The Wire with Caeden

Waitangi Day was last week on Thursday, and to commemorate the anniversary of the signing of Te Tiriti we saw MPs attending various events across the country. During these events we also saw many speaking out against the government’s approach to Treaty relations, particularly the treaty principles bill. 

We also saw a series of new appointments to the Waitangi Tribunal at the end of last month. While the new appointments and outgoing members are each uniquely qualified for the position, some have noted that many of the outgoing members have academic experience and knowledge that will not be replicated by the new appointments. 

Wire host Castor spoke about each of these issues in this week’s catchup with the National Party’s Tom Rutherford, beginning by asking about what National’s MPs got up to on Waitangi Day.

Sex-bias in healthcare and research has long been a prevalent issue for women, as clinical trials occurring as recently as 2023 have excluded women, in favour of testing men as “the average person”.

This has had consequences such as women being more likely to experience negative side effects to certain drugs, due to important differences in female bodies being unaccounted for in research.

As today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, producer Athena spoke to Associate Professor, Dr Kelly Burrowes, at the University of Auckland Bioengineering Institute, about the historic and current gender inequities in healthcare and clinical research, as well as The FemTech Revolution.

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation are urgently calling for more Māori nurses in the workforce, and that the health system could do a better job at incorporating tikanga into practices.

This comes as a new report was released by Nuku on Waitangi Day, emphasising “culturally safe” staffing levels, which should be developed by Māori nurses, and defined by hapū and iwi.

Despite making up 17% of the population, the organisation says Māori nurses only make up 7% of the workforce.

News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to the Kaiwhakahaere of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, Kerri Nuku (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki) yesterday, about these calls from the organisation.

They started off by asking her why the number of Māori nurses working in the country is such a concern.

The Cook Islands and Winston Peters dominated news headlines over the weekend. With media reporting that Aotearoa’s relationship with the Cook Islands was ‘significantly worsening.’ 

The reason for this is an agreement that the Cook Islands is planning to sign with China. Winston Peters says the Cook Islands didn’t consult with Aotearoa about what was in the agreement - which the country is bound to doing under the 2001 Joint Centenary Declaration. 

However, the 2001 agreement is complex, and has certain clauses that means these rules don’t always apply. 

Producer Evie spoke to Geopolitical Analyst at the University of Otago Geoffrey Miller about the complex relationship between us and the Cook Islands - as he broke down the topic and whether anyone has really breached any agreements in this situation.