The Wire with Joel

On the 11th of November, the Fonterra company announced that they will be selling customer-facing brands, which include Anchor, Mainland and others. Following this announcement, Greenpeace are calling for potential buyers to go palm-kernel free.

This comes after an expose of Fonterra’s dishonest marketing strategies, and claims that its milk is produced with ‘regenerative farming’, a blatant example of greenwashing.

Sasha spoke to Sinéad Deighton-O'Flynn, Agriculture Campaigner at Greenpeace Aotearoa about the new sale of companies associated with Fonterra, including potential implications for consumers and Greenpeace’s expectations for companies looking to purchase.

For their regular catch-up, Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menéndez March about Hīkoi Mō te Tiriti, the 9-day Hīkoi opposing the treaty principles bill, as well as the government apologies to victims of abuse in care and the election of former US president Donald Trump.

He spoke to John Minto from Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa about the ongoing siege of Northern Gaza, as well as media coverage of the clashes between Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters and locals in Amsterdam and the implication of Donald Trump’s election on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

He spoke to Ti Lamusse from Victoria University of Wellington about the governments cuts to mental health services for prisoners and the increase in the prison population of Aotearoa to 10,000 inmates.

And he spoke to Kevin Lamb from Age Concern Auckland to talk about a study examining loneliness amongst older New Zealanders.

Sasha spoke to Lisa Woods, A Movement Building & Advocacy Director at Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand about the treaty principles bill and calls for a codified constitution.

And he spoke to Sinéad O'Flynn, an Agriculture Campaigner at Greenpeace Aotearoa, about the new sale of companies associated with Fonterra, including potential implications for consumers and Greenpeace’s expectations for companies.

Since October this year, as part of Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, Israeli Defence Forces have imposed a siege on the Northern Gaza Governate in the Gaza strip. 

The IDF has designated the entire Northern half of Gaza as a combat zone, blocked the movement of all aid heading into the area and sent evacuation notices to all of Northern Gaza’s Palestinian inhabitants, effectively declaring everyone in Northern Gaza to be an enemy combatant.

Oto spoke to John Minto from Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa, to discuss the implications of Israel’s ongoing siege of Northern Gaza for the area’s Palestinian inhabitants.

They also had a discussion about the implication of Donald Trump’s election victory for the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, as well as the media coverage of the clashes between locals in Amsterdam and supporters of the Israeli football team - Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Education Minister Erica Stanford and Associate Minister David Seymour put out a press release last Friday accusing the Post Primary Teachers Association of disrupting students’ learning. 

The press release continues that the PPTA is prioritising ideology over students, and that the meetings create a poor example.

Stanford says “We can’t expect students to value the importance of education and attendance when adults walk off the job.”

To address these claims, Wire host Castor spoke to president of the PPTA, Chris Abercrombie, about the press release and the PPTA’s concerns for teaching in Aotearoa.