For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party Wire Host Caeden spoke to Willie Jackson about the independent commissioner being appointed to Wellington City Council, the government’s review of Ihumātao, and the cuts at Whakaata Māori.
For City Counselling this week, Producer Sofia caught up with Councillor Shane Henderson about the new police station on Federal Street in Auckland CBD which was announced earlier this week to be opened in mid-2025.
With a focus more on fun than funny, Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie breaks down Freak Out City, chatting about it track by track with Hunter for Long Player.
A fucked up mix of oddities, tonight's show has quite a few live sets (notably Upsidedown Cross and Big Black) stacks of noisecore and hip-hop with samples delving into some religious mania etc.
For this week’s City Counselling, Beth spoke to Counsellor for Manukau Lotu Fuli about Auckland Council’s consultation around Māori seats and the upcoming Midtown Street Party.
Last year, Auckland Council removed 30% of bins from public places with the hopes of saving about $9.5 million over an eight year period. While the council didn’t foresee an increase in littering, last week Stuff published an article sharing the frustrations of residents who observed a growing litter problem in council parks.
Illegal dumping has also been on the rise across Auckland.
With more than 1300 reports per month, the cost of retrieving illegally dumped items is about $2.7 million every year and rising.
Also Mayor Wayne Brown has announced that he wants to see Auckland become the “premier tech city” of New Zealand to boost our global influence and reputation—-- calling on the government to establish the new Advanced Technology Institute here, which he says could play a key role in guiding new start-ups, so ideas don’t ‘die on the vine’.
Beginning with the problem of rubbish in Auckland, Producer Sara started by asking Julie Fairey if she believed the removal of bins was to blame for increased littering
On Tuesday, Aucklanders checked the updated property valuations of their house, for many to find declines in value by 10s of thousands of dollars —- on average, by 9% from when they were last done in 2021.
According to the Council. rating valuations were based on market trends and recent sales activity, as of May 1 2024.
Wayne Brown said in response to the decreased values, “The economy's been faltering for a while, and It's really driven by government policies rather than Auckland's policies,”
Also, as we get closer to 2026 and the completion of the City Rail Link, Aucklanders have expressed various concerns about the standard of completion, including incorporation of public feedback.
I discuss the incorporation of the wider neighbourhood in Mt Eden at the Maungawhau station and the dismissal of public perspectives at the K Road station
This week saw the release of another major IPCC Climate Report, stating that without immediate action we will reach a one point five degree rise in climate and beyond by 20300.
Several new contributors to climate change were highlighted, including the cumulative impact of big cities and towns on the climate.
Efforts to turn our cities more green have been taking place across Aotearoa for several months, so Liam Hansen spoke to Crystal Olin from Sustainable cities Aotearoa about what’s being done and what needs to come next.
Last week Environment Minister David Parker agreed that Auckland Council could have more time to change its planning rules to allow greater intensification but he instructed the council that they had to reduce the amount of impermeable spaces like concrete driveways and plan for a sponge city. Alex Bonham talked to landscape architect Matthew Bradbury, an Associate Professor at Unitect and author of the book Water City what a sponge city is and what it might look like.