The Wire with Castor

Last year, the govenment announced siginificant budget cuts to the school lunch programme formerly known as Ka Ora, Ka Ako, reducing the funding available per meal and reshaping how the programme is delivered in schools. Now, New Zealand's Healthy School Lunch Programme covers only a quarter of schools based on the Equity Index, reaching about 240,000 students, so more than half of children experiencing food insecurity do not attend school that recieve the programme. 

New research by Dr Kelly Garton, a research fellow in the School of Population Health at the University of Auckland, and a spokesperson for Health Coalition Aotearoa, compares New Zealand’s programme with Brazil’s national school meal system, which has been running for over 70 years and is considered a global gold standard.

Producer Pranuja spoke with Dr Garton about what New Zealand could learn from Brazil’s approach to school meals, and what a stronger programme here might look like.

The Covid 19 Pandemic saw wide-reaching policy interventions to save lives, keeping our hospital open and emergency beds available. Over the course of lockdowns, traffic lights, vaccines and mandates, the government at the time found that increasingly vocal opposition grew in response to their efforts. 

This opposition grew into a severe division that marked that period of time can be seen to this day. 

The groups protesting the pandemic control measures often viewed these restrictions as conspiratorial threats or vast overreach that infringed their rights, while supporters of the governments actions saw them as neccessary steps to save lives.

Following an inquiry into our pandemic response done by the Labour government that found appropriate actions were taking and no wrongdoing, momentum grew in certain minor parties for another look. 

This week, we saw the release of this with the release of a second inquiry.

To get her perspective on the second inquiry, Wire host Manny spoke to Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, Doctor Siouxsie Wiles, about the Covid 19 inquiry and her takeaways on social trust and cohesion.

Last week, Broadcasting Minister Paul Goldsmith made headlines over instances of interactions with news media over the reporting on crime numbers. After Police Minister Mark Mitchell expressed dissatisfaction over coverage in a story, Goldsmith first contacted the journalist responsible for the story, and was then called by TVNZ chair Andrew Barclay, where the story was briefly discussed, although Goldsmith has denied any involvement in editorial decisions, with a follow up story published later.

Last week also saw the release of the select committees final report on Youth Harm Online, which, along with a number of recommendations, has suggested that a ban on social for under 16 year olds could be on the cards, with the government echoing similar plans.

This week, Tuesday Wire Host Alex spoke to National MP Ryan Hamilton about all of these topics, beginning by briefly discussing last week's Curia Poll results and murmurs around Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s leadership.

Last week, the Education and Workforce select committee released its final report on an inquiry into social media's harm on young people. The report included 12 recommendations to the government on action to take which would protect tamariki online.

These recommendations included a social media ban for under 16s, establishing an independent national regulator for online safety and addressing legislative gaps to increase companies' liability for harm. Some MPs have disagreed with the report’s findings however, with the ACT party calling for a patient, rather than fast changing, approach to online restrictions.

To discuss the findings of the report and how the government should address online protection Producer Thomas spoke to Tāhono Trust member Anjum Rahmen.