A new study led by the University of Otago has found that, each year, firearms injuries are costing the New Zealand hospital system an average of $1.48 million and costing the country a further $321 million in years of life lost. The researchers investigated firearms-related hospitalisations and deaths from assaults, accidents and suicide between the years 2000 and 2018. The total cost of hospital care over the 19 years was $28.2 million.
Lead researcher Dr Lucy Telfar-Barnard, a senior research fellow at the University of Otago, Wellington, says more than 1,000 people died and 2,115 people were hospitalised as a result of firearms incidents between 2000 and 2018. More than 80 per cent of those hospitalised needed surgery, with most of the injuries from accidents.
To talk about this study, Producer Max spoke to Dr Lucy Telfar-Barnard.
This week, a study was launched which looked into the location of vape stores around schools in Aotearoa. In the study it was found that 44% of schools in New Zealand have a vape store within a one-kilometer radius, and that 13% have a dedicated store within 300 meters.
This is despite a legislation being passed by the government in 2023, which banned specialist vape stores from opening within 300 meters of schools and marae, the legislation however, allowed existing vape shops to continue operating.
Ronan Payinda, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Auckland, who led the study, says that he saw the explosion of vaping while he was at school in Northland, and felt that New Zealand was failing as a society to grapple with its potentially serious health effects.
To talk about this, Producer Max spoke with Ronan Payinda.
Teachers from primary and secondary schools are calling out the Education Minister for massively overstating school funding increases and playing Trump-style politics with children's education. The NZEI and PPTA called a press conference yesterday to challenge the outgoing minister to explain herself. Parata has claimed that school funding has increased by 35 per cent under a National government, when it's only really increased by 2.3 per cent. Producer Jess Smith speaks to the President of NZEI Lynda Stuart to learn more, starting with the question of what claims were actually made.
Sherry speaks to Green Party co-leader James Shaw on the Landfill Levy increase. This will rise from $10 per tonne to $50/$60 by 2023. We also speak about the suicide prevention office, recently set up by the goverment to deal with New Zealand’s concerning high rates of suicide.
Sherry begins by asking him why New Zealand has one of the high rates per capita in the developed world of waste production.
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Check out the full podcast for this week's Tuesday show, where we speak to Privacy Commissioner John Edwards about electricity meter privacy, Māori Party co-leader Marama Fox about her take on the budget and mental health advocacy group Platforms CEO Marion Blake about an incoming exodus for the sector. Green Desk features sustainable packaging and Sam also has a report on Trump and Climate Change.
This week on The Green Desk, Bronwyn Wilde spoke to Dr Kēpa Morgan about mauri modelling - a framework for decision-making which measures sustainability trends. Unlike a purely economic view of sustainability, the model recognises four dimensions of wellbeing, environmental, cultural, social and economic. Kēpa first invented the mauri-o-meter in his 2008 thesis about municipal waste water management, but since then it has been applied throughout the country to a number of ecosystems, including the clean-up following the Rena oil spill. Bronwyn and Kēpa spoke about the model, how it compliments and even improves on western science, and why we value certain knowledge over others.
He began by shedding some light on the concept of "mauri".
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