Nine To Noon for Wednesday 16 September 2020

 

09:05 Zhenhua database: Why is a Chinese firm targeting the influential?

Zhenhua Data has collected information on 2.4 million people around the world - including 730 New Zealanders. Canberra-based cybersecurity firm Internet 2.0 received the leaked files, and Kathryn speaks to co-founder Rob Potter why the find is significant and what the data firm was hoping to achieve.

09:20 Locals call for fix to Fiordland's Hollyford Road 

Locals are asking for the badly flood-damaged road into the popular Hollyford track to be opened by summer. The road has been closed since February, blocking off easy access to the track and its huts. Later this month a meeting will be held to outline the damage, and what it might cost to fix. Jules Tapper, who has previously made a living taking tours on the track, and Southland District Council's Strategic Manager Transport Hartley Hare discuss. 

09:45 Restrictions ease in Victoria - but not Melbourne, whales off course

Australia correspondent Karen Middleton joins Kathryn to talk about how some restrictions are being lifted across Victoria, but not in metro centres and Melbourne. The government is under fire for its hard line on external borders, amid Ton Abbott's 10 day trip to the UK while others are refused permission to see sick and dying relatives. Humpback whales have been found in a tidal and croc-infested river in the Northern Territory when they should've been headed to Antarctica, and it's 20 years since the Sydney Olympics.

10:05 The NZ-born poet telling truth in Covid times 

To say 2020 has been a rough year is a bit of an understatement - but a short video by a New Zealand-born poet has brought a message of hope to millions who have seen it. Tomos Roberts is also known as Tomfoolery, and his 'The Great Realisation' has had a great resonance around the world, with 60 million views since it was first posted. It's now been turned into a book, beautifully illustrated by Japanese artist Nomoco. Tom joins Kathryn from London, where he now lives, to talk about his work and the importance of optimism.

 

10:35 Book review - Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez

Ralph McAllister reviews Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez, published by Dialogue Books.

10:45 The Reading

How to Walk a Dog, episode 8. Written and read by Mike White.

11:05 Music With Graeme Downes

Graeme joins Kathryn to continue with this country theme, this time looking at Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Glen Campbell.

Graeme Downes is a musicologist and former senior lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of Otago.

 

11:20 Splash!  Diving into a history of swimming

Kathryn takes a plunge into the history of swimming, and why humans swim, with swimmer and swim coach Howard Means, whose new book Splash celebrates ten thousand years of swimming.  From our first ever recorded dip to the Olympic Games, Howard explores what it means for us to move through water, sometimes at great speed, more often to cool off, touching on changes in fashion and social attitudes along the way.

11:45 Rare successful defence of the Health and Safety Act

Garth Gallaway joins Kathryn to look at recent case brought against a property developer by Worksafe that was successfully defended. How are investigation numbers by WorkSafe tracking? And what's happening with an investigation into the tragedy at Whakaari/White Island?

Garth Gallaway is a partner at Chapman Tripp in Christchurch.