Nine To Noon for Tuesday 14 September 2021

 

 

09:05 Vaccine passports: how will they work?

As Cabinet starts to consider a vision for a post-lockdown future, and Australia prepares to trial vaccine passports with selected countries, questions are being asked about impacts on liberty and privacy for vaccine passport use within a country.  Prime Minister Scott Morrison says once 80% of adults have had two shots, people will be allowed to travel overseas again. Proof of vaccine records will be needed for outgoing and inbound travelers from the Pacific, the UK and the US, also Singapore, Japan and South Korea. Proof will take the form of a QR code linked to an actual passport.  Our Ministry of Health has confirmed vaccine passports will be available for Kiwis later this year.  Meanwhile the UK has rowed back on vaccine passports for use within England, for fear of limiting freedoms and creating a two-tier society. Lynn speaks with Dave Parry, professor of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences at the Auckland University of Technology, Dr Andrew Chen, a Research Fellow with Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures at the University of Auckland and Justine Nolan - law professor and the director of the Australian Human Rights Institute at UNSW Sydney.

09:20 Extracting green hydrogen from driftwood

Researchers at the University of Canterbury say they are at a breakthrough point in a project to substitute fossil fuels with green hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide. They've been examining how wood waste can be broken down to create these two products, which could be used in plant nurseries to grow vegetables, also in fertiliser factories and chemical plants instead of fossil fuels. The current thinking is their system could produce climate-friendly hydrogen and carbon dioxide at scale in about a decade.  Lynn speaks with Associate Processor in Chemical and Process Engineering the University Of Canterbury Alex Yip, who is leading the team.

09:30 China's oldest currency discovered 

Anthropologist Bill Maurer explains the significant of the recent discovery of the oldest known Chinese metal currency unearthed at the site of a foundary in the ancient city of Guanzhuang which was estabished about 800 BC. Hao Zhao, an archaeologist at Zhengzhou University lead the research which has been published in the journal Antiquity.

 

 

09:45 USA correspondent Ron Elving - the US remembers 9/11

Ron says the US is feeling emotionally spent after the marking of the 9/11 20th anniversary.  Also there's major resistance in some quarters to vaccination mandates. And Ron talks to Lynn about pitched battles in courts over state-passed anti-Abortion laws and voting restrictions.  Finally, a big pro-Trump rally is brewing for next weekend in Washington DC. 

Ron Elving is Senior Editor and Correspondent on the Washington Desk for NPR News.

10:05 Kate Macdougall: London's No1 Dog Walking Agency

Kate Macdougall's memoir London's No. 1 Dog Walking Agency  is an entertaining perspective on a left-field profession and a coming of age story.  Armed with a degree in Art History, and eschewing a back office job at Sotheby's auction house, it tells of Kate's efforts to strike out on her own, starting up in business as a dog walker for busy Londoners whose pets otherwise faced long and boring days home alone. While receiving strict instructions about diet, mud and treasured balls, Kate got the measure of other peoples' lives, and, as she tells Lynn Freeman, her own.

10:35 Book review: The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris      

Ralph McAllister reviews The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris, published by Headline Publishing Group

10:45 The Reading

11:05 Business commentator Rebecca Stevenson - Theranos founder on trial

 

 

Elizabeth Holmes seemingly had the world at her feet.  In 2003, the 19-year-old college dropout founded Theranos, a medical technology company that promised to revolutionize health care with a device that could test for a range of conditions using just a few drops of blood from a finger prick.  Holmes racked up big-name investors, forged a partnership with Walgreens and raked in the money, with Theranos reached a valuation of $9 billion. But it was too good to be true. She is now  trial facing up to 20 years in prison for criminal fraud charges, to which she has pleaded not guilty. 

Rebecca Stevenson is BusinessDesk's head of news.

11:30 Dr Himali McInnes - stories from the medical frontline

Himali McInnes was a GP for a decade in South Auckland, based in Mangere and now works at Three Kings. Over the years she's has seen first hand how the human spirit shines through, despite hardship, illness and trauma. Dr McInnes has spoken to other medics about the patients whose situations have stuck with them.They're captured in her book The Unexpected Patient - true Kiwi stories of life, death and unforgettable clinical case.

 

11:45 Financial Planner Liz Koh - What to do when your income suddenly drops 

Liz talks to Lynn about ways people can avoid going into massive debt as a result of a sudden loss of income, and she has suggestions on how to quickly reduce outgoings, or find ways to increase income.

Liz Koh is a financial planner and specialising in retirement planning. This discussion is of a general nature, and does not constitute financial advice.