Nine To Noon for Monday 7 September 2015
09:05 UNICEF's Lebanon deputy says NZ's refugee intake doesn't cut it
Luciano Calestini, New Zealand's deputy representative for Unicef in Lebanon, says a few hundred 'falls far short' of the number of Syrian refugees New Zealand should be taking. The Cabinet is today expected to decide on an emergency in-take of refugees over three years, on the top of the existing 750 quota. Lebanon, has 1.2 million Syrian refugees in camps.
09:15 SPCA accused of contributing to native bird deaths
One of the country's top wildlife vets has accused the SPCA of contributing to the deaths of native birds by neutering and releasing stray and wild cats. Some regional SPCA branches, including Wellington, trap neuter and release stray cats back into the wild. There are no records kept on just how many stray cats there are in New Zealand, but its estimated there are 20 thousand colonies of them in Auckland alone. Associate Professor Brett Gartrell, who is the co-director of New Zealand's only dedicated wildlife hospital, Wildbase at Massey University, says this runs counter to every conservation effort practiced in New Zealand, and the SPCA should be putting the animals down.
09:20 Atmosphere of change? Climate Scientist Professor Tim Flannery
As a crucial United Nations summit on climate change draws nearer, renowned Australian scientist Tim Flannery says he's optimistic that new technologies can play a crucial role in reducing CO2 emissions.
96 countries will come together in Paris in November to nut out a new climate change agreement to set the world on a path to taming global greenhouse gas emissions. In a report out today, Oxfam says New Zealand and Australia's "woefully inadequate" emissions targets are "threatening the very survival of some Pacific Island nations.
Tim Flannery Photo: Damien Pleming.
09:45 Europe correspondent, Seamus Kearney
The refugee crisis in Europe
10:05 North Korean defector Hyeonseo Lee
As a child, Hyeonseo Lee thought her country, North Korea, was the best on the planet. It wasn't until the devastating famine of the 1990s that she began to question what she had always been taught about her homeland and its leadership. When she was 17, with the help of a friendly border guard, she walked across a frozen river to China – initially out of curiosity, but that was to be the beginning of her life in hiding as an illegal alien. She eventually settled as an asylum seeker in South Korea, where she arranged for the escape of her mother and brother, across the same river. Hyeonseo Lee has become an advocate and spokesperson for North Korean defectors and speaks around the world. She’s written a book about her life, called The Girl With Seven Names.
Hyeonseo Lee Photo: Supplied.
10:35 Book review: Nelly Dean by Alison Case
Reviewed by Gail Pittaway. Published by HarperCollins.
10:45 The Reading
11:05 Political commentators Matthew Hooton and Mike Williams
Growing pressure on John Key over NZ's refugee intake, the flag debate and Maurice Williamson back in the headlines.
11:30 Food: Asparagus Season
Geoff Lewis, the co-owner of Horowhenua company, Tendertips Photo: supplied
New Zealander's are big fans of the Spring vegetable, we eat about 2500 tonnes of it each year. In New Zealand asparagus usually becomes available from late September through til Christmas.
Geoff Lewis is the former chair of the Asparagus Council and the co-owner of Horowhenua company, Tendertips
Recipe: Juicy Jumbo Asparagus
11:45 Urbanist Tommy Honey
Flags, currency and design
- Flag designs a disgrace, NZ Herald
- New Zealanders Embarrassed by Finalists for National Flag and Banknote Redesigns, Hyperallergic
- Is this Grand Rapids flag one of the planet's 'worst vexillological offenders?', Michigan Live
- New Zealand banknotes (Series 7), Fonts in Use
- Norway's new banknotes are a beautifully pixelated blur, The Verge