Nine To Noon

 

09:05 Music promoter renews calls for beefed up ticketing rules

A music event promoter is renewing calls for new legislation to protect concert goers if an event is cancelled. Two festivals - Jucy Fest and Timeless Summer - with shows scheduled in cities throughout January, were cancelled in December. An initial liquidator's report estimates the three companies behind the events owe creditors more than $2.4 million. The Commerce Commission is investigating hundreds of complaints from ticketholders who have tried to get their money back through the ticketing agency Ticket Fairy. They have been told the company no longer holds their money as all funds were transferred to the promoter. Brent Eccles is a music event promoter - he says he's been petitioning successive governments for tighter rules to protect consumers.

09:20 Corrections to make changes to management of extreme-threat prisoners 

A lawyer for most of the clients currently being kept in New Zealand's only extreme-threat prison unit says the Corrections department wants to change the law to allow human rights abuses to continue. There are currently 14 inmates in Auckland Prison's Prisoners of Extreme Risk Unit - also referred to as PERU - which was established in 2019, including the Christchurch mosque terrorist. A recent investigation by Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier revealed concerns about human rights abuses, a lack of transparency over how inmates came to be classified as extreme risk, and other record-keeping issues such as scrubbed body-worn camera footage. Corrections has since released a consultation document, as it seeks to improve how it classifies and manages these prisoners. But Amanda Hill who represents the majority of the inmates, says the proposals only seek to legalise currently unlawful actions. 

09:30 Melbourne company builds first multi-storey 3D-printed home in the Southern Hemisphere

As technology develops, it's now possible to build a new home with a click of a button. New Zealand's first 3D printed show home was finished near Auckland last year, and the first 3D printed show home opened in Hamilton in January. Across the Tasman, Melbourne-based company Luyten is pushing the boundaries of what's possible  - aiming to finish the first multi-storey 3D printed home in the Southern Hemisphere in the space of five weeks. At 350 square-metres, it's a decent size - and Luyten CEO Ahmed Mahil is planning to live in it when it's done. Ahmed joins Kathryn to talk about the technology behind the build, the challenges involved it it and where 3D printing could go next.

09:45 Australia: Budget details, Olympic backflip, Socceroos win

Australia correspondent Karen Middleton joins Kathryn to talk about yesterday's federal Budget which unveiled modest tax cuts, which the Albanese government would probably have rather revealed in an election campaign  - the announcement of which was thwarted by a cyclone. The Queensland government has announced it will build a new stadium for the 2032 Olympics after all and Australia is a step closer to qualifying for the football World Cup after defeating China in a match in Guangzhou.

Karen Middleton is a political journalist based in Canberra

10:05 Cuneiform explained with Dr Moudhy Al-Rashid

Receipts for beer, instructions for exorcising a ghost and a lullaby for a restless child - are just some inscriptions from the ancient people of Mesopotamia we can use to look back in time. And what these ancient texts often show is that we are not so different from our forebears who came thousands of years ago, says historian Dr Moudhy Al Rashid. Her new book Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History takes readers on a journey in time through what has been able to be read from bricks and tablets found at the site believed to be an ancient museum in the ruins of a city called Ur. It is considered the first museum in the world - and reveals much about how different Mesopotamians lived as well as how they documented their own history in an area now part of southern Iraq. An Honorary Fellow at Oxford University's Wolfson College, Moudhy has spent much of her career translating the stories of the world's first cities, the origins of writing, and the people who lived along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates thousands of years ago. Beyond her academic work, Moudhy has also been a prominent figure on social media because of her fascinating translations of the first form of writing known as cuneiform.

10:35 Book review: Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell 

Carole Beu of the Women's Bookshop in Auckland reviews Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell published by Simon & Schuster    

10:45 Around the motu: David Hill in North Canterbury

David updates Kathryn on the latest news in North Canterbury including rail transport continuing to be seen as "crucial" for Canterbury's future, the Three Waters Reform consultation in the region, and the upcoming local government elections.

David Hill is a Local Democracy Reporter with North Canterbury News, based in Rangiora.

11:05 Music with Yadana Saw 

Yadana plays some new local sounds, a bit of Turkish psych-rock and belated happy birthday to the one and only Chaka Khan - who is hitting Aotearoa next month for an anniversary tour.

11:20 New novel digs into a life of reluctant motherhood

It's the early 1970s, and Marjorie Forsythe has been forced into retirement from teaching at the age of 60. Her husband has died - her four children are making families of their own - and for the first time in her life, she's free to do what she wants. This forms the basis of Auckland writer Vivienne Lingard's book Mrs Forsythe - a musing on motherhood in the 50s, 60s and 70s and its long-term impact. Her first novel, The (almost) True Story of a Man Called Jack was published in 2020 and was a fictionalised memoir of her father. Vivienne was an artist and illustrator for much of her life, earned a degree as a mature student and discovered a passion for writing while living and teaching in Japan. She tells Kathryn where the inspiration for the formidable character of Mrs Forsythe came from.

11:45 Science: Where conservation funding falls short + what's eating our frogs?

Biologist Dr Sophie Fern joins Kathryn to look at two recent studies - one that focused on over 14,600 conservation projects over a quarter of a century to find where conservation funding has mainly gone. So which animals or plants attract funding - and which get left behind? Another study looked at what's preying on our native frogs - with rather an icky way of finding out!

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