The Wire with Jessica

Despite recent years' initiatives to mitigate child poverty, it remains an important issue that negatively impacts children's development and health. Experts have proposed cost-effective solutions to improve children's neurological, physical, and mental health, emphasising the importance of the first 2000 days of a child’s life to development. 

Intergenerational disadvantage and inequity is a key cause of continuing child poverty, with up  to 30% of Aotearoa New Zealand’s children lacking their basic needs’ adequate fulfilment. 

The Knowledge Hub for Maternal and Child Health at Koi Tū has released a report aimed at the Government to implement these solutions through policy, which parents and guardians can read for their own benefit.

Olivia spoke with the leader of the Knowledge Hub for Maternal and Child Health at Koi Tū, Dr Felicia Low, about the current state of child poverty, and Koi Tū’s report on evidence-based solutions.

The Tuesday Wire team is joined by Dr Alan Blackman, where they discuss a failed superconductivity project, the health positives and negatives associated with alcohol consumption and why going Vegan might just be better for our health.

This week for our weekly catchup with Dr Shane Reti the discussion centred on how policy aimed at Māori will be affected under National’s coalition agreements with Act and NZ First.

During our discussion we touched on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people and He Puapua, both of which have been scrapped under coalition agreements.

Nicholas also touched on the Act Party’s treaty principles bill, which the National Party has agreed to support to the select committee stage.

To finish our interview I asked Dr Reti to clarify claims made by the Primeminister and senior minister Chris Bishop. During an interview with Q and A Chris Bishop made the claim that under Labour's smokefree 2025 plan, there would only be one tobacco retailer in the entirety of Northland, potentially making that retailer a magnet for crime.

According to the plans laid out by the director general, there would be not one but 35 retailers able to sell tobacco across Northland. I followed this up with a question about potential new vaping regulations.

The interview began with a question about the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people.

The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), or COP28, is currently taking place in Dubai. The conference began on the 30th of November and runs until the 12th of December, and UNICEF Aotearoa is sending a delegation of young ambassadors to represent young New Zealanders priorities’ regarding climate change. The delegation will leave to Dubai on Wednesday, are all aged between 18 and 24, and offer a range of perspectives including Māori, Pasifika, rural and urban living experiences, and LGBTQIA+ youth. COP is the biggest climate conference in the world, and this year over 70 thousand people from both business and political sectors will attend. In the past, youth advocates such as Greta Thunberg have criticised COP conferences as too much talk and too little action, and the conference has already started with controversy after the BBC reported that leaked briefing documents revealed plans by the United Arab Emirates to discuss fossil fuel deals with 15 nations. The conference also comes at an interesting time for Aotearoa, as the new government has pledged to reintroduce oil and gas exploration, which has come under criticism by many of the delegations present at COP28

Rosetta spoke with Vira Paky, who is one of the Young Ambassadors in the UNICEF delegation. We spoke about the importance of having young voices represented at COP28, and discussed what role the new government should be playing in involving Aotearoa in global conferences like this.