The Wire with Caeden

Recently, amid a swirl of media speculation and rumours, the Prime Minister made the unprecedented move of initiating a vote of confidence in himself, with the aim of clearing the air and dispelling the notion that he has lost the support of his caucus. Yesterday, the Prime Minister announced that he had succeeded in the anonymous ballot, although he refrained from revealing the exact numbers. 

We’ve seen a variety of reactions from other political leaders, with Labour leader Chris Hipkins insisting that the votes should be released and, and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters describing the whole thing as a strategic error on the Prime Minister’s part.

Producer Toby spoke to Michael Swanson, a research fellow at the University of Otago, about the political implications of this vote. They also discussed the rising popularity of New Zealand First, and talked about the future of that party beyond the leadership of Winston Peters.

After an NZ First initiative from within the coalition agreement, the government has proposed to weaken treaty obligations. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith claimed the government was attempting to create more consistency by changing the semanticUs of obligations to make the government take the treaty “into account” rather than prevous formulations such as “honour” or “have regard”. 

Critics have sed the changes attempt to weaken obligations to the Treaty and have opened grey zones based on semantic understandings.

Flo spoke with Associate Professor Andrew Erueti at the University of Auckland’s law school about the government’s proposed changes to Treaty Obligations. 

This week on the Tuesday Wire…

For Dear Science this week, our expert, Dr Cushla McGoverin speaks with us about Poison Frogs, Songbirds generating Neurons, and Personalised Brain Sensors.

For our weekly catchup with the National Party, Host Alex spoke with Ryan Hamilton about New Zealand’s Fuel Stocks, and how the Government is moving forward with regards to fuel and positioning around the Strait of Hormuz.

Producer Flo spoke with Associate Professor Andrew Erueti at the University of Auckland’s law school about the government’s proposed changes to Treaty Obligations. 

And Producer Liam spoke with Steve Bielby, director of the St James Holdings, about the rebuild of the historic St James Theatre, what challenges and opportunities it has brought and what this will mean for Auckland and its heritage.

Last week, a report assessing the carcinogenic risk of vaping compared to smoking was released in the New Zealand Medical Journal. It combined data from previous global research studies to try to calculate cancer risk from vaping.

While this risk was found to be currently “unquantifiable”, the report did conclude that vapes’ cancer risk is likely lower than cigarette smoking but higher than normal levels, meaning using vapes to help quit smoking was viable– but anyone else taking up vaping is unnecessarily increasing their carcinogenic risk.

To discuss the report's findings, addiction issues, and potential preemptive government action, producer Thomas spoke with University of Auckland Associate Professor George Laking.