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The Wednesday Wire Hosted By Paul Deady 07/05/08
1215 – Fiji Times Editor-in-chief Netani Rika
At 1215 I'll be talking to the editor-in-chief of the Fiji Times, Netani Rika. Earlier this week he was one of several
Fijian media delegates summoned to the office of the country's leader, Cmdre. Frank Bainimarama. The commodore, you see,
was concerned that the media in his military controlled country were not being fair and balanced in their reporting, and
instead were publishing hateful and inciteful comments about his regime. At the meeting he threatened he would close
down the media – all the media – if the situation were not rectified, but qualified this in saying he didn't necessarily
want to. All this comes following the deportation of 2 expat newspaper editors from Fiji, for reasons the Commodore
refuses to divulge. Reports from the meeting say it was very open and frank, and some present even suggest it was a step
on the road to a good relationship between the country's media and its military regime. Netani was there, so in a few
minutes, I'll be asking his take on what went down, and whether it was meaningful in any way.
1240 – Peter Neilson
At 1240 I'll be trying to get my head around issues concerning the emissions trading scheme, or ETS, that has been in
the news the last couple of days. Basically, the scheme involves setting a carbon emissions cap on what industry can get
away with. If they go over the cap, they have to buy credits from companies who have remained under their cap. Thus a
market is born which provides financial incentive for those who emit less than they should. Ok, right. But this week the
government announced it will postpone the inclusion on transport fuels – or petrol – by 2 years. Peter Nielson from the
NZ business council for sustainable development says all this does is transfer the cost of emissions, as set out under
the Kyoto treaty, from those who are emitting to the taxpayer. And thus, the size of our tax cuts is reduced. It's
horrendously difficult to grasp, so hopefully we can make some sense of why the government has done this.
1300 – Rodney Hide
Then at one, our Wire coverage of the minor parties vying for your vote in this year's election continues. Today I'll be
speaking with Epsom MP, and leader of the Act party Rodney Hide. With his party polling lower than ever, there's the
very real possibility that Rodney might lose his green leather seat in Parliament – as well as that of Heather Roy, a
list MP for the party. With National looking increasingly centre-left, and ruling out working with the prodigal Act son
Sir Roger Douglas, I wonder if there's any room for Rodney and his band of merry libertarians this year.
1320 – Conterclockwise
Then at twenty past, the always-reliable Selwyn Mannig from scoop will be taking both myself and Rodney to task for how
the interview went down. Yup, post-interview analysis right here on the Wire.
1340 – Book She Read
And to end the show today, Sally will be back in the studio for semi-regular Wednesday Wire feature Book She Read. Today
we'll be playing an interview she did a couple of weeks ago with renowned NZ children's author Tessa Duder – who wrote
such classics as the Alex series and Night Race To Kawau. They talk about the enduring themes of these books, and
Tessa's first foray into the world of adult fiction with her new collection of stories "Is She Still Alive?". And if
there's time, we might also take a quick look at whatever Sally's been reading lately.
Aucklanders can tune in at 95 on the FM dial.