Nine To Noon for Wednesday 1 May 2024

 

09:05 Why NZ's pre-term birth rate keeps rising - and how it could be prevented

A maternal and perinatal health researcher says New Zealand's rate of pre-term births is continuing to rise - while repeated recommendations on how to prevent it, languish in reports that don't get acted on. Each year around 4,500 babies are born early in New Zealand - that is, before 37 weeks gestation. That increases the risk of death - but if the child survives, also increases the risk of life-long sickness and disability. New Zealand's rate of pre-term births has gone from 7.4 percent in 2009 to 7.9 percent in 2021 - based on the most recent data. And that data also shows location, ethnicity and socio-economic status can play a big role in outcomes for babies. Multiple reviews into maternal and perinatal mortality have recommended the Ministry of Health look at setting up a pre-term birth prevention programme. It hasn't happened. Kathryn speaks with Katie Groom, an expert in this field who helped establish the Carosika Collaborative - aimed at developing a gold-standard practice guide for clinicians. She also speaks with Alena, who lost two babies - one just 10 weeks after birth, and another at 20 weeks' gestation. She's currently pregnant again - 24 weeks along - but this time has had a crucial intervention.

09:30 Lines companies on spending plans to enable net-Zero goals

Later this month the Commerce Commission will lay out what it thinks lines companies should be able to spend on infrastructure and recoup from customers. It will be a highly anticipated announcement with the country's 27 networks expected to need to spend more than $20 billion in each of the next three decades to enable the country's increasing electrification. Lines companies are monopolies regulated by the Commerce Commission or by a consumer trust that owns them. Lines charges from networks - not including Transpower's cost  - make up 27 per cent of a consumer's bill. The Commission will release its draft decision on the next 5-year regulatory period on what lines companies can spend later this month, with a final decision in November. In recent years many of the lines companies have announced substantial increases to forecast expenditure - for many it is well over double what they have thought was previously needed. Simon Mackenzie is chief executive of Auckland-based Vector - the country's biggest lines company with more than 600,000 connections. Tracey Kai is chief executive of Electricity Networks Aotearoa, an industry organisation representing all 27 lines companies. 

09:45 Australia: Labor govt commits $1b to quantum computing, Bonza airline goes kaput

Australia correspondent Bernard Keane joins Kathryn to talk about a commitment of a billion dollars by the Labor government to entice a US quantum computing firm to build in Queensland. And the Bonza airline was supposed to shake up Qantas and Virgin monopoly - but has had half its fleet possessed.

Bernard Keane is political editor for Crikey.com

10:05 Loren Taylor on her directing debut The Moon is Upside Down

Loren Taylor's latest project is one she wrote, directs and stars in: The Moon is Upside Down. She's joined by a stellar cast that includes Elizabeth Hawthorne, Victoria Haralbidou, Robyn Malcom, Robbie Magasiva and Jermaine Clement. Three women's stories briefly intersect - that of the duped mail-order bride, the slightly numbed anaethetist having a fling with her sister's old boyfriend and the wife who discovers the new block of flats her husband purchased contains a dead tenant. It's Loren's directing debut, and she and Elizabeth Hawthorne join Kathryn to explore what connection means in a world turned upside down.

10:35 Book review: Shakespeare's Sisters: Four Women Who Wrote the Renaissance by Ramie Targoff 

Sonja de Friez reviews Shakespeare's Sisters: Four Women Who Wrote the Renaissance by Ramie Targoff published by Hachette 

10:45 Around the motu: Simon Wilson in Auckland

Simon looks at a new Curia poll revealing who Aucklanders favour as their next mayor. Simon Bridges is out in front, with Paula Bennett and Wayne Brown trailing behind. A working group has met behind closed doors to discuss four proposals for the supercity's main stadium, including a revamp of Eden Park, or a new one at the waterfront. And, an update on progress on the City Rail Link.

11:05 Music with Ian Chapman: Songs of the Sea

With Anzac Day just gone, this week Ian Chapman reflects on his father’s experiences in the Royal New Zealand Navy during World War II, his life-long passion for the sea, and the music that stirred his salty blood in the decades that followed his service to King and Country. From sea shanties to the pop charts, Able Seaman Vic Chapman found music that helped him express and understand his emotions and experiences of the war and the ocean. 

Ian Chapman is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Music at the University of Otago. 

11:20 Artist Lily Duval on her love of insects and efforts to conserve them

Artist and writer Lily Duval's latest book tells the stories of the insects of Aotearoa, in the hopes of changing attitudes towards them. And it begins with a confession: she's not a lifelong insect lover herself, in fact she had to overcome a fear of bugs in her 20s. Lily holds a Master of Arts, exploring 'cultural entomology', dissecting how we talk about, and represent, insects in culture, and as she calls it, their "PR problem". Six Legged Ghosts pays homage to the many living bugs, but also the many which have quietly gone extinct, and is illustrated with her own watercolour paintings. Lily Duval is a researcher for a range of conservation organisations, and wants people to feel just as passionate about bugs, as they do about animals and plants.

11:45 Science: Dogs with good noses, why people keep secrets, genes + music

Science commentator Jen Martin joins Kathryn to talk about which domestic dog breeds have the best sense of smell, new research into why people keep secrets about themselves and whether your genes have any impact on musical preferences.

Dr Jen Martin founded the science communication program at the University of Melbourne, runs the espressoscience.com blog and is also the author of Why Am I Like This?: The Science Behind Your Weirdest Thoughts and Habits.