Yesterday the honourable Megan Woods, Minister of Energy and Resources announced the third round of the Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry Fund will provide $13 million to 15 businesses to help them move away from fossil fuels. I spoke with Georgia Piggot, an environmental social scientist from the University of Auckland, starting by asking her if the funding will inspire other businesses to follow suit, even if they aren’t receiving that funding
In 2021 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study showed New Zealand students’ maths knowledge in year 9 fell below all other English-speaking countries. Kiwi student performance was the lowest ever recorded. Recent testing has indicated that New Zealand teens might fail their upcoming compulsory NCEA standards. This morning Stella spoke with Heather Lewis, the National Leader of Mathematics Interventions at Cognition Education about why we aren’t so great at maths as a country.
First Union and E tū have launched a court case against Technology and transport giant Uber.
The groups believe the company has been refusing to take responsibility for their workers and aren't treating them as employees.
Uber has been under mass criticism across the world lately, as a trove of leaked files have shown how the companies leaders were making unethical decisions consciously.
The Labour Party was one of many to criticise the National Parties policy announcements of minimising welfare for youth and focusing on pushing them into work.
However, the Auckland Action Against Poverty group has called out the government for their own actions of sanctioning those on the benefit.
They claim Labour has cut benefits of around 4000 people who aren't well, are injured or living with a disability in the last 5 years.
To learn more, Liam spoke to Brooke Stanley Pao from the organisation about their frustrations.
Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr announced yet another official cash rate hike yesterday, by fifty basis points to four point seven five percent.
The reserve bank claims they aren’t yet sure what the impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle will be on the wider economy, continuing to predict the OCR will peak at five point five percent.
The aim to control inflation will likely see borrowers suffer, as discussed by UoA Economics Professor Robert MacCulloch.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith recently confirmed the new Human Rights and Race Relations Commissioners: Dr Stephen Rainbow and Dr Melissa Derby. Following the announcement, the two were met with controversy for previous discriminatory comments.
Dr Rainbow had previously criticised the platforming of transgender activist Shaneel Lal, and expressed anti-Palestine views. Dr Melissa Derby has similarly expressed anti-transgender views at events.
In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Katie Nimon, Wire host Castor asked about the appointment of these two individuals and the alignment of their views with the government.
The government also recently announced one point three billion dollars of funding to address drink and drug driving. While the funding is appreciated by the NZ Police Association, there are worries that there aren’t enough police officers to meet the new targets.
Castor discussed each of these issues with Katie in their weekly catchup.
Around the world countries are tackling climate change with net zero targets. This involves offsetting carbon emissions through other initiatives such as planting trees or using technology that pulls carbon dioxide out of the air.
Despite the drive to meet these targets, carbon in the atmosphere is continuing to rise, and even with the current efforts to offset them, they aren’t predicted to drop.
Climate scientist and honorary academic at the University of Auckland, Kevin Trenberth says that world leaders should scrap these net zero targets and instead focus on ‘real zero’, eliminating fossil fuels entirely.
Producer Evie spoke to Trenberth about what the ‘real zero’ initiative involves, how it differs from net zero, and how realistic it is for it to be adopted both in Aotearoa and globally.
Last week the government announced their second climate target, in accordance with the Paris Agreement.
The target outlines how much emissions need to be cut by 2035. The government has chosen a target of getting emissions down by 51 - 55% compared to 2005 levels. This is only 1% higher than their previous target.
The announcement has been slated as unambitious, particularly in relation to comparable nations, as well as developing countries.
However, with the proposed climate policies from the government, many of which aren’t even in place yet, Aotearoa isn’t forecasted to reach this goal.
On Friday, Producer Evie spoke to Massey University's Professor of Sustainable Energy and Climate Mitigation, Ralph Sims about the target and how realistic it really is.
For our weekly catchup w/ the Green Party Oto spoke with MP Ricardo Menendez-March about the party's support for the five unions taking the Government to the High Court over their pay equity law changes, The final cost of the iRex ferry project’s cancellation and The Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill passing in Parliament.
And he spoke to Stephen Hoadley, a retired professor in Politics and International Relations at the University of Auckland about the outcomes of the Trump-Putin summit that happened over the weekend.
Max spoke to Dr I-Ting Chuang from the University of Auckland, to discuss why people in Auckland and Hamilton aren’t walking as much as they should.
And he spoke to Gordon Nanau from the University of Auckland, to talk about the ongoing situation between the autonomous region of Bougainville and Papua New Guinea.
Last week, resource consents were approved for a $3.5 billion AI Data Centre to be constructed near Invercargill. While most of the commentary around the data centre is discussing how it could benefit New Zealand’s economy or connectivity, few are discussing the potential environmental ramifications.
While the consent applications aren’t public, data centres overseas have been known to have varying degrees of environmental impact, including pulling drinking water out of communities and farmlands and subsequently creating droughts and increasing temperatures.
To evaluate how a data centre could operate in New Zealand, News Director Castor spoke to director of Pūtahi research, a consulting firm specialising in water and climate resilience, Daniel Collins.
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