Nine To Noon

Ron talks to Kathryn about how Joe Biden's much anticipated voting right speech has been received with Democrats looking to the President to lead amid a wave of bills intended to restrict voting access. Also the Covid Delta variant is spreading quickly with new cases up by nearly 70 percent in a week.

The equation for measuring water purity has been corrected but a freshwater ecologist questions whether this adjustment is sufficient to prevent pollution. The official equation measuring the human impact on groundwater has been revised to better reflect levels of pollution. Water scientist Dr Mike Joy has been campaigning for years to get the Ministry of the Environment to adjust the way they measure water purity. He has had something of a win. Admitting they had the figures wrong, Stats NZ has downgraded the 3 grams of nitrate allowed per cubic metre of water for it to be considered in a "natural state". Dr Mike Joy joins Kathryn to discuss why these measures are so important.

An insurance expert says the weekend's flooding at Westport should be a warning to the two-thirds of New Zealanders who live on a flood plain. Melissa Heath is director of Residential Risk Analysis, which advises councils on climate change-induced disaster risk and helps would-be homebuyers with potential insurance and financial issues with a property before purchase. She says New Zealand is unique in that insurers still cover events that wouldn't be covered overseas - but premiums are steadily increasing and homeowners are often under-insured.

A climate change researcher says local and central government must stop allowing houses to be built in at-risk areas and we should no longer rely on flood protection infrastructure such as stopbanks to protect against climate change-induced major weather events. Last weekend's devastating flooding has rendered 15 percent of Westport homes uninhabitable. Kathryn talks to Judy Lawrence from the Climate Change Research Institute about how we can better protect our infrastructure.

Kennedy speaks to Kathryn about Patricia Grace and her recently published memoir, "From the Centre."

Guests at a recent 3-course banquet in Dunedin made sure no food went to waste. Associate Professor Miranda Mirosa, from the University of Otago's Department of Food Science created a unique menu for 120 people using consumbable items that would overwise gone in the bin.

In politics we talk about rising inflation, whether the government's investor rules have had any impact on reining in the housing market and how Judith Collins' first year as National Party leader has gone.

Stephen Mills is the executive director of UMR Research , which is the polling firm used by Labour.  He is former political adviser to two Labour governments.

Ben Thomas is a PR consultant and a former National Government press secretary.

With the weekend's flooding events in Buller and Marlborough being the third in the country this year, questions are being asked what a 1 in 100 year event means. Kathryn speaks with Niwa Principal Scientist Chris Brandolino and Ilan Noy , Chair of Disaster Economics at Victoria University Wellington.

Kiran Dass reviews Things Are Against Us by Lucy Ellmann, published by Text Publishing.

Rupa Maitra was born in Dunedin after her Bengali parents migrated to New Zealand in the late 60s from India, via Uganda. She did a music degree at Otago and followed it up with one in medicine - gravitating toward pathology.