For our weekly catch-up with the ACT Party, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host Joel spoke to MP Simon Court about government ministers announcing they are considering banning rough sleeping in Auckland’s CBD and the Regulatory Standards Bill passing its second reading.
Producer Alex spoke to Dr Iresh Jayawardena, a lecturer in Architecture and Urban Planning and lead researcher for the Future Cities Research Centre about Earth Science New Zealand’s new Flood Risk Map, and what it says about our infrastructure’s exposure to climate based harms.
And Joel spoke to Marcelo Rodriguez Ferrere, an Associate Law Professor at the University of Auckland, about NZ First’s members bill proposed a ban on the private sale and use of fireworks, touching on why we are seeing so many members bills from the party.
Earth Sciences NZ have released their first national risk model for Flooding, evaluating exposure of New Zealand’s infrastructure nation wide to floods and climate based harm.
The data shows the potential costs in damage to infrastructure at the forefront of inshore and river flooding, as well as the areas that face a greater risk of damage. However, this also shows that there are remaining issues of climate justice around those who are most vulnerable, which have not been taken into account as much as they should have in this map.
Monday Wire Producer Alex spoke to Lecturer in Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Auckland, and research lead at the Future Cities Research Centre Dr Iresh Jayawardena about this map, what it means for our infrastructure, and what still needs to be done.
During an interview with the ‘Morning Report’, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon confirmed that orders for the homeless in Auckland’s CBD to move on were “definitely a consideration”. He later stated, that “Aucklanders don’t feel safe going into the central city”, and both Central government and Auckland Council are considering how they can move homeless people out of the CBD ahead of summer.
This follows previous reports that the Government was considering a rough sleeping ban for central Auckland.
This news comes as Stats NZ released their annual unemployment figures this week. The results show that national unemployment has risen to a nine-year high at 5.3%, with the New Zealand youth taking most of the damage.
For our weekly catchup with The Green Party, Wednesday Wire Max spoke to MP Ricardo Menendez March, to discuss the new unemployment figures released last week. They also spoke about the Government’s new action plan to combat methamphetamine use.
But first, they discussed what The Green Party thought about the Government’s plan to decrease homelessness in the Auckland CBD
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Shanan Halbert about the expulsions of two Te Pāti Māori MPs, concerns about police leadership, and Chris Hipkins ‘socialist’ label.
For International Desk, they spoke to Youth Environmentalist Sumaya Mohammed and Lead on the Youth Climate Justice Project Aoife Daly about youth participation at COP30.
For City Counselling, Producer Sanat talked to Councillor Shane Henderson about a proposed ban on Homelessness in the CBD and new committee appointments inside Auckland Council.
He also talked to Kiwisaver Provider Simplicity’s CEO Sam Stubbs about their new infrastructure proposal called Infrakiwi.
This week COP30, the world’s main annual climate summit, has continued in the Amazonian city of Belém, Brazil.
COP30 marks a new push from indigenous voices to be elevated at the summit, with the largest indigenous participation in history - an estimated 3,000 with 1,000.
Tens of thousands of people also protested outside COP30 last week in the first large-scale protest at a United Nations climate summit in years.
Wire Host Caeden spoke with Vira Paky, Youth Engagement Co-ordinator at Save the Children New Zealand, who is on the ground at COP.
The government has recently announced some major reforms to how regional councils operate, with regional councillors proposed to be replaced by boards made up of city and regional mayors, and potentially even Crown-appointed representatives, called combined territories boards, or CTBs.
The ‘shake-up’ of regional councils has left concerns that the move would water down environmental regulations at a local level, reduce Māori and iwi voices in decision making, and would result in central government overreaching into local politics.
As well as this, Parliament’s Justice Committee has recommended passing the Electoral Amendment Bill, albeit with some amendments
For our weekly catch up with the ACT Party, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host Joel spoke to MP Simon Court about both of these topics, starting with the changes to regional councils.
Recently, the government has announced some major reforms to how regional councils operate, with regional councillors proposed to be replaced by boards made up of city and regional mayors, and potentially even Crown-appointed representatives, called combined territories boards, or CTBs.
As well as this, Health Minister, Simeon Brown, has called for the decentralisation of Health New Zealand, with the expectation that the entity focuses on deliveries closer to the front-line, additionally expecting a plan to do so by the end of the year.
For our weekly catch up with the National Party, News and Editorial Director Joel spoke to MP Stuart Smith about these topics, starting with the regional council.
Featuring guest selections from the lovely Martin Sagadin for What's Cooking ahead of the release of their debut album, Martin Iz Zgornje Bele, this Friday.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Shanan Halbert about the Manage My Health security breach and Labour’s proposed streaming levy.
And, they spoke to Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary of the Public Service Association, about the election date falling on November 7th, or what is also known as Public Service Day.
For City Counselling this week, Producer Jasmine spoke to Councillor Julie Fairey about this week’s heavy rain and threats of flooding, changes to granny flat building regulations and marine protections of shellfish.
Last week Herenga ā Nuku published Aotearoa’s first report on the state of public land access. Jasmine also spoke to Doug Macredie, the Strategic Relationships Manager at Outdoor Access Commission who published the report, and Professor Margaret Mutu, about the significance of the publication for Tangata Whenua
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