The Wire with Joel

This week on the Monday Wire:

For our weekly catch up with Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp, News and Editorial and Monday Wire Host Joel speaks to her about the proposed suspension of Te Pāti Māori MPs Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Rawiri Waititi, and Hana Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke standing, and NZ First Party Leader, Winston Peters’ comments about Waititi’s moko kanohi during the debate.

For our weekly catch up with the ACT Party’s Simon Court, they speak to him about David Seymour being sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister, Seymour’s claims that bots drove fake submissions against the Regulatory Standards Bill, and the proposed suspension of Te Pāti Māori MPs being held.

They speak to Margaret Mutu — a Professor of Māori Studies at the University of Auckland about the suspension of Te Pāti Māori MPs and her concerns around the ruling.

Joel speaks to Michael Swanson — a PhD Candidate in New Zealand Politics at the University of Otago, about ACT Party leader, David Seymour, about being sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister, and if this will impact how the current government operates.

And Producer Samantha speaks to Renee Hosking, the lead medical student researcher at the University of Otago about a study showing that a large proportion of vape juice packaging misstates the nicotine content present.

Whakarongo mai

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Shanan Halbert about the recent 1News-Verian poll and calls for a bipartisan approach to Resource Management Act reform.

For International Desk, they spoke to Professor Richard Krever, Professor of Tax Law at the University of Western Australia, about taxing tech giants with a Digital Services Tax.

For this week’s City Counselling, Producer Sara spoke with Councillor Julie Fairey about Auckland’s congestion problem, specifically relating to Mount Smart Road, as well as the funding of community-led projects through Nga Hapori Momoho

As well, she spoke to Waikato University Bronwyn Isaacs and Maori tech expert Dr Karaitiana Taiuru on the emergence of AI and deep fakes in politics ahead of New Zealand’s elections.

A global study of more than 230 million people found those infected with Covid-19 were around three times more likely to develop Guillain-Barre Syndrome or GBS, within six weeks of infection compared to other times.

GBS is a rare, but serious neurological condition that can cause progressive limb weakness and eventual paralysis.

To explain the findings of the study and the link between Covid and GBS, Producer Max spoke to Helen Petousis-Harris, an associate professor at the University of Auckland.

Earlier this week, 26 climate scientists wrote a joint letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, accusing the government of ignoring scientific evidence of methane emissions and urging him to work towards reducing emissions.

The letter also criticised the government’s method of reducing emissions to the level of “no additional warming”, a concept approved by the Federated Farmers and Beef + Lamb, to keep New Zealand’s contribution to global heating at the levels they were in 2017.

However, Chris Luxon reportedly dismissed the open letter, referring to the climate scientists as “worthies” and insisting that the government was managing methane emissions better than "every other country on the planet,” despite the fact that New Zealand has one of the highest per-capita methane emissions rates in the world.

Oto spoke to Amanda Larsson, Senior Campaign manager for Greenpeace Aotearoa about the open letter sent to Christopher Luxon by 26 climate scientists, Luxon’s reaction to it and the concept of “no additional warming.”