The Wire with Joel

On the 8th of November, a wildfire tore through 3000 hectares of Tongariro National Park, before being extinguished four days later.

The fire resulted in multiple walks in the region to be closed, including the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. However, as of today, many of these tracks have reopened.

However, the full extent of the fire on the region’s ecosystem is yet to be fully investigated.

On Friday, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host Joel spoke to George Perry, a Professor in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland, about this wildfire, and how detrimental this fire will be on the region's ecosystem, from what we are currently seeing

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Shanan Halbert about the expulsions of two Te Pāti Māori MPs, concerns about police leadership, and Chris Hipkins ‘socialist’ label.

For International Desk, they spoke to Youth Environmentalist Sumaya Mohammed and Lead on the Youth Climate Justice Project Aoife Daly about youth participation at COP30.

For City Counselling, Producer Sanat talked to Councillor Shane Henderson about a proposed ban on Homelessness in the CBD and new committee appointments inside Auckland Council.

He also talked to Kiwisaver Provider Simplicity’s CEO Sam Stubbs about their new infrastructure proposal called Infrakiwi.

Similar to how Prime Ministers choose who their cabinet members are, the Mayor last week announced his appointments for committees in Auckland Council.

Committees are powerful pieces of the Auckland Council machine, determining the direction on key policy issues around community assets, budgeting, transport and housing. 

Notably different to his approach last term, the Mayor has opted to appoint key allies to committee chair roles. These are councilors who have had a good working relationship with the mayor over the last three years and will mean that there are less roadblocks when it comes to advancing his agenda. 

At the same time the Mayor and Central Government are responding to increased complaints about anti-social behaviour in the CBD by considering laws and bylaws that would ban homelessness. 

Critics of this policy note that such laws would not address the key drivers to poverty and housing need and would simply endanger those individuals experiencing homelessness further. 

Thursday Wire Producer Sanat talked to Councilor Shane Henderson today about these committee appointments and this proposed ban on homelessness.

During an interview with the ‘Morning Report’, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon confirmed that orders for the homeless in Auckland’s CBD to move on were “definitely a consideration”. He later stated, that “Aucklanders don’t feel safe going into the central city”, and both Central government and Auckland Council are considering how they can move homeless people out of the CBD ahead of summer. 

This follows previous reports that the Government was considering a rough sleeping ban for central Auckland.

This news comes as Stats NZ released their annual unemployment figures this week. The results show that national unemployment has risen to a nine-year high at 5.3%, with the New Zealand youth taking most of the damage.

For our weekly catchup with The Green Party, Wednesday Wire Max spoke to MP Ricardo Menendez March, to discuss the new unemployment figures released last week. They also spoke about the Government’s new action plan to combat methamphetamine use.

But first, they discussed what The Green Party thought about the Government’s plan to decrease homelessness in the Auckland CBD