Nine To Noon

09:05 Migration milestone: More people leave NZ than arrive in April and May 

Last year, the net loss of New Zealanders headed across the Tasman was the highest for 13 years with job insecurity seemingly the key driver. While headline unemployment is at 5.1 percent, the number of employed New Zealanders who want more work than they can get has jumped by nearly 30,000 in just a couple of years. And university students in the capital now report job security as their number one concern, even over the cost of living. Visas for the UK - a typical gateway for the great OE - are down. The destination for most is Australia. And in a sobering milestone, Stats NZ estimates the number of people who moved away from New Zealand was greater than the number who migrated here, in the months of April and May. In Wellington, the Victoria University Students' Association has summed up the jobs sentiment in the capital with a poster campaign - no work, shit pay, why stay? Student Association president Liban Ali and Principal Economist at Infometrics economist Brad Olsen discuss.

09:20 Domestic cement manufacturing to be fuelled by plastic waste 

Fletcher Building is using hard-to-recycle plastics as fuel for its Golden Bay cement factory, in Whangarei. Operating since 1913 it is the country's only domestic cement manufacturer. Previously run on coal the company has spent $200 million since the early 2000s to convert to other fuel sources - and is now 60 percent powered through waste streams such as wood and construction. old car tyres, and at one stage expired RAT tests, face masks and PPE following the outbreak of Covid-19. It aims to increase that proportion to 80 percent with the introduction of hard-to recycle plastics, which Fletcher Building says is a win for the "here and now" problem of such plastics that have no end of life option other than the landfill. Ben Marsh is general manager of Golden Bay Cement.

09:30 Combatting loneliness in our communities - for young and old

Loneliness is an increasingly documented problem among the elderly but they aren't alone. It can also be felt by younger people - especially stay at home parents. The Rockpool Collective is a unique home care initiative that brings these two groups together - providing companionship and employment with a family friendly twist. Co-founder Libby McCarthy has a background in social enterprise and with a global shortage in health care workers, she says the sector is ripe for some fresh thinking. She tells Kathryn about the goal to build intergenerational communities. 

09:45 Asia: Taiwan military exercises, China expands access, Seoul returns 6 North Koreans 

Taiwan's annual military exercise, Han Kuang, kicked off this week as part of the island’s defense drills preparing for a hypothetical China invasion; Seoul has returned six North Koreans to their home country, as they wanted to go back home, and China has dramatically expanded its visa-free access to entice more tourists. 

Elizabeth Beattie is a journalist based in Tokyo

10:05 Why a documentary about Filipino fishermen was banned from a film festival

With its sparkling expanse of blue water, the sea to the west of the Philippines looks like a paradise. But the difficulties faced by fishermen on that water - and the soldiers that help police it - has been laid bare in a new documentary by top filmmaker Baby Ruth Villarama. In Food Delivery, Fresh from the West Philippine Sea she follows a group of fishers from a small village as they navigate their fishing grounds, while keeping a wary eye for the Chinese coastguard. This particular area of the ocean has long been a flashpoint for relations between the Philippines and China, which both claim territorial ownership for it. That's despite China's loss in a 2016 ruling at the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Baby Ruth has been a documentary producer and director for a number of years, and often dives into strong social issues - like undocumented migrants in the US and the situation of Filipino workers in Hong Kong. But having her Food Delivery documentary banned from the Philippine's major film festival two days before its debut, came as a shock. She reveals in her interview with Nine to Noon that the DocEdge film festival in New Zealand, was also approached by the Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in Auckland seeking to have the film removed. The Consulate General asked the festival to refrain from screening the documentary, on the grounds the film was 'rife with disinformation and false propaganda to serve as (a) political tool for the Philippines.' DocEdge declined the request.

10:30 The new band that wasn't: Where the Velvet Sundown controversy leaves real artists

When Velvet Sundown recently released its new album, it made a rapid rise through the Spotify charts and attracted nearly two million monthly listeners. Not bad for a band that didn't exist before June, and actually, doesn't really exist at all. Spotify has now changed the band's bio to confirm the music's been created using artificial intelligence, while "guided by human creative direction". "It's not a trick" - the bio states - "it's a mirror". So are we through the looking glass when it comes to how our creative content is generated, thanks to AI? Can we trust our ears? And where does it leave the artists whose work it's probably been trained on? Dr Joshua Yuvaraj has been considering this, he's a senior lecturer in the faculty of law at the University of Auckland. He also a co-director of the New Zealand Centre for Intellectual Property...and a musician himself.

10:35 Book review: Island calling by Francesca Segal 

Carole Beu of the Women's Bookshop in Auckland reviews Island calling by Francesca Segal published by Chatto & Windus

10:45 Around the motu: Alexa Cook in Hawkes Bay

Alexa discusses the situation in Wairoa for residents, one year on from its floods, the uproar over water rates in Central Hawke’s Bay and the success of an apple bred to cope with warming climate conditions.

11:05 New music with Grant Smithies

A record that changed the sound of soul music, Virginia singer/ songwriter D’Angelo’s debut Brown Sugar turns 30 this week. We’ll hear two key tracks from that album today, followed by some ambitious bedroom pop from Christchurch’s Pickle Darling and a reissued Edo-funk classic from Nigeria’s Good Samaritans

11:30 Sports commentator Sam Ackerman

Two big double-headers for the oval ball codes in New Zealand - with a capital hoodoo to overcome for the All Blacks. Sam Ackerman looks at the weekend of sport as several competitions start to get serious.

11:45 The week that was 

Te Radar and Irene Pink brings the laughs, including Heathrow airport's new initiatve piping the 'sounds of an airport' around the airport.