On this Friday's Wire Casper talked to Auckland city councillor Shane Henderson about a recent local board vote on special character areas, as well as Dean Baigent-Mercer from Forest and Bird about recently allocated funding towards Predator free Rakiura Stewart Island.
Liam put together a report on Boris Johnson's resignation as leader of the Conservative Party in the UK, chatting about what’s been happening over the past few days, how we got to this point, and including some expert commentary from the University of Auckland's Stephen Hoadley.
Liam also had a chat for this week's Strangest Things segment with the Waitakere Ranges Local Board deputy chairperson Greg Presland about how chickens have continued to terrorise Titrangi.
After weeks of tension, the Ōtautahii City Council has voted to begin construction on Te Kaha, a brand new stadium for the city.
The cost of 683 million dollars for construction has been a major point of contention, but the effects of civic pride and support for the city's events industry could make it worth it. .
Liam had a chat with Jake McLelland, the Christchurch Central West councillor about the stadium located in his ward.
Italian politics has been in an immense state of chaos over the past week, as Prime Minister Mario Draghi has successfully resigned after having his former attempt rejected.
This has come as tensions across political lines within the coalition government have reached their breaking point.
Despite the PM receiving a vote of confidence, three other major political parties in the cabinet refused to vote.
Liam spoke to Victoria University of Wellington's Giacomo Lichtner about the state of affairs across Italy, first asking about where this divide in the cabinet came from.
The waiting list for elective surgeries has skyrocketed in the last year, with many experts pointing towards ongoing workforce shortages as the cause.
Thousands of people on the waiting list are in intense, ongoing pain, requiring essential operations such as hip or knee replacements.
For Casper's weekly catchup with the National party’s Dr. Shane Reti, they discussed the causes of the growing waiting list and the National party’s proposed solutions to the problem.
It was an absolute pleasure hoppin' off the substitute bench to fill in for Denzel this week. Rolled out some older Deerhunter, The Snails, MF DOOM and Dum Dum Girls. Some new cuts from Avantdale Bowling Club, BUB, and hanbee feature. We had a spring themed string of tracks and the remix of the day went to a beautiful Phil Tangent remix.
A new comprehensive review of global ocean temperature data has allowed researchers to paint a clear picture of ocean warming since the 1950s, and predict future warming scenarios.
They found that if we don’t take action, the rate of ocean warming will be four times larger than the current level by 2090, with dire consequences for all life on Earth.
However, Authors also point out that if the world succeeds in limiting global surface temperature to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, as per the Paris Agreement, the acceleration of ocean warming will stop at around 2030, highlighting the need for urgent action to mitigate climate change
Joe spoke to Dr Kevin Trenberth, from the University of Auckland, who co-authored the study on the matter
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.
A brief warning that this story contains multiple mentions of suicide.
A new Ipsos study has revealed that three quarters of New Zealands youth has experienced immense mental distress and fourty percent have seriously considered self harm or suicide over the past year.
This issue isn’t only taking place for young people, though - 61% of people between the ages of 35 and 49 said they were stressed to the point they couldn’t cope, and 30% reported feeling suicidal.
With Aotearoa holding one of the highest youth suicide rates in the world, the mental health foundation sez that the current system is in crisis, and urgent action needs to be taken.
Liam Hansen spoke to the MHF CEO, Shaun Robinson, about the Ipsos survey and what needs to change in Aotearoa to improve our suicide rates.
Last week the Reserve Bank of New Zealand announced a hike to the Official Cash Rate of 75 basis point, which was quite a shock and has been reported on extensively as it’s not usually changed this quickly.
Casper had a chat to Robert MacCoulloch from the University of Auckland about what the OCR is, why the Reserve Bank raised it, and what this might mean for New Zealanders.
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