The Wire with Caeden

The government’s new school lunch program has been met with criticism over the past few weeks for various issues. Supply issues began just over a week ago, with some schools supplied with Pita Pit or pies as alternatives where the new lunches were unavailable. Students who have received the lunches have called them bland, unappetising, or insufficient. Others have noted the lack of halal certification, leaving schools or teachers in charge of providing for Muslim students. Despite these issues, the government has remained committed to the program, which it claims has made significant savings compared to the previous, Labour implemented program. 

The last few weeks have also seen actions by Destiny Church against Aotearoa’s rainbow communities at multiple pride events. These actions have led some to call for Destiny Church’s charity status to be removed.

In our weekly catchup with National’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor asked about each of these issues, starting with the new school lunch program.

Germany’s federal elections took place on Sunday, and the preliminary results show right leaning parties dominated the election— with the Conservative Alliance claiming most seats in the federal Parliament, as well as the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland party (AfD) winning 20.8% of the vote.

According to researchers in far-right extremism, from the University of Tübingen, writing for The Conversation— the AfD’s breakthrough in Germany’s 2017 federal election shattered the nation's stigma against far-right extremism.

Producer Athena spoke to Professional Teaching Fellow for German at the University of Auckland, Mareike Schmidt, about the rise of the AfD, and her perspective on the federal election results, as a German citizen living in New Zealand.

Global Innovator, Matt Hart, joins News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, and Producer Evie, in studio to discuss kiwis moving overseas to work!

On the show last week, in our weekly catch up with the ACT Party’s Simon Court we discussed comments he had made about period products. 

Court came under fire in the media following a hearing on benefit sanctions. During this hearing a female submitter was outlining concerns about period poverty and the impacts menstrual products can have on a low-income family budget. 

In response to these concerns Court asked if she was aware of, or had people around her aware of, a menstrual cup - outlining its cost and where to buy it. He was heavily criticised by Te Pati Maori, and later Labour for ‘mansplaining’, calling his comments ‘deeply offensive’ as he continued to double down. 

During our interview last week he stood by his comments. 

Period poverty action group, Dignity NZ says that Court’s comments were misplaced, and ignore a variety of issues that come with periods. 

Producer Evie spoke to Dignity NZ interim CEO Taslim Parsons about period poverty in Aotearoa and how it needs to be addressed.