how well equipped is NZ to grow the industry and what flow-on effect will a luxury visitor market have on the regions? An agreement to improve tourism marketing and economic ties between New Zealand and China was signed in 2017, and the New Zealand-China Year of Tourism 2019 launches formally at Te Papa in February. So will it translate into high value visitors rather than merely higher volumes of tourists, and how geared up are we for it?  Director of AUT's New Zealand Tourism Research Institute Simon Milne, Chairman  of the NZ Chinese Travel and Tourism Association Simon Cheung and MBIE's discuss wth Kathryn Ryan.

09:20 Tackling the summer spike in invasive wasps

January and February are when invasive wasp populations boom, damaging the native eco-system. New Zealand has some of the highest densities of German and common wasps in the world which present a huge threat to native ecology wrecking havoc on the food chain of native insects and birds. Professor Jacqueline Beggs is an expert in invasive wasp species. She joins Kathryn to talk about the work being done to control wasps, including toxic baits, emerging technologies like "gene drives" and investigating why some offshore islands have more non-native wasps than others.

09:45 Brexit chaos gripping EU and UK

Europe Correspondent, Seamus Kearney with the latest on the Brexit chaos gripping EU and UK, Poland is in mourning over the murder of Gdansk mayor Pawel Adamowicz, and shock over new migrant deaths in the Mediterranean.

10:05 Giraffe to Jurassic. Not your everyday vet

There aren't many vets who have eye-balled a dinosaur, but it's just one of the many of Jonathan Cranston's claims to fame. He's treated everything from guinea pigs to giraffes, everywhere from the Cotswolds to China. He was also the veterinary advisor for Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom. In his new book, The Travelling Vet, he introduces some of his favourite patients.

10:35 Book review: best of 2018

Leah McFall shares her picks for the best books of 2018. They are Calypso by David Sedaris, The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion by  Michelle Dean and How To Own The Room by Viv Groskop.

10:45 The Reading

TipFace Bunyan an RNZ production, written by Suzie Pointon and read by Judith Gibson. Part 1 of 5.

11:05 Politics with Mills & Sherson

Stephen Mills and Trish Sherson talk to Kathryn about the tax working group, the risk the Brexit debacle poses to the New Zealand economy, and a look at some of the challenges facing the Government this year

Stephen Mills is the executive director of UMR Research and former political adviser to two Labour governments. Trish Sherson is from corporate affairs firm Sherson Willis, and a former ACT press secretary. 

11:30 Plant based food and magnolia flowers

Northland's Veggie Tree Cook School creator Anna Valentine with tips on getting more plant based food onto your plate. She has also written two recipe books -  the latest is 'The Veggie Tree Spring & Summer Cookbook'. To use up tomatoes, courgettes and capsicums which are abundant at the moment, there's a recipe for ratatouille. Also has anyone tried pickled magnolia flowers?

11:45 Pressures on public space

Bill McKay takes a broad look at the pressures on public spaces and the issues it generates, including sharing, maintenance and surveillance.

Bill McKay is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland.