The Wednesday Wire with Paul Deady 31-03-10

1220 - ECan Sackings, Daniel Collins 'Crikey Creek'

Tempers are flaring in Canterbury as the government will today push through legislation under urgency which will see the Canterbury Regional Council sacked and replaced with unelected commissioners. This follows a damning report by former National MP Wyatt Creech which says the way the council manages water is having a negative impact on the national economy. The Environment Minister Nick Smith says the move is critical to ensure better environmental and economic outcomes for the region. But his own ministry's regulatory impact statement ALSO said the move would lock rate-payers out from decision-making and potentially raises equity and access to justice issues. Where's this all coming from - why HAS Canterbury's water-management been such a monumental fuck-up? This morning I spoke with Daniel Collins, a hydrologist who runs the Crikey Creek website - which has generated much more light than heat on the issue. I'll play that interview at 1220.

1240 - NZ Institute, Young People being failed - Rick Boven

At 1240 we'll hear from Rick Boven, the director of a think tank called the NZ Institute. They've released a report card of sorts outlining the country's social, economic and environmental well-being in relation to other developed country's in the OECD. Our overall grade? C. Which I guess is a pass, but not one you'd be keen to pin to the fridge. Rick will be on to tell us a little more about the report, and how he hopes it might inform decision making to better this country's prospects.

1300 - Hutaree - Heidi Beirich, Southern Poverty Law Centre

At one we head to the United States, where the arrests this week of 9 members of a Christian militant slash terrorist organisation called Hutaree once again put these extreme right-wing groups in the spotlight. I spoke with (above) this morning. They work to monitor the emergence and activities of these kinds of groups and really are the kind of experts in the field. They've been inundated with media enquiries for the last 48 hours or so it was good of Heidi to make some time for us here at bFM. And it's a fascinating picture she painted too - do tune in for this one.

1320 - Counterclockwise

Counterclockwise once again at 1320 - today Lyndon Hood on the deluge of classic-National party policy in the last few weeks: think mining, welfare bashing, local democracy shirking and so on. Enough to give any liberal an aneurysm as Lyndon remarked to me this morning!

1340 - LHC works - Dr David Krofcheck at Ak Uni Physics Department.

And at 1340 a special guest from right here at the Auckland University - (above) will be on the line for a wee hip hip hooray. You see, David is part of the team who've worked on the Large Hadron Collider - which started colliding again last night at energies never before reached. And the Earth's still here, which is a bonus. It was a late night for David as he and some of his team celebrated the successes, so what now for science's biggest ever experiment? Do we know who God is yet?

ENDS

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