RNZ: Sunday Morning

2012 was the 100th anniversary of the passing of the Public Service Act - an Act that defined the public service for the best part of a century. This year it's the turn of the Public Service Association to celebrate its centenary. Jeremy Rose talks to historian Mark Derby about his most recent book on one of the union's most effective leaders - White Collar Radical: Dan Long and the Rise of the White Collar Unions; and Chris Laidlaw speaks to former government statistician Len Cook and Bill Ryan, an associate professor at Victoria University's School of Government and the co-author of Future State: Directions for Public Management in New Zealand, about the state of the public service and how it might evolve in the future.

In a new book, photographer Ans Westra delivers a strong message to New Zealanders to consider the environment we are leaving for our children. The book includes photographs that show a damning picture of what the landscape has become. There's also text from a number of poets and politicians including Hone Tuwhare, Russell Norman, Brian Turner, David Eggleton and former Prime Minister David Lange, who wrote a short piece for Westra as part of an unrealised book project in 1987.

A recent survey of media freedom around the world ranked New Zealand as one of the top 10 nations. So Mediawatch asks: Do we need to fret about press freedom here at all? We also look at local newspapers coming back into local ownership in the South Island; why the media were staking out dairies this week; and are text votes on TV shows good value for money?

Dr Sandra Grey and her colleague Dr Charles Sedgwick asked NGOs if democracy, as measured by the ability of civil society organisations to have a voice in political debate, is flourishing or languishing in New Zealand. The response indicates that democracy is being 'strangled' by the way in which this and the previous government administer funding via contracts, with over half of the NGOs surveyed saying that organisations which dissent against the government line are likely to lose their government funding.

Farming in a changing climate.

After the fallout from the recent visit Danish politician Marie Krarup, Wayne looks at the blurring of lines between the traditional left and right sides of the political spectrum. Jesper Hansen, a Dane who's a teaching fellow at University College, Oxford, and Mike Treen, National Director of Unite Union here in Aotearoa New Zealand, discuss.

Jane Ridley has written a book about Bertie, son of Queen Victoria, the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha monarch, and grandfather to the heir apparent Edward VIII and his younger, regally more succesful, brother George VI.

The Greens and Labour put up a united front with a scheme for delivering cheap power to consumers. But how united are they?

Prior to becoming New Zealand's 35th Prime Minister, James Brendan Bolger was first elected to Parliament as the MP for King Country in 1972. The Honourable Jim Bolger speaks about his time as PM, as Ambassador to the US, and as Chair to both NZ Post and Kiwibank.

Gordon Weiss is a writer, speaker, consultant and analyst of international affairs. He was a UN representative in Sri Lanka in 2009 during the brutal civil war in which the government effectively exterminated the last of the Tamil Tigers.

Digital TV Switchover in the South Island - and the prospects for local broadcasters; lots of heat about racism - but little light, and; a sense of humour failure over satire.

Gideon Haigh is a prolific writer of books on political and economic issues. However, his latest literary contribution centres around the Australian cricketer and personality that is Shayne Warne.

Liz Banas follows NZ's trade and diplomatic mission to China.

The Mediawatch team runs through listeners' queries and comments and updates recent stories from the programme. This month: politicians and public servants failing to front up; BBC news drops off TV One; TV3's 'The Vote'; weather service rivalry; the proposed one-stop regulation shop; Nicky Hager on the response to media lifting the lid on secrecy; trying to be nice; getting adjectives right; the final word on marmite.

Wayne Brittenden has been Radio New Zealand’s correspondent in several capital cities over the years. Each week he gives fresh insights into a wide variety of topics of national and international concern, followed by Chris Laidlaw’s discussion of the issue with guests. Last Monday was North Korea’s Day of the Sun, marking the anniversary of the state’s founder Kim Il Sung. As tensions are racheted up on the Korean Peninsula, Wayne discusses the security concerns and some little-known aspects of North Korea. Chris follows up with two American academics, Christine Hong of the University of California at Santa Cruz, and Avram Agov of Harvard’s Korean Institute.