The Wire with Joel

This week the Thursday Wire's usual host Caeden was away, so Tuesday Wire host Castor filled in.

For City Counselling this week, Castor spoke to Shane Henderson about the draft regional land transport plan for Auckland and the council’s hopes for budget announcements later today. 

Producer Jasmine spoke with Dr. Hiran Thabrew about mental health funding following the Government’s budget announcement regarding investment in the I Am Hope Foundation.

She also spoke PSA Delegate Sian Dalaway about pay parity negotiations for NZ Blood Service workers ahead of tomorrow’s strike.  

She also spoke with Ella Sargison from the Burnett Foundation about June’s Sweat With Pride initiative.

Health outcome gaps for Māori and Pasifika suffering from cardiovascular conditions have been apparent for quite some time.
In order to address this ongoing problem, a group of researchers involved in Manawataki Fatu Fatu for ACCESS conducted a qualitative study, where they interviewed Māori and Pasifika patients in cardiovascular care to uncover the causes behind these health gaps, as well as potential solutions. 

To discuss the study and its findings, Oto spoke to Senior Research fellow Karen Brewer from the University of Auckland, of Whakatōhea and Ngaiterangi descent, who conducted the study and had some insights to offer on Māori and Pasifika cardiovascular health gaps.

With an increase of 8.1% in the nation's unemployment rate, there are now at least 82,000 young New Zealanders, aged between 15 and 24 years, who are currently unemployed, not in education or in training. These individuals are grouped into a category known as NEETs.

The national unemployment rate is the highest it has been since the impact of COVID 19 in mid 2021 and it is expected to increase beyond 5% by next year. 

Rachel spoke to Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston about the current measures and future plans the government has to slow down the increasing rates of NEETs.

The United States and New Zealand are the only high-income countries that allow unrestricted direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines, which directs advertising towards consumers rather than medical professionals.

Producer Sofia Roger Williams spoke to Associate Professor of Medical Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland, David Menkes, about concerns researchers have raised about direct-to-consumer advertising and how to address them. 

She started the interview asking him how direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines operates in Aotearoa New Zealand.