The Wire with Castor

This week on the Wednesday Wire.....

For our weekly catchup w/ the Green Party, host Manny spoke with MP Ricardo Menéndez March about the Green Party’s proposed national electrification policy.

Monday Wire producer Thomas spoke to Save Science Coalition spokesperson Ben Wylie-van Eerd about cuts to the government’s science funding.

Producer Toby spoke to Otago University research fellow Michael Swanson  about the Prime Minister’s recent vote of confidence.

Producer Theo spoke to Parents for Climate Aotearoa’s Alicia Hall about their campaign to restore rural school bus routes and lower fees for students under 25.

Last week, fuel stocks in the country went down by three or four days across each fuel type. The government recognised this as not enough to change to phase two in the national fuel plan, drawing some concerned comments from the political opposition around the state of our stocks, and when the government plans to actually move up phases.

Following a week that saw both Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon comment on the state of the Strait of Hormuz, and the way the United States has handled the ongoing conflict, Willis also travelled to the US to meet with White House advisors.

This week, Host Alex spoke with National MP Ryan Hamilton about these fuel crisis developments, and what the government’s approach going forward may look like.

To start our discussion, however, we spoke briefly about the confidence in Christopher Luxon’s Leadership.

The St James Theatre, which first opened in 1928, is a category 1 heritage building sitting on Queen street in Auckland’s arts precinct. Once a venue for many shows and concerts, and having hosted notable individuals including Queen Elizabeth II, it has since been in a state of disrepair after it closed following a fire in 2007. Its fate has long been debated as it further decayed and attempts to restore it had stalled due to lack of funding. Finally, in 2023, the government announced it would match Auckland Council’s pledge of 15 million dollars for the rebuild, allowing work to fully commence. 

I spoke to Steve Bielby, director of the St James holdings, about how the rebuild is coming along now that funding is secure, what remains to be done and how the public is engaging with the news that the St James will one day reopen its doors.

Last week, a report assessing the carcinogenic risk of vaping compared to smoking was released in the New Zealand Medical Journal. It combined data from previous global research studies to try to calculate cancer risk from vaping.

While this risk was found to be currently “unquantifiable”, the report did conclude that vapes’ cancer risk is likely lower than cigarette smoking but higher than normal levels, meaning using vapes to help quit smoking was viable– but anyone else taking up vaping is unnecessarily increasing their carcinogenic risk.

To discuss the report's findings, addiction issues, and potential preemptive government action, producer Thomas spoke with University of Auckland Associate Professor George Laking.