The Wire with Caeden

Global military expenditure reached a record high of two point seven trillion dollars in 2024, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. This is the tenth consecutive year that military spending has increased across the world.

Last week’s Budget announcement, as with declarations of investments earlier this year, in which $12 billion was committed to defence over the next four years, with an aim to reach 2% of GDP, demonstrate the New Zealand government’s interest in keeping up with global standards. 

Peace Movement Aotearoa have called this central government decision “deplorable”, as the same budget made cuts to crucial social services, and has underinvested in urgent issues within sectors like health, climate action, and infrastructure.

Producer Sara spoke with Massey University’s Associate Professor in the Centre for Defence and Security Studies, Anna Powles, about why both global and national military spending is increasing despite other crucial areas needing investment.

Sara also spoke with Peace Movement Aotearoa co-ordinator Edwina Hughes about the effects of this increased militarisation taking priority over efforts to address humanitarian issues. 

She began her interview with Associate Professor Anna Powles, by asking what some of the key drivers of this increased global military spending are. 

Another significant funding gap in this year’s budget announcement was long-awaited funding for additional cancer treatments, particularly for blood cancer.

With no additional funding for blood cancer treatments announced in this year’s budget, patients, advocates and doctors have said that blood cancer patients have been left behind in the announcement and have called on the government to clear Pharmac's "backlog" of unfunded blood cancer medicines.

Oto spoke to Rodger Tiedemann, A Hematologist at Auckland City Hospital and Associate Professor of Cancer Research at the University of Auckland, about the lack of additional funding for blood cancer treatments in Budget 2025.

Chris Hall, an Associate Professor at the department of molecular medicine and pathology at the University of Auckland, has led a study that looked into the impact that daylight has on our immune system.

The research identifies that many people could be experiencing what is scientifically described as “social jet lag”. The term describes the misalignment between our internal body clock, or circadian rhythm, and our social schedule.

Chris Hall led the study to look into how important our circadian rhythm is to our immune system, and how regular exposure to daylight can support a healthy immune system as well.

To talk about this, Producer Max spoke to Chris Hall.

A 19-year old from Palmerston North recently died after suffering a head injury while playing a private "run it straight-style" tackle game.

“Run it Straight” has been introduced as a new combat sport, involving a runner and a tackler running full speed at each other to mirror physical collisions seen in rugby league matches.

The sport was gaining prominence in Australia, with contestants winning cash prizes of up to $20,000 Australian dollars in cash, before making it’s way to Aotearoa quite recently, although West Auckland’s Trusts Arena recently cancelled one of their championships following the death of the teenager. 

Oto spoke to Professor Patria Hume, a Professor in Human Performance at AUT, about run it tackle games and the inevitably of serious injuries or deaths during these high-collision games.