The Wire with Joel

More and more, New Zealand has seen candidates enter local elections being informed by conspiracy theories.

Groups that have spread misinformation about vaccines and the pandemic are entering their local races across the country.

The concerns are worsened thanks to the impacts of the anti-mandate parliament protests that hit the beehive earlier this year. 

David spoke to Stepehn Judd from FACT Aotearoa about those who are running and what it means for the country.

As access to international travel from New Zealand re-opens, conversations about human capital flight have become incredibly prevalent. 

More colloquially titled “Brain Drain”, human capital flight refers to white collar workers leaving their home country for better opportunities overseas. 

Conversations have recently touched on if New Zealand is receiving and adequate amount of migrants to stop our workforce from suffering. 

First, Liam spoke to ACTs James McFarland, on why his party thinks Human Capital Flight is an issue and what needs to be done.

In popular discussion, the focus of human capital flight has largely been on the negative impacts new zealanders leaving the country has.

Kea New Zealand is organised  around keeping New Zealand expats connected to their country.

Liam also had a chat to their global communications director, Kellie Addison, about their network and the benefits of New Zealanders travelling abroad.

Kea is currently looking for particapants in a survery of Kiwis thinking about leaving Aotearoa in the next 12-18 months - if this sounds lik you, you can fill it out here: https://survey.keanewzealand.com/zs/XjBUJH   

A linguistic study has found an origin of Austronesian language expansion across the Indo-Pacific region.

Researchers have found the indigenous people called the Amis [ah-miss] people from Eastern Taiwan are a close relative of Malayo-Polynesian people in the Austronesian language family.

David spoke to Victoria University lecturer Victoria Chen about the findings.

Welcome to the Thursday Wire! Today, Tuva’a has his regular catch-up with Labour’s Andrew Little, this week talking about security concerns with Tik Tok and a new cystic fibrosis medication. Green Desk is back as always, Frances updates us on the week’s environmental news.

Stella speaks to Associate Professor on veterinary epidemiology Carolyn Gates from Massey University about transmission mechanisms of foot and mouth disease. She also speaks to MPI’s chief veterinary officer Dr Mary Van Alden about what New Zealand’s plan is if the disease were to enter the country.

Stella speaks to the Green party’s spokesperson for education, Teanau Tuiono about the party’s calls for pay parity for early childhood teachers.

We finish the show with Stella chatting to a Research Assistant from the Manalagi Project, Allyssa Verner-Pula, about their work documenting the experiences of the LGBTQ+ Pasifika community in healthcare settings. AUSA provides a written comment about the current voting in student elections.