The Wire with Joel

Recently, National MP, Catherine Wedd, has launched a members bill, that has been supported by the wider party, to ban under-16-year-olds from social media. Since, Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, has announced that Education Minister, Erica Stanford, will be “exploring options” that would be brought to Cabinet.

As such, Stanford’s education portfolio will be amended to ensure she can commission advice and direct officials to mitigate the harms of social media on under-16-year-olds.

Luxon says that he has received an "overwhelmingly positive response from mums and dads," regarding these moves. At the end of last year, in light of Australia passing a similar bill, a 1News Verian poll showed 68% were in support of New Zealand passing a similar bill, 22% were opposed, and 10% were undecided.

These moves come alongside the launch of B416, a group pushing to ban social media access to under-16-year-olds.

News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to the co-chair of B416, Anna Curzon, about why she supports this outright ban.

Despite a lot of support, what has been proposed has also received a lot of criticism.

Many are concerned about how effective this bill, if passed into law, would be.

As mentioned previously, Australia passed a similar bill last year, which is set to go into effect at the end of this year. However, there are still hurdles in the way before the implementation of this policy in December, such as what tech will be used to ensure under-16-year-olds aren’t on social media, and whether social media platforms themselves will comply.

Here in New Zealand, what is currently being proposed has seen relatively mixed opinions. NZ First supports the move, however, ACT does not. The ACT Party previously called the member's bill hastily drafted, simplistic, and unworkable, and has instead called for a “public inquiry” before the select committee.

Joel also spoke to Dr Alex Beattie, a lecturer in Media and Communications at the Victoria University of Wellington about what has been proposed, and his concerns regarding the bill.

International relations experts are fearing a major conflict between India and Pakistan after sharp, escalating tensions, following a deadly terrorist attack in militarised Kashmir that killed 26 people.

Kashmiris have a long history of oppression. In modern times, this has been as India and Pakistan fight over the region while Kashmiris fight for independence. 

Human Rights Watch reports on Kashmir reveal examples of forced displacement, sexual violence, disappearances and allegations of torture and death in custody.

Wire Host Caeden spoke to Rohan Davis about the recent terrorist attack and ongoing military escalation, as well as the historical and political context of the Kashmir crisis.

Davis is a video essayist on YouTube from Kerala, India, who covers Indian history and politics.

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni about the scrapping of existing pay equity laws, new statistics on unemployment rates, and the member's bill proposal from National that would ban social media for under 16s.

For International Desk, they spoke to video essayist Rohan Davis about the recent escalation of violence in Kashmir and the political context surrounding this.

Producer Sara spoke with two of the team members at Aspiring Materials, Dr Matt Watson and Dr Simon Reid about new research which found that treating wastewater with alkaline minerals could mitigate ocean acidification

She also discussed the Pay Equity Amendment Bill with University of Auckland’s Simon Schofield.

This week, the New Zealand government has pushed through with urgency, the introduction of a Pay Equity Amendment Bill which makes changes to the Equal Pay Act 1972, making the criteria for pay equity claims stricter, and discontinuing thirty three existing claims, which were representing thousands of workers.

While coalition party politicians say the amendment would benefit women and could save ‘billions’, opposition parties and community commentators reject these notions and have expressed disappointment and frustration at the lack of opportunity for public engagement on the issue.

Producer Sara spoke with University of Auckland teaching fellow Simon Schofield about the issue. She began the interview by asking why this bill is so problematic