Nine To Noon for Wednesday 6 March 2024

 

09:05 Cocaine use increases by 93 percent in past year

A new report can reveal cocaine use has increased by 93 percent in the past year. The Drug Foundation has drawn from wastewater testing to paint a picture of drug use across the country for the 2022 to 2023 period. It found 1.3 percent of adults used cocaine, compared to just 0.6 percent three years prior. Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm says while it's worth noting that the increase comes off of a low baseline, it signals that the increasing global production of cocaine is bearing down here. Sarah Helm speaks with Kathryn Ryan.

09:15 Parents face months-long waits for childcare as centres close up

Mounting pressures on the early childhood sector is leaving some parents on months-long waitlists for a spot. The Early Childhood Council, which represents around 1300 centres, warns closures could be in the hundreds before the year is up. ECC chief executive Simon Laube says it's the perfect storm of mounting costs and also instances where compliance managers are taking an overly strict approach against minor regulation breaches. The Ministry of Education says it is obliged to follow processes set out in legislation, and more often than not services can remedy the situation quickly. Chief Advisor to the Office of Early Childhood Education Dr Sarah Alexander is of a different view. She believes giving leeway to breaches will drive health and safety standards down. Simon Laube, Sarah Alexander and centre owner Kelly Seaburg speak with Kathryn Ryan.

09:30 Officials prepare contingency plan as avian influenza inches closer

Environmental officials are preparing a contingency plan as avian influenza inches closer to our shores. The disease has killed millions of animals globally however New Zealand has remained relatively protected from it due to our isolated location. But as the disease enters the southern hemisphere, that's not necessarily the case anymore. Cases of the highly-infectious H5N1 strain have been confirmed in birds and seals across some sub-Antarctic islands, as well as a case on Antarctica's mainland. The Ministry for Primary Industries says the risk here is still considered 'low', however it will be monitoring whether any new cases overlap with our birds' migratory patterns. Kathryn Ryan speaks with MPI's chief veterinary officer Mary van Andel, and also the Department of Conservation's technical ecology adviser Bruce McKinlay, who is involved in a vaccine trial involving a small number of native birds.

09:45 Australia: Labor holds Dunkley seat, Meta bails on news deal

Australia correspondent Chris Niesche looks at the relief within Labor at managing to hold the seat of Dunkley at the weekend's by-election. Where does that leave Peter Dutton's Liberals? And Meta has announced it'll stop paying Australian publishers for news and shut down the news tab it had set up. What impact could that have on the media landscape?

10:05 How the Bluestockings dared to imagine independent lives for women

"Women are only children of a larger growth,' wrote one Lord Chesterfield in 1748. It was a sentiment shared by many men of women in the 18th century - but it was about to have its foundation shaken. At a time when women didn't exist outside of their relationship to a man, couldn't own property or vote and were largely uneducated, a group of women dared to think and live as they pleased. They came to be known as the Blue Stockings Society, discussing philosophy, theatre and classics in hitherto unheard of mixed gender gatherings. The Bluestockings' writings would go on to influence many future female authors and thinkers and pave the way for their Suffrage sisters. The beginnings and influence of the group has been explored in a new book by English writer and historian Susannah Gibson called The Bluestockings: The First Women's Movement.

10:35 Book review: The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden 

Quentin Johnson reviews The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden published by Penguin Random House

10:45 Around the motu : Kirsty Pickett in Te Anau

In Te Anau, the housing crisis is having an effect on business. Security camera upgrades are the source of conflict in Winton and why a cat called Ginge is charming Te Anau locals.

11:05 Music: Why we love the sound of falsetto

Music correspondent Ian Chapman celebrates the male falsetto voice, playing examples that range from the unexpected (reggae singer Junior Murvin) through to the comedic/novelty (Tiny Tim). Although an oft-used singing technique, the falsetto voice requires much skill and, when used well, can imbue a song with a fragile tenderness and vulnerability such as evidenced in the two additional songs chosen for today’s music slot by Mike Nesmith and the Stylistics.  

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

 

11:20 Sheryl Beaumont on her new novel The War Photographers

Sheryl Beaumont's latest novel weaves together two pivotal points in 20th century history: efforts to crack the enigma code during World War II and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The War Photographers introduces readers to Mae, a young woman recruited from Cambridge to work at Bletchley Park and her granddaughter Rachel, who's working as a photojournalist as the Cold War is drawing to a close. Rachel's work is about to coincide with a mystery that's haunted her grandmother for decades. Sheryl's research for the book literally took her around the world, although she was familiar with London, having worked in banking there. It's also the setting of her novel Shadow of Doubt, which won the  2020 Indie Reader Award and was long-listed for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel - and two of her other novels which feature her character of forensic accountant Kat Munro.

11:45 Aussie fern invades Auckland's urban forests, analysis of 32 years of 'Shark Week'

Science commentator Dr Sophie Fern looks at recent study into the staghorn fern, a native of Australia that was brought to New Zealand and loves Auckland's forest canopies. What can stop this weed from spreading? Researchers in the US have done a content analysis of 32 years of the TV show 'Shark Week' to see how sharks as a species are presented and who was presenting themselves as experts on them. And what happened to seabirds on one of Australia's sub-Antarctic islands after a big drive to get rid of predators?

Dr Sophie Fern is a biologist specialising in conservation and natural history