Nine To Noon for Thursday 13 July 2023

 

 

09:05 Te Kōwhai residents fear large stockpile of explosives near school, childcare centre

A large stockpile of the potentially explosive chemical, ammonium nitrate is being stored in the small Waikato town of Te Kōwhai, without resource consent. Ammonium nitrate is the chemical that caused a major explosion in Beirut in 2020, when it was stored incorrectly. While the risk of it exploding has been assessed by Fire and Emergency NZ as "low", the characteristics of the storage site potentially increases the risk, FENZ says. The storage of up to 249 tonnes of the material and application to increase that to 349 tonnes has alarmed the local community. Within just two kilometres of the site is a school, a childcare centre and a retirement village. It's also very close to a major gas pipeline. The Waikato Times has reported the material is owned by Australian company Orica, but is transported and stored in New Zealand by Move Logistics. It's now stored on a property owned by local company The Lummys Block Limited, without resource consent, although the application has since been lodged and is sitting with the Waikato District Council. Kathryn speaks with Brian Palmer, chair of the Te Kōwhai Community Group and Stephen Darby who owns the local childcare centre.

09:25 Matariki: the importance of a kaupapa Māori approach to environmental management.

Matariki is the star cluster most commonly known across the world as Pleiades. For Māori the rising of Matariki signal te Mātahi o te Tau, the Māori New Year, and is a time to reflect on the past year, celebrate the present, and plan for the year ahead. Kathryn speaks to Dr Dan Hikuroa, who says Matariki reinforces the importance of a kaupapa Māori approach to environmental management. Dan is an earth systems scientist at Waipapa Taumata Rau / University of Auckland, who uses a kaupapa Māori approach in much of his research. His recent research includes connecting science to indigenous knowledge: kaitiakitanga, conservation, and resource management and Te Maramataka, which is an Indigenous system of attuning with the Environment, and its role in modern health and well-being.

09:45 UK: BBC presenter named, govt pushes to pass Immigration bill

UK correspondent Matt Dathan joins Kathryn to talk about the one story that's dominated the news headlines since Friday - the high profile BBC presenter who allegedly paid a young person for explicit messages. Huw Edwards was outed by his wife this morning, as she said he was in hospital with 'serious mental health issues'. The government is determined to push its controversial Illegal Migration Bill onto the statute book before Parliament rises for its summer recess next week - but is being stymied by the House of Lords. And the UK's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has told Ukraine at the NATO summit in Lithuania that it's not an "Amazon" service for weapons and it should show more gratitude for donations.

Matt Dathan is Home Affairs Editor at The Times

10:05 The 12 physics experiments that changed our world 

Suzie Sheehy is a physicist at the University of Melbourne, specifically an accelerator physicist. She's also an award winning science communicator and is the author of The Matter of Everything: A History of Discovery. She tells the story of modern physics and the development of particle physics, and the genius, persistence and simple good luck of some of the biggest discoveries in physics history. These experiments brought us new technologies like radiation therapy, diagnostic imaging, as well as radio, TV, microwaves, smartphones and the internet. 

10:35 Book review: What About Men? by Caitlin Moran

Louise O'Brien reviews What About Men? by Caitlin Moran published by Penguin Random House

10:45 Around the motu: Matt Brown in Marlborough

Matt talks to Kathryn about the difficulties in donating blood in Marlborough, a boost for Blenheim's pool facility, the cost of fixing the region's roads damaged by flooding earlier this year and how Marlborough is celebrating Matariki.
 

11:05 Tech: New advances, Threads - one week in, Kiwi firms bought out

Technology correspondent Paul Matthews joins Kathryn to look at some of the latest impressive advances brought to market in the last few years - including "electronic skin", storing energy as heat in a "sand battery" and biological storage. He'll also look at how Meta's Threads is going, one week on - how many users does it have and how's the feedback been?  And as is often the way during tough economic times, there are also bargains to be had and many have come knocking on the door of Kiwi tech companies looking to make an acquisition.

Paul is chief executive of CIO Studio.

11:25 Developing independent learning habits

Kathryn talks with parenting coach and education consultant Joseph Driessen about parents can help their children develop independent learning habits.

11:45 Screentime: Mission Impossible 7, Creamerie s2, NZ International Film Festival

Film and TV reviewer James Croot joins Kathryn to deliver his verdict on Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, the seventh film in the franchise - does it measure up? He'll also look at local Kiwi black comedy Creamerie season 2 and some of the offerings at this year's NZ International Film Festival, including Ms Information and Sweet As.

James Croot is Stuff's Stuff to Watch editor