The Wire with Jessica

This week's election coverage is focused on foreign affairs. 

Rawan had our weekly catch up with the ACT Party's Simon Court to speak about some of the party's immigration policies.

Rawan also spoke to Manase Lua from the Aotearoa Tongan Response Group about how migrant exploitation is being tackled during election season.

Rosetta spoke to Ananish Chaudhuri, Professor of Experimental Economics at the University of Auckland, about his view on introducing an independent body to review economic policy.

Rosetta also spoke to Nick Goodall, Head of Research at CoreLogic about their analysis of the National Party's foreign buyers policy.

Finally, Rosetta spoke to Kathleen Ryan, the activist who organised the largest women's march in Aotearoa's history 40 years ago.

Rawan speaks with ACT MP Simon Court about the party’s immigration policies. 

She started off by asking about their proposed Regulatory Impact Analysis which aims to regularly report on immigration outcomes and policy. We then spoke about their pledge to remove complicated temporary work visas and how they plan to tackle migrant workers exploitation.

Rawan also asked about their parent resident visa and how they plan to make it more efficient for Aotearoa citizens to bring their parents to New Zealand.

Migrant exploitation has been a prominent issue for the last few of months with several protests by community groups that lead to labour launching an immigration review. 

Aotearoa Tongan Response group is one of the community groups involved in this movement, advocating for the Pasifika community in particular. Rawan spoke with the group’s organiser and community leader, Manase Lua. 

They spoke about the state of migrant exploitation, especially his experience with Pasifika migrant workers. I also asked about his thoughts on both National and Labour’s response to this issue and what policies and actions need to be taken.

Caeden spoke with Climate Justice Organiser with Action Station and Kaupapa Māori Researcher India Logan-Riley (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne, Ngāti Rongomaiwahine) to see if they think climate change is a key focus this election, and how Māori should be centred in climate action plans.

They started by asking if they think climate change is being talked about enough this election.