Nine To Noon for Monday 4 December 2023

 

09:05 COP28 president shocks with comments at climate talks

The president of the United Nations Climate talks COP28 in Dubai says there is "no science" indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1-point-5-degrees celsius. As well as running Cop28 in Dubai, Sultan Al Jaber is also the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates' state oil company, Adnoc, which many observers say is a serious conflict of interest. As weather disasters and heat intensifies around the world, over 60 thousand people are gathered for the latest talks. The main task is an assessment of countries' progress towards meeting the 2015 Paris Agreement's goal of limiting the global temperature rise to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius, while aiming for 1.5C.  So far global efforts are lagging. Kathryn speaks with the Guardian's Environment Editor Fiona Harvey from Dubai.

09:25 No promises for Auckland City Rail Link deadline

The boss of Auckland's City Rail Link is giving no guarantees it will hit its opening deadline of 2026. Preliminary work on the 3.4km track, spanning four underground stations,  from downtown's Britomart to Mt Eden, began in 2016. But CRL chief executive Sean Sweeney says reaching that deadline of 2026 - 10 years later - is not guaranteed. The latest cost projection of the build is 5.49 billion dollars - and once it is up and running, it's is set to cost Auckland ratepayers an estimated 220 million dollars a year to maintain. It will serve as connecting link between existing rail services , making most of the central city accessible by train. An engineer ,Sean Sweeney has spent four decades working across the world overseeing such big construction jobs. But as he tells Kathryn Ryan, he believes Auckland is the most expensive place in the world for infrastructure projects.

09:35 A for effort: Teacher's top award for work on structured literacy

Each year the National Excellence in Teaching Awards honour four early childhood, primary and secondary school educators from around the motu. This year Nga Hau e Wha Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour Amie Roberts won both the Apple Award, and a Teacher Mentor Special Award, for her work in implementing Structured Literacy into schools around Wellington.  Her own journey into specialising in teaching structured literacy came from watching her own son struggle to read. She tells Kathryn her story.

09:45 Middle East correspondent Sebastian Usher

Sebastian Usher brings the latest from the Israel-Gaza conflict.

10:05 From Mount Taranaki to Mount Sinai

Born in Hawera, South Taranaki, to parents who had immigrated from Sri Lanka, Dr Anu Anandaraja dreamed of one day planting her feet on the African continent. Convinced that medicine was her ticket to get there, she embarked on a medical degree at the University of Auckland and upon graduating, headed to the United States' most prestigious medical school to train in paediatrics - New York's Mount Sinai. Anu says in her more than a decade and a half in the system, she met "the best and the worst of people". The tipping point came while she was director of Public Health, and in 2019, Anu and several colleagues filed a lawsuit against Mount Sinai alleging age, sex, and race discrimination. It spurred hundreds of other healthcare professionals at Mount Sinai, and across the United States, to reveal similar experiences. In 2020, Anu left the institution for good, but the lawsuit drags on, with Mount Sinai denying all allegations. Meanwhile Anu, this year's Kea World Class New Zealand Award winner, is dedicating her time to Women Together Global - the organisation she founded seven years ago to help empower women and girls to achieve economic independence - and had just returned from a trip to Malawi when she spoke to Kathryn. 

10:35 Book review: Wish I Was Here by M. John Harrison 

David Hill reviews Wish I Was Here by M. John Harrison published by Serpent's Tale    

10:35 Short Story competition winner: Some Other Richard

A man in his 50s volunteers to drive the hearse with his father’s body to Auckland. During the journey the son reflects on who his father was and his relationship with him, and comes to understand that he and his father are more alike than he had previously thought. Some Other Richard is one of the winners of the Nine to Noon 2023 Short Story Competition. It was written by Andrea Pollard, and is told by Jim Moriarty.

10:45 Around the motu: Lauren Crimp in Napier

What's on the Christmas wishlist from the Hawke's Bay's mayors as their cyclone ravaged regions are still in recovery mode. RNZ's Napier based reporter, Lauren Crimp also has the latest on emergency housing in Flaxmere. And the iconic Hastings water park, Splash Planet reopens for the summer after $2.4 million of repairs in the last six months.

11:05 Political commentators Gareth Hughes and Brigitte Morten

Political commentators Brigitte Morten and Gareth Hughes chew over the first week of a new Cabinet, and what more is being learned about policies which will be undone.

Gareth Hughes is a former Green MP and now works for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance Aotearoa. 

Brigitte Morten is a director with public and commercial law firm Franks Ogilvie and a former senior ministerial advisor for the previous National-led government, a National Party member and currently volunteering for the party's deputy leader, Nicola Willis.

11:30 Cookies and Christmas: Molly Woppy co-founder on a growing Kiwi tradition

Christmas and cookies have become intertwined in recent years - something Auckland-based biscuit makers Molly Woppy know only too well. The company still handmakes its products - everything from sticky date, walnut and chia biscuits to dark chocolate caramel popcorn, lemon moments and ginger almond brazil biscotti.  Molly Woppy was co-founded by Hayley Molloy and her partner Alistair Parker 21 years ago. Many of their products have taken top honours at the New Zealand Food Awards. Alistair and Hayley Kathryn to talk about how they strive for authenticity by using traditional home-baking methods.

11:45 Urban issues with Bill McKay

Bill discusses a new exhibition at Auckland’s Objectspace gallery called ‘The Chair; a story of design and making in Aotearoa’. It showcases more then 110 New Zealand designed and made chairs spanning 170 years, all loaned by individuals and institutions. Bill hones in on three chairs in particular, and what they tell us about our attitude to design. 

Bill McKay is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland.

Music played in this show

Track: Borrow Trouble
Artist: Feist
Time played: 10:25

Track: Stormy
Artist:Dallas Tamaira
Time played: 11:44