The Wire with Joel

The crown mineral amendment bill was introduced to parliament last Tuesday. Public submissions on the bill close tomorrow (Tuesday 1st October). This gives the public only four business days to make their submission on the bill, significantly shorter than the average submission time. 

The bill is aiming to reverse the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration, something the coalition government campaigned on. 

The government has also cut down the normal six month select committee process, wanting the bill to be passed before the end of the year. 

Greenpeace says the short public submission time on the bill shows the government has a complete disregard for people in New Zealand who care about climate change. 

Producer Evie spoke to Greenpeace Executive Director Russell Norman about his concerns surrounding the four day submission time on the bill, and what impacts the ban reversal will actually have on the environment. 

This week on The Wire...

For our weekly catch up with the ACT Party's Simon Court, Producer Evie spoke to Simon Court about the government's crackdown on truancy, as well as public submissions on the oil and gas exploration bill.

Evie also spoke to Greenpeace Executive Director, Russell Norman, about concerns surrounding the four day submission time on the same bill.

News and Editorial Director and Wire Host, Joel, spoke to the spokesperson for Peace Action Wellington, Valerie Morse, about Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, addressing the UN General Assembly, and whether his calls are enough to address Israel’s war on Gaza and attacks on Lebanon.

Evie spoke to The University of Auckland’s Gavin Ellis about job cuts at Whakaata Māori, and what this means for our media landscape.

Joel spoke to Senior Lecturer at the School of Management at the Victoria University of Wellington, Stephen Blumenfeld, about a study showing the positives of a hybrid working model, as Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, urges public services workers to go back to the office.

And Producer Sofia from the Thursday Wire last week spoke to Agriculture Campaigner at Greenpeace Aotearoa, Sinéad Deighton-O’Flynn, about Fonterra’s recent yearly profit announcement and Fonterra’s use of palm kernel.

Whakarongo mai!

Last week, Fonterra announced it is returning a total dividend of 55 cents a share for the past financial year, off the back of a $1.1 billion net profit. 

In response to Fonterra’s profit announcements, Greenpeace Aotearoa has called out Fonterra for ‘profiting from rainforest destruction’. 

Since last week, Greenpeace has also announced the organisation are suing Fonterra, over allegations Fonterra are also misconstruing the claim that their dairy product is 100% New Zealand grass-fed, when findings show that a potential 20% of a cow’s diet could come from palm kernels importanted from rainforests in Southeast Asia.

On 26 September, Wire Producer Sofia spoke to Greenpeace Aotearoa Agriculture Campaigner, Sinéad Deighton-O’Flynn, about this topic, asking her firstly about how concerning the profit announcement was to Greenpeace.

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party Wire Host Caeden speaks to Labour’s Mental Health spokesperson, Ingrid Leary, about Mental Health Awareness Week.

For State of the States, they speak to Andre Fa’oso from the Yale Daily News about recent presidential election polling numbers and the execution of Marcellus Williams.

And they speak to Daniel Benson-Guiu, Assistant National Secretary of the Tertiary Education Union about today’s strikes across four universities. I also speak to University of Auckland’s Queer Rights Officer Artie Ho about what the strike means for students. 

For City Counselling this week, Sofia speaks to Councillor Julie Fairey about Council’s working from home policies and a rubbish bin graveyard found near Auckland Domain following Council removing public rubbish bins as part of its cost-saving drive

She also speaks to UNICEF Aotearoa Communications Director Tania Sawicki Mead about an open letter launched with the Global Coalition for Youth Mental Health calling for a multi-sectoral approach to tackle the global mental health funding gap.