In the wake of the Christchurch terror attack, New Zealand is looking to make rapid changes to its gun laws. Today we take a look at how our laws currently stand and how gun laws are only one aspect to preventing an atrocity like this happening again. Olivia Holdsworth spoke to Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago Kevin Clement and began by asking about historical pushes for gun law reform and why these suggestions were never ratified.
It’s nearly been a month since The COVID-19 Public Health Response Act passed in Parliament. "Passed under urgency, the Act enables orders imposing the most profound peacetime restrictions ever made to the rights and personal freedoms of all New Zealanders."
This is a statement from the New Zealand Law Society, who released a press statement last Wednesday, recommending changes to amendments in the legislation, which need additional safeguarding.
The Wire's Producer Louis Laws spoke with Jonathan Orpin-Dowell, a barrister & a member of the NZLS Law Reform Committee, who spoke on the Response Act, & the amendments the Law Society is recommending...
Justice Minister Kiritapu Allan has recently announced that she plans to reform New Zealand hate speech laws before next year's general election.
This comes after a royal commission report stemming from the christchurch terror attacks stated that New Zealand does not "provide a workable mechanism to deal with hate speech".
Amnesty International Aotearoa has called for stronger laws covering digital hate speech and a widening of which groups are covered.
However, the opposition has opposed these calls, with the ACT party stating they would overturn the changes if they went into power.
Liam spoke to Lisa Woods from Amnesty NZ about the laws, first asking for an overview of the current hate speech laws.
New Zealand's privacy laws are fit for 2011. That was the headline of a statement released by academics from the University of Auckland about the Privacy Act 2020. Lawyers at the University of Auckland have emphasised their concern of a lack of coverage that Privacy Act has for individual rights and use of regulatory tools by agencies in the time of the social media age. To talk more about what was meant by their statement and the recommendations that these academics are asking of the government, Andre Fa'aoso spoke to Nikki Chamberlain, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland.
In a recent report card on Aotearoa’s laws and policies for vaping, the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation New Zealand found the government still has significant areas for improvement to address the youth vaping epidemic.
Producer Sofia Roger Williams spoke to Chief Executive, Letitia Harding, about New Zealand’s current laws and policies for vaping, the importance of regulation and restriction, and what measures the Foundation would like to see the government take to better address these.
Last week, the Independent Police Conduct Authority released its summary of police’s handling of Farzana Yaqubi’s complaints of a man stalking her, eight weeks before she was murdered in December 2022 by the same man.
The report found a litany of police failures in its handling, including that its assessment matrix did not consider all lines of inquiry.
New Zealand is one of the few countries that does not treat stalking as a crime.
As a result of the IPCA’s report and Yaqubi’s death, many have called for this to change.
Producer Sofia Roger Williams spoke to Associate Professor at the University of Auckland Faculty of Law, Carrie Leonetti, about current laws for stalking in Aotearoa, the importance of criminalising it, and what that could look like.
A new report from the NZ Drug Foundation has highlighted the need for safer drug laws, to focus on harm reduction. Experts from the foundation believe that stronger action needs to be taken in order to combat the growing statistics of overdoses, substance abuse, and drug-related deaths.
Producer Faith spoke to the foundation’s policy director Dr. Jacek Kolodziej about how the law needs to change, and how drug addiction should be addressed
The Opportunities Party Leader Gareth Morgan, speaks to bFm reporter Josh Story about his party's policy towards the legal status of cannabis. Story also talks with the Drug Foundation's Ross Bell.
A new not-for-profit public health model is advocating for the legal sale of recreational cannabis in New Zealand, drawing inspiration from elements of the Gambling Act of 2003. Wire producer Harry Willis reports.
The Opportunities Party says the current legal approach to cannabis does more harm than actually smoking it, with the government dealing with it through the courts, police and forcing people to interact with gangs. Producer Reuben McLaren spoke to Geoff Simmons, the deputy leader of The Opportunities Party about their proposed cannabis policy.
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