The Wire with Joel

Aotearoa is currently dealing with the devastating effects of two consecutive extreme weather events—flooding followed by a cyclone.

This week, News & Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins asked Karen about the government’s initial cyclone emergency support, which includes funding for people, businesses, and councils affected by Cyclone Gabrielle, emergency repairs to get essential transport networks operating again, and appointing lead cyclone recovery ministers for affected areas and Grant Robertson as the lead Cyclone Recovery Minister.

Then, she asked Chhour about Auckland Pride’s calls for gender-affirming healthcare to be more accessible for Irawhiti and trans people.

This week, on Casper's final Tuesday Wire show, Joel Rindelaub chatted about animals that do drugs for Dear Science. Casper talked to National’s Shane Reti about infrastructure resilience and Gary Taylor from the Environmental Defence Society about managed retreat.

Milly spoke with Toby Williams from the Federated Farmers regarding the issue of forestry slash. She also talked to Tony Mitchell from Bike Auckland about Auckland cycleway plans.

Casper had a chat with Gary Taylor, CEO of the Environmental Defence Society on the topic of managed retreat.

Managed retreat is a phrase that’ll come up a lot as National and Labour work on bipartisan legislation that will create the foundations of a multi-government strategy.

The devastating impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle have compounded discussions that were already underway after the intense flooding in Auckland two weeks earlier.

One topic on the minds of many is infrastructure. Casper had a chat about this with National’s Shane Reti – why it failed so bady, what do we need to do to fix it and whether it's time for New Zealand to change our approach to building for extreme weather.