Nine To Noon for Tuesday 20 August 2024

09:05 Councils oppose proposal to cut back emergency road funding 

Councils around the country are unanimously against proposed changes by the New Zealand Transport Agency to reduce and restrict emergency funding. The New Zealand Transport Agency is considering increasing the threshold to get emergency funding to fix roads from a one-in-10-year event to a one-in-20-year event. And it says the funding assistance rates would drop from 20 to 10 per cent - putting more of the burden of paying for emergency roading costs on councils. NZTA is now considering the feedback it has received and is expected to decide on any changes closer to the end of the year. But councils are universally against those two particular proposals. Two of those in opposite parts of the country are Gisborne District Council and Grey District Council. Tim Barry, director of community lifelines at Gisborne District Council, and Tania Gibson is mayor of the Grey District.

09:30 Democratic delegate Susan Mendoza from the DNC in Chicago

We cross to Chicago to the Democratic National Convention, where Kamala Harris is about to cement her place as Donald Trump's opponent for November's election. It's been a tumultuous few months for the Democrats, with discontent over Joe Biden's performance reaching fever pitch in late July when he announced he would not stand in November. Support then quickly coalesced around Kamala Harris - who will make her acceptance speech around midday on Friday NZ time. Susana Mendoza is a former Illinois state representative, the first Hispanic official elected to Illinois state office, and an official Democrat delegate. She speaks to Kathryn from the Convention.

Kathryn also spoke to Republican lawmaker Julie Emerson from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month.

09:30 Banks cut interest rates - what's on offer?

Retail banks have been cutting interest rates since the Reserve Bank dropped the official cash rate last week. This is for both fixed home loans and term deposit rates. Meanwhile the Commerce Commission has just released its final report into competition in the retail banking sector. Kathryn speaks with RNZ's Money Correspondent Susan Edmunds.

09:45 USA correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben

Danielle is in Chicago covering the Democratic National Convention and says it’s a wildly different race for the Presidency than when the Republican National Convention happened in Milwaukee last month. She says back then Republicans were extremely confident and Democrats were nervous.

Danielle Kurtzleben is a political correspondent assigned to NPR's Washington Desk.

10:05 Composer Andrew Ford on The Shortest History of Music

Few have traversed the world of music as extensively as Andrew Ford, an Australian broadcaster, composer and writer. Aside from hosting the weekly Music Show on National Radio for nearly thirty years, he's been a composer in residence at the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Australian National Academy of Music and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. His work has been performed around the world, and now he's released his eleventh book on music. The Shortest History of Music races through thousands of years as it explores what music has meant to humans at different times.

10:35 Book review: By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult 

Lisa Finucane reviews By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult published by Allen & Unwin

Tess has been covering the inquest into Lachlan Jones' death. The Gore three year old was discovered unresponsive in a sewage oxidation pond in 2019. The coroner is being urged to recommend the police reinvestigate what happened. And Southland district mayor Rob Scott is calling for a new local government structure for the wider region. The proposal would consolidate the four existing Southland councils into two unitary authorities.
 

10:45 Around the motu : Tess Brunton in Dunedin

Tess has been covering the inquest into Lachlan Jones' death. The Gore three year old was discovered unresponsive in a sewage oxidation pond in 2019. The coroner is being urged to recommend the police reinvestigate what happened. And Southland district mayor Rob Scott is calling for a new local government structure for the wider region. The proposal would consolidate the four existing Southland councils into two unitary authorities

11:05 Business commentator Oli Lewis

The Penlink highway to improve a new state highway between the Whangaparaoa Peninsula and central Auckland is going to take until at least 2028 to complete - two years later than originally forecast. And Oli talks to Kathryn about Ministry of Transport  concerns that NZTA  isn't able to properly forecast and meet project budget and timelines.

Oli Lewis is the Infrastructure Editor at BusinessDesk.

11:30 From farming to cutting-edge chemistry

Lily Clague grew up on a sheep station in West Otago - a place so remote Gore was considered a thriving metropolis. Today, she is a research technologist working to decarbonise the zinc and steel industries. The 25-year-old is also one of the MacDiarmid Institute's '100 inspired' - which in the words of institute founder Sir Paul Callaghan recognises, "100 inspired entrepreneurs that could turn this country around". Lily Clague is a chemist at Christchurch-based start-up Zincovery. Kathryn spoke to the company's co-founder Jonathan Ring back in 2022.

11:45 Sports correspondent Glen Larmer

The Warriors' home ground will be known as Shaun Johnson Stadium this week as the club honours its departing playmaker.Johnson will make the last NRL playing appearance at his  Auckland home ground when the Warriors host the Canterbury Bulldogs on Friday night. his 223rd match for the club.