Last week, resources Minister Shane Jones released a draft strategy for mineral mining, aiming to double the amount of exports in the sector.
The strategy also mentioned "significant amounts of different types and grades of coal deposits" in Aotearoa, and aimed to align consents for coal to other minerals in order to increase coal extraction.
In response, the Green party has created a petition, calling on the government to completely roll back on its coal mining initiatives and to protect the natural ecosystems of Aotearoa.
For their weekly catch up, Oto spoke to Green Party MP, Ricardo Menendez-March, to discuss the petition. We also had a conversation about the Defence Minister Judith Collins decision to extend New Zealand Defence Force deployments to the Middle East and Africa
Health outcome gaps for Māori and Pasifika suffering from cardiovascular conditions have been apparent for quite some time.
In order to address this ongoing problem, a group of researchers involved in Manawataki Fatu Fatu for ACCESS conducted a qualitative study, where they interviewed Māori and Pasifika patients in cardiovascular care to uncover the causes behind these health gaps, as well as potential solutions.
To discuss the study and its findings, Oto spoke to Senior Research fellow Karen Brewer from the University of Auckland, of Whakatōhea and Ngaiterangi descent, who conducted the study and had some insights to offer on Māori and Pasifika cardiovascular health gaps.
The current coalition government has decided not to implement Labour’s plans to do mandatory reporting for pay gaps with companies that have more than 250 employees.
Instead they will introduce a voluntary tool for companies to use in order to determine Gender pay gaps.
Rawan spoke with Senior human rights advisor Oliver Christeller from the Human rights commission about what this tool is and what the benefits could be.
They also talked about the Commissioners' call to include ethnicity pay gap into the conversation. They discussed the current state of the ethnicity pay gap and why there needs to be an increased focus on this now more than ever.
The government’s plan to introduce boot camps for youth offenders and other more punitive law and order reforms have come under fire by experts for failing to address the root causes of crime and antisocial behaviour in Aotearoa.
The recently implemented measures and rhetoric from the government have prompted a variety of discussions about how Aotearoa can properly tackle youth crime, the resources public agencies have to address and the measures that have worked so far.
Oto spoke to Aaron Hendry, a youth worker and co-founder of Kickback, to discuss the government’s recent youth crime reforms, and the measures that have worked in the past that the government should be looking into instead.
Yesterday, the Family Proceedings (Dissolution of Marriage or Civil Union for Family Violence) Amendment Bill, colloquially known as Ashley’s law, passed its third reading.
The Bill would allow family violence survivors with a protection order to dissolve their marriages immediately without going through a court process, reforming the Family Proceedings Act which has been in place since 1981.
Sofia spoke to Professor of Law at the University of Auckland, Mark Henaghan, about the Bill and what changes it would bring.
She started the interview asking him what the current law is for divorce.
American singer, Katy Perry, recently had a court win in a long-running trademark dispute with Australian fashion designer, Katie Perry. The singer successfully appealed a 2023 Federal Court decision, resulting in the fashion designer having her trademark cancelled, and being ordered to pay costs.
Producer Athena spoke to Associate Professor at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Law, Rob Batty, about what gave rise to the case, how trademark law was applied, and what the recent decision might mean for smaller names.
The government as announced their plan for the Cook Strait ferry a year after they scrapped Labour’s plan, including cancelling the ferries the Labour government had ordered.
And a new report from the Ministry of Social Development has revealed nearly a quarter of beneficiaries are not receiving their correct entitlements.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden speaks to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about both of these topics.
The most widely discussed move from yesterday’s cabinet reshuffle was the Prime Minister's decision to demote Dr Shane Reti from his position as Minister for Health and replace him with Transport minister, Simeon Brown.
Notably, Simeon Brown has zero experience working in the health sector, opposed to Reti’s 20 plus years practising as a doctor.
However, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation say they’re not concerned with who the minister fronting the portfolio is, but instead with how the government is going to aptly fund and resource the health sector.
Producer Evie spoke to Chief Executive of the organisation, Paul Goulter about the key issues that nurses are facing in the healthcare sector currently. They discussed how the cabinet reshuffle may possibly alter things in the healthcare sector, and what moves need to be made by the government in order to pick it up from the crisis it’s currently facing.
In the lead up to U.S President, Donald Trump’s second term in office, the United States has been in what academics, and observers are calling a state of “permacrisis”.
Since Trump’s inauguration, decisions such as the appointment of Cabinet members, the pardoning of convicts involved in the January 6th Capitol attack, and the signing of executive orders targeting immigrants, and transgender people, have uprooted political conventions, and normalised chaos as a daily occurrence.
Producer Athena spoke to Director and Associate Professor of Global Studies at the University of Auckland, Dr Chris Ogden, about how, and why Trump and his followers weaponise chaos, and manufacture crises.
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