The Wire with Castor

New research shows the potential of gene therapy to rescue heart function in a type of heart failure that people with diabetes are more likely to experience. 

The type of heat failure that diabetes increases the risk of is currently difficult to treat, but the latest research offers new hope. 

Wire Host Caeden spoke to University of Auckland Associate Professor Dr Kim Mellor about her work on this research and what the next steps are for it to turn into a viable treatment. 

The Government has proposed to abolish regional councils, with city and district councils taking over these duties instead.

Labour Party MP Duncan Webb has introduced a member's bill to repeal the Regulatory Standards Act.

And the Reserve Bank has cut the official cash rate, bringing it to its lowest level in three years in an effort to support economic renewal.

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Shanan Halbert about all of these issues.

On Monday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced a new National Party Kiwisaver policy, where they’re looking to further increase the default Kiwisaver contribution rate. Luxon said, if re-elected, National would continue to gradually increase the default contribution rates by 0.5% per year until 2032, when both employees and employers would pay 6% each.

The Government also announced that New Zealand would become the latest country to halt new prescriptions for puberty blockers for young people with gender dysphoria. In response to this, Ricardo Menendez March told RNZ that the government was “buying into imported culture wars”. 

And last week saw the end of the COP30 climate summit. One of the major outcomes of the summit was that more than 80 countries, including the United Kingdom and Pacific Island Nations, signed a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, but New Zealand chose not to.

For our Weekly Catchup with The Green Party, Wednesday Wire Host Max spoke with MP Ricardo Menendez March about The Green Party’s reaction to the COP30 summit, as well as their thoughts on the Government’s decision to halt new prescriptions of puberty blockers for young people with gender dysphoria.

But first, we started with National’s new Kiwisaver policy.

ActionStation Aotearoa, KickBack, and over 40 opposition leaders, community leaders, and organisations, launched an open letter on Monday regarding the government’s potential policy to ban rough sleeping in Auckland’s CBD.

The proposed ban, despite the proposal being in its early stages of discussions, has been heavily condemned across the sector, and has raised the question of where those rough sleeping would go?

News and Editorial Director Joel spoke to Aaron Hendry, the General Manager and Co-Founder of KickBack, a youth development organisation responding to homelessness, about this open letter.