Nine To Noon for Tuesday 20 June 2023

 

 

09:05 Scramble as cigarette retailers to go from 6000 to 600 next year 

Dairy owners are vying for a place on a scaled-back list of retailers who will hold on to their smoked tobacco licence by the year's end. Only one in 10 shops who currently sell cigarettes will still be able to by next July - a cutback from 6000 dairies to 600. It's part of the bid to make New Zealand smokefree by 2025, but despite that goal being embarked upon as far back as  2011, some shop owners feel 'sprung upon', due to the late rush of policy change. It is a double edged sword. In some cases cigarette sales revenue accounts for up to half of a dairy's revenue stream  - and a spot on the list is a lifeline. But with 230 ram raids in the first four months of this year, security concerns are rife for those who will continue being able to sell cigarettes, causing some, like Pukekohe's Lochview Dairy owner Ravi Singh, to opt out - despite the crushing financial losses. Dairy and Business Owners Group chair Sunny Kaushal is leading a group of concerned owners to Parliament tomorrow, urging for more clarity over the reduced list, which is set to be decided by November.

09:25 Support in Hawkes Bay for children with developmental challenges

After two years in the making a new disability centre for pre-schoolers has opened in Napier aimed at helping children with developmental differences. The Pudney Hub is the creation of Esk Valley couple Glenn Bond and Clare Pudney. Clare who is a Speech Language Therapist is the Clinical Director of the facility, while Glenn who has background with not for profit organisations is the executive director. The couple say it's a much-needed resource for parents and caregivers needing help for their young children with disabilities to reach their full potential. The centre's focus is providing education and support, including speech-language and occupational therapy, to children under five. Glenn Bond says it's a difficult road for whānau, when their child isn't meeting developmental milestones and there's limited support available for pre-schoolers in the regions. 

09:45 USA correspondent Ximena Bustillo 

The US secretary of state Antony Blinken has just visited China meeting with leader Xi Jinping and other officials. He has described the Beijing talks as candid, substantive and constructive. His previous scheduled visit was delayed as a Chinese spy balloon flew over the US, before being shot down. And it's Juneteeth in the US, the third year since the holiday was given federal status by President Biden in 2021. It commemorates the fall of slavery in Galveston, Texas.

Ximena Bustillo is an NPR politics reporter based in Washington

10:05 Lake Attack: challenge to swim every South Island lake 

A challenge to swim every lake in the South Island, no matter how cold the water and how hard they are to reach, has brought together a Queenstown swimming club. Members of the Southern Lakes Swimming Club set a challenge to swim every named lake in the South Island. Realising the scale of the project, but also the opportunity it presented for keen outdoor swimmers, they opened it up to all swim clubs in Te Waipounamu. So far about 90 lakes have be ticked off the list but more than 250 lakes remain to be swum in the Lake Attack Challenge, with swimmers going to extraordinary lengths to reach some of the most remote lakes. It's now the subject of a short film Out of the Pool and Into the Wild, which will premiere at the New Zealand Mountain Film and Book Festival this Sunday. Kathryn speaks with Paul Jaquin, the president of the Southern Lakes Swimming Club who came up with the Lake Attack Challenge, alongside the film's director Marijn Wouters, and Sara Metzger, another keen swimmer in the Southern Lakes Swimming Club. 

10:35 Book review: The Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michallon

Cynthia Morahan reviews The Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michallon, published by Penguin

10:45 Around the motu : Mary Argue in Wairarapa

What was once a commercial airport is now struggling to retain users and investment. Mary talks to Kathryn about whether Masterton's Hood Aerodrome is stagnating. She also elaborates on why Wairarapa is a perfect example of how New Zealand runs on volunteers. In the spirit of Volunteer Week Mary highlights the work of the Martinborough Volunteer Fire Brigade's Medical First Response and the Wairarapa Rescue Trust. And Christmas is coming early to Greytown with the month long festival of Christmas kicking off in July.

Mary Argue is the Chief reporter at Wairarapa Times Age

11:05 Business commentator Victoria Young

Victoria discusses two recent big developments involving pharmacy retailers - The move to scrap a $5 prescription charge and a victory by independent pharmacies in their case against Countdown supermarkets. A key argument the independents made was that the DHBs had been wrongly swayed by Countdown pharmacies' policy to waive the government's $5 prescription fee on most medicines. What does this mean for the sector and for the likes of Chemist Warehouse. Victoria also looks at commercial property trends. 

BusinessDesk investigations editor, Victoria Young

11:30 The story of indentured Indian labourers in Fiji told through a new mystery novel 

A historical mystery novel set in 1914 Fiji takes readers back to the era of British colonialism - and an economy supported by indentured labourers brought over from India to work on the nation's sugar cane plantations. A Disappearance in Fiji is on the surface a whodunnit set in tropical Suva, but at its heart, it's a story of the plight of indentured Indian labourers and the impact of British colonialism in the Pacific. It's the work of Nilima Rao, an Australian debut author who has been looking at her own Fijian Indian heritage and has traced the story of her great grandparents who went to Fiji in the early 1900s to escape poverty.

11:45 Sports-chat with Glen Larmer

Earlier this morning the All Whites  refused to take the field in the second half of their match against Qatar in Austria because of racial abuse. New Zealand Football said on social media that Michael Boxall was racially abused during the first half by a Qatari player...adding that because no action was taken by match officials the team decided not to come out for the second half. And the first All Black squad of the year has been announced with 36 players named for the Rugby Championship,  Glen unpacks who has made the cut.