The Wire with Joel

Wherever you’re listening to this, it’s quite unlikely that you arrived at that location by walking there. How do we know this? Because, according to a 2018 census, 82.8% of trips made in Auckland were by car. And that’s despite most New Zealanders understanding that walking has many benefits. It keeps us healthy, reduces stress, and produces zero carbon emissions.

So why don’t we walk more? Well, Dr. I-Ting Chuang, a Senior lecturer at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland, conducted a study to look into why people in Auckland and Hamilton are so dependent on cars, despite many areas fitting the conditions of being an ideal walking location.

Producer Max spoke to Dr. I-Ting Chuang, to understand what her research found about our dependence on cars and what we could do to build a walking culture.

Over the weekend, the highly discussed summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin was held in Anchorage, Alaska to discuss the terms for an end to the war in Ukraine.

The summit, lasting of total of less than three hours, resulted in no ceasefire terms or any formal deals being achieved. Putin’s conditions for an end to the war remained unchanged, with Trump walking away from the summit ruling out Ukraine’s NATO membership or reacquisition of Crimea.

Ukraine, who were excluded from the summit, criticised it’s direction, with many critics describing it as an optics victory for Putin.

Oto spoke with Stephen Hoadely, a retired professor in international relations and politics at the university of Auckland, to discuss the outcome of the summit, as well as the possibility of another summit between Putin and Zelenskyy to be held in the future.

For Dear Science this week, our expert, Dr Cushla McGoverin talks to us about Inca record keeping, snail eyes, and imaging embryo implantation, thanks to MOTAT.

For our weekly catchup with the National Party, Wire Host Sara spoke to MP Carl Bates about the Resources Management act changes, and the removal of te reo Māori from the Ready to Read phonics series.

Sara also spoke to University of Auckland student magazine Craccum’s News Editor Irene Parsaei about proposed cuts to the magazine’s funding.

Producer Faith spoke to Gavin Findlay, CEO of the NZ Food Network about how many kiwis have been choosing to feed their pets over themselves.

In recent weeks, the central government has pushed through numerous amendments to the Resource Management Act, in an effort to help streamline consent processes for corporations.

However, these changes— in particular ones surrounding freshwater planning and waterway pollution requirements — have been criticised especially by environmental advocates as disregarding the negative impacts to the environment and affording too much power to financial interests in the case of natural resource management.

As well, this past week Education Minister Erica Stanford announced a proposal to ban books with “too much” reo Māori in them from early learning materials in the ‘Ready to Read phonics scheme’. 

While she justifies the changes as being of genuine literary necessity for children’s learning, many have contended the changes as an act of racism against te reo Māori which asserts white supremacy in the education system.