Last week Transport minister Chris Bishop announced steps towards improvements to public transport from the Northwest of Auckland. The plan involves three stages, each promoting faster and more consistent public transport from the region. While early stages are planned for the next few years, later stages will be coming over the next ten or more years.
The government has also announced $53 million towards subsidising teachers registration fees. This announcement follows extensive campaigning from teachers on this issue, eliminating a barrier for new and long-time teachers in Aotearoa.
In our weekly catchup with National’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor asked about each of these issues, starting with the transport upgrades in Northwest Auckland.
Featuring Flicks 'n' That with Steve Newall and What's Cooking with Keepsakes for guest selections and a first play of a new track from the Ōtautahi-based producers forthcoming release.
This week, a University of Otago led study found that autistic pupils are significantly less likely to attend school regularly, particularly at a young age.
The researchers of the study had information on 654,438 pupils, of which 8427 were autistic. They found that autistic pupils' regular attendance was 55.3%, compared to 62.5% for non-autistic pupils. They also found that autistic students would experience about 78 fewer school days on average per year compared to their non-autistic peers.
Lead author, Dr Nick Bowden, of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, has said that "it's important to remember that behind the data are real children, whānau, and educators, trying to make it work, often without the tools or support they need".
Producer Max spoke with Larah van de Meer, Research and Advocacy Manager at Autism New Zealand, about the recent study by the University of Otago.
Jonny calls Will Toledo of Car Seat Headrest to discuss the band's forthcoming Rock Opera LP The Scholars. Described as audacious, ambitious and a reminder of what rock can be, The Scholars is well worth a very close listen! Whakarongo mai to hear about the process on this set-to-be legendary album out 2 May.
Just yesterday, Finance Minister Nicola Willis made her Pre-Budget speech, in the leadup to Budget 2025 which will be delivered next month.
During her speech, Willis said that the government would be halving the operating allowance from $2.4 Billion to $1.3 Billion, going to a select number of government departments that Willis has described as “the most important priorities.”
The week before, it came to light that Climate Minister Simon Watts had rejected advice to review the carbon subsidies given to polluting companies like NZ steel and Methanex.
And the Greens recently made a call to the government to ban the use of engineered stone products.
For our weekly catchup with the Green Party, Wednesday Wire host Oto spoke to MP Ricardo Menendez-March about all of these issues.
In March this year, the government made the decision to reduce the benefit for hospital patients who remain hospitalised after 13 weeks.
After 13 weeks, those experiencing long-term hospitalisation would see their benefit reduced to their "hospital rate" which was $55.35 a week (after tax), unless the person has a partner and a child or is a veteran.
For this week’s Get Action! I spoke to Fiona Charlton, volunteer president of New Zealand ME Society, who’s started a petition calling on the government to roll back benefit cuts to people experiencing long-term hospitalisation.
If you’d like to sign this petition, you can find it here:
95bFM 
