Nine To Noon for Thursday 4 June 2020

 

 

09:05 How many SMEs will benefit from rent arbitration plan?

From today, commercial tenants with 20 or fewer employees will be able to access partially funded compulsory arbitration if their landlord won't negotiate a fair rent. The change comes after two months of negotiation between Labour and New Zealand First. Justice Minister Andrew Little says it's a pity it has taken so long, but the process, which is a temporary amendment to the Property Law Act, will provide a means for parties to negotiate fair rents. How many Small and Medium Size Enterprises will be affected by this? and with what impact on their commercial landlords? Kathryn talks with Tom Wallace, founder of the cloud based commercial property software firm Re-leased, Leonie Freeman from the Property Council and SME expert and CEO of Business NZ, Kirk Hope.

09:20 Drivers licence boosts former prisoners' job prospects

New research into a free social initiative helping ex prisoners get their drivers licences has found that half have found either fulltime or part-time jobs. The provincial driver education programme run by the Howard League for penal reform is for people who've been out of jail for less than a year. Mike Williams is the Howard League's CEO and he says the cost of running each programme is $120,000, about the same as keeping a prisoner in jail for one year.
John Utting from Utting Research has evaluated two of the initiatives, running in Hamilton and Whangarei.

09:45 2000 new Covid cases a day - but UK eases its lockdown

UK correspondent Hugo Gye joins Kathryn to talk about how the UK is moving more slowly than other European nations to lift Covid restrictions, even as it continues to record nearly 2000 new cases of Covid-19 everyday. Parliament scraps its virtual hearings - meaning MPs have to join a long line to vote and the UK has promised to give up to 3 million Hong Kong citizens residency rights.

10:05 Dirty Books! How Portnoy's Complaint changed Australia forever

In 1970 Penguin Books Australia took a radical decision which upturned over seventy years worth of censorship legislation. The publishing of Phillip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint shook the Australian censorship laws to their foundations and started a landslide of societal change. Patrick Mullins is an Australian historian of odd figures already. His first book Tiberius with a Telephone, a biography of the ill fated Australian prime Minister William McMahon, came out in 2018 and won the New South Wales Premier's award for literature. His new book The Trials of Portnoy is about the saga of the publishing of Philip Roth's novel, and the cast iron response of the government of the day. 

10:35 Book review - Inland by Téa Obreht

Stella Chrysostomou of VOLUME Books reviews Inland by Téa Obreht, published Hachette NZ.

10:45 The Reading

Part three of Cotton-Eyed Joe by Susy Pointon, read by Michele Amas.

11:05 Facebook woes: polarisation of users, Trump trouble, staff walkouts

Technology commentator Peter Griffin looks at the issues Facebook is having to grapple with right now. Late last week it had to defend itself from claims it knew its algorithms polarized users - but allowed it anyway. Now thanks to the decision by Mark Zuckerberg not to remove posts by Donald Trump, Facebook staff are taking matters into their own hands and walking off the job.

11:25  Modern learning environments: how well do children learn?

Senior Researcher at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, Mohamed Alansari with what parents can expect for their children's learning in modern classroom layouts.

11:45 The Lovebirds, Space Force, #BlackAF

Film and TV reviewer Chris Schulz joins Kathryn to talk about The Lovebirds, the new Netflix film about a film about a couple forced to go on the run after witnessing a murder. He'll also review Steve Carrell's new Netflix TV series Space Force and sitcom #BlackAF.

Music played in this show

Artist:      Fly My Pretties
Song:     Quiet Girl 
Time:     10:35