The Wire with Castor

Today on The Wire, our regular interview with Labour’s Andrew Little is back. Tuva’a speaks to Little about the latest report from the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission.

A 2020 report from UNICEF revealed that over a third of fifteen year olds in New Zealand struggle with basic reading and writing. Emilia spoke to Dr. Nina Hood, founder of the Education Hub and co-author of this report, and started by asking what were the biggest concerns her report highlighted?

The Indonesian Government plans to develop a gold mine in a conflicted region of Papua. Joe speaks to Veronica Koman, the Strategic Advocacy Campaigner for Amnesty International, speaking about the situation in Papua.

Emilia also looks at the Reimagining Tamaki Makaurau report with co-author Dr. Anne Bardsley. And Joe speaks to NZEI Te Riu Roa about the vaccine mandate lifts and how collaborative health and safety processes are essential for schools.

That's us from this Thursday's Wire!

The Indonesian Government plans to develop a gold mine in a region of Papua.The Sugapa district of the Intan Jaya regency is one of the biggest gold ore reserves in Indonesia, known as Wabu Block. The area is also a conflict hotspot. Between 2020 and 2021, 12 Indigenous Papuans were killed by Indonesians security forces occupying the area. 

Joe spoke to Veronica Koman, the Strategic Advocacy Campaigner for Amnesty International, speaking about the situation in Papua.

This week on EuroVision European Correspondent Cameron Mulgan joins us to tell us what’s going on in Europe. This week Cameron and Frances spoke about the developments in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe who has just returned to the UK after being detained in Iran for nearly six years and a little about what’s happening with the music scene in the wake of Brexit over there.

In Tāmaki Makaurau 500 – 1000 bikes are reported stolen each year. However, it is estimated that the actual number is between 2500 – 5000. 7% of people who have a bike stolen don't replace it and stop riding altogether, and bike theft becomes a financial barrier to choosing to bike. 

Bike Auckland is an advocacy group who are working to create a better city for people on bikes. They are wanting to reduce barriers that stop people riding bikes, so people can keep using their bikes – for the planet, for climate change, for safe live-able cities and for mental and physical health.

Bike Auckland have recently partnered with Project 529 to tackle bike theft with the launch of a new bike registration and recovery system called 529 Garage. This week on the Wire, Frances caught up with Gabriel Gati who is on the leadership team with Bike Auckland and spoke about bike theft in the city and what this initiative of 529 Garage might do to reduce it.

If you are interested in getting your bike registered with 529 you can send an email to 529@bikeauckland.org.nz, visit www.529garage.co.nz or find their app by searching 529 Garage.