Earlier this week the City Rail Link reached a milestone, breaking through the end of its final tunnel.
The tunnel boring machine created space for the new rail system by breaking through fifteen metres of cement per day.
The machine was Named after Dame Whina Cooper, the Maori Rights activist who led the hikoi to parliament.
For this week’s segment of City Counselling, I had a chat with Shane Henderson about the City Rail Link milestone as well as the 2022 Mayoral conservation awards.
Researchers have settled the mystery of a tiny, enigmatic reptile that left an impression on Scottish sandstone nearly a quarter of a billion years ago after more than a century of debate.
The Scleromochlus taylori, was discovered near Elgin in Moray in the early 1900s, however due to a lack of remaining evidence, paleontologists were unsure of its features. In hopes of solving this mystery, researchers led by Davide Foffa at National Museums Scotland turned to computed tomography (CT) scans to reveal the creatures features in detail.
Joe spoke to Dr Nic Rawlence from the Paleogenetics Lab at the University of Otago, to get some insight into this fascinating discovery!
Māori health inequity directly costs the health system $39.9 million per year, according to a new Indigenous-led study. When researchers added indirect costs of $823.4 million from lost years of life and lost wages, which were mostly borne directly by Māori whānau, the overall cost skyrocketed to over $863.3 million.
Māori significantly under-utilised primary care, creating an annual saving to the health system of $49.4 million per year. The authors point out that these are conservative estimates, and say that the 'cost of doing nothing' about health inequity is predominantly borne by Indigenous communities and society - less than 5% of the cost is borne by the health system.
Joe spoke to Rhys Jones, Associate Professor in Te Kupenga Hauora Maori, from the University of Auckland on the matter.
With the recent case of a 23-million-year-old whale fossil recently excavated by a private collector on the West Coast of the South Island. Karamea locals and Ngāti Waewae, who viewed the fossil as a treasured local attraction, and has led to a police investigation.
Despite the upset it caused, the actual legal situation remains unclear. But the incident has generated significant local and international media attention, and raised questions about the role and ethics of private fossil collecting and trading
Joe spoke to Dr Nic Rawlence from the Paleogenetics Lab at the University of Otago on this matter.
In March this year, the government announced a special Ukrainian policy that allowed Ukrainian New Zealanders to sponsor family members to come to New Zealand.
However, the policy has not been as successful as many hoped as visa recipients are struggling to set up new lives here and has even led to some returning home.
David spoke to Kate Turska from the organisation Mahi for Ukraine about what has happened to Ukrainians who arrived here and how New Zealanders can help them.
Russia's war on Ukraine has continued to intensify in recent weeks, as the Kremlin has recently launched the most missiles within a single week of the war so far.
One of these strikes coincided with two stray missiles reaching part of Poland near the border of Ukraine, which led to the deaths of two people.
It’s unconfirmed where these strikes came from, as European Correspondent Cameron Adams reports as a part of this weeks Eurovision segment.
Him and Liam also chatted about the European Commission calling for the incorporation of three new member states into 3 more member states to the Schengen area, and a new deal between France and England to control asylum seekers travelling across the English channel.
The vast and harsh impact of Aotearoa dealing with its worst flood and worst cyclone in history within just two weeks has led to stronger calls than ever for strong and long-lasting climate policy.
Climate Minister James Shaw has been a particularly vocal candidate, claiming the government has spent too much time bickering about whether or not the crisis is real or not, which lead to the issues we’ve currently struggled with.
To learn more about the links between the climate crisis and the extreme weather events, Liam spoke to Daithi Stone, a climate scientist from NIWA.
Doctor Carisa Showden, of University of Auckland’s sociology department, is the editor of a new book on youth activism entitled Fierce Hope. The book has six segments from various youth-led activism organisations ranging in topic from climate change to indigenous rights. In the book young leaders of activism groups, loosely identified as those 18-29, are given the space to write about their journeys in the world of activism.
Arno started by asking for an overview of the topics contained within the book.
On The Wire for Rāapa Wednesday, News & Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins speaks to Sophora from Fridays for Future Tāmaki Makaurau about a youth-led global climate strike happening on 3 March.
For their regular catch up, the ACT Party’s Karen Chhour discusses the government’s initial cyclone emergency support and calls to make gender-affirming healthcare more accessible for Irawhiti and transgender people.
And Producer Troy Matich interviews Maggie Shui, and Eleanor about the new Re: docuseries, Dating While Asian.
This week on the Tuesday Wire, Milly spoke to Bianca Ranson from Forest and Bird regarding the recent closure of the Scallop Fishery in the Hauraki Gulf. Overfishing and pollution in the Gulf have led to issues in biodiversity and the collapse of many species, Bianca Ranson explains how and why this has happened. She also informs listeners on some local activism they can get involved with to protect the species in our Gulf.
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