Nine To Noon for Wednesday 13 November 2019

 

09:05 Retirement village contracts to be simplified: sector

Retirement village operators say they are moving to simplify and clarify contracts with residents after criticism from the government watchdog. The Commission for Financial Capability reviewed the rules and costs involved in residents’ moving from independent living to rest home-type care facilities on the same site. It found that some contracts were so confusing that potential residents did not understand that the different facilities have different cost structures and regulatory regimes, and that transferring from one level of care to another is not necessarily a simple matter. Susie Ferguson talks with Earl Gasparich, the Chief Executive of Oceania Healthcare, who explains the new draft guidelines for Retirement Village Association members. Also National Manager of Retirement Villages for the Commission for Financial Capability,  Troy Churton.

09:20 School shake up 'will make things fairer'

Massive changes to the school system will see the creation of a new agency which will take over zoning and enrolment schemes from individual school boards. Nine to Noon talks to one of the architects of the new school system that was outlined by the minister yesterday. Bali Haque who was the chair of the independent task force that led to the changes says the new system will level the playing field.

09:30 Kaitiakitanga & rahui: adding colour to Maori concepts

An enterprising book in Te Reo and English teaching the important Maori concepts of kaitiakitanga and rahui is just going into its second print run. Te haerenga o Piri - Piri's Adventure - is a colouring book, designed by four Northland high school students, intended for much younger children and the adults who read it to them.  Susie Ferguson speaks with Te Kura Taumata o Panguru student-turned-author Iripareraukura Te Tai - one of the Year 13s behind this book, launched under their business Nga Tai Awatea.  Kaiako Aaron McCloy, from Papa Taiao Moana Restoration also joins.

09:45 Catastrophic bushfires and climate change brawling

Australia correspondent Karen Middleton joins Susie with the latest on the bushfires raging through multiple states and the outbreak of political brawling over the role of climate change in the catastrophe. She'll talk about the denial by former foreign minister Alexander Downer that he conspired to bring Trump down in the Mueller inquiry into Russian interference and Cardinal George Pell has one last legal hope to appeal his six-year jail sentence for child sex offences.

10:05  Dogs and us: Alexandra Horowitz

Best-selling cognitive scientist Alexandra Horowitz talks to Susie Ferguson about her new book "Our Dogs, Ourselves", which attempts to understand the age-old and often emotional relationship between humans and our dogs: how we acquire, name, train, raise, treat, talk to, and see them - and what that relationship tells us about ourselves and our society.  Alexandra Horowitz is a professor at Columbia University, where she teaches seminars in canine cognition and heads the Dog Cognition Lab.  Here Alexandra and her team observe and study dogs in an attempt to answer the question "what it is like to be a dog?"

10:35 Book review - Pākehā Settlements in a Māori World

Jonathan West reviews Pākehā Settlements in a Māori World by Ian Smith, which is published by Bridget Williams Books.

10:45 The Reading

Today's reading is part three of Seven Voices - Tales of Madness & Mirth by Mike Chunn, narrated by Sean Allan. (Broadcast only, no web reproduction)

11:05 Longer story songs, music and unpleasure

Music correspondent Graeme Downes looks at some country music with longer narratives and the pain that's experienced by the subjects of the songs, featuring Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris' $1000 Wedding, Emmylou Harris' Red Dirt Girl and Jolene, by Dolly Parton.

11:20 Saving Kākāpō with fertility boosting rimu fruit

When it comes to hopelessly flawed reproductive strategies, Kākāpō top the list. In addition to fertility problems they only breed every 2-5 years, coinciding with mass fruiting of rimu trees. Scientists believe there might be hope for the critically-endangered native parrot by looking closer at this link. Nine to Noon talks to Dr Janet Pitman and Dr Simon Hinkley from Victoria University of Wellington who have been awarded a Te Pūtea Rangahau a Marsden grant to investigate.

11:45 Reflections on the recent Brexit chapter: prorogation and all that

Law commentator Dean Knight has been in the UK as a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and used the time to closely follow the Brexit happenings. He'll join Susie to talk about the legal and constitutional implications for New Zealand.

Dean Knight is an associate professor at the School of Law at Victoria University.