The Wire with Spike

Cabinet, as part of its policy reset on Wednesday, announced minimum wage would be rising $1.50, up to $22.70 an hour to match inflation. Many are welcoming the increase, but Unite Union says it’s not enough for workers to just match inflation. Spike speaks to the National Secretary, John Crocker, about this latest rise.

The industry of disability service providers is an entirely government-funded collection of entities that provide free-of-charge services to those in need. Recent increases in costs of providing services have made it difficult for these organisations to provide the same level of care for a given budget. 

Arno spoke to Peter Reynolds, CEO of the New Zealand Disability Support Network - a society of organisations that provide support to disabled people. He started off by asking if the government was doing enough to meet rising inflation by funding disability worker organisations.

Already in october 2010 Maori health organisations raised concerns about the shocking toll tobacco use has in their communities. They found that overall people were smoking less, but more and more maori and pacific people were smoking. 

As response the NZ government developed the Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan. The plan features three radical interventions. One, called the smoke-free generation strategy, will make it illegal to ever sell combustible tobacco products to those born in 2009 or later. The goal is to create an ever-growing generation that never picks up the smoking habit. Together with two other policies, reducing nicotine content in tobacco to below addictive levels and less retail outlets selling tobacco, tobacco use would virtually end.

There are two issues: Vapes and Inequities. Daily smoking rates are in general at an all-time low but remain high for Māori. 34% of Māori teens aged 14 and 15-year vape regularly and The statistics are even higher for Māori girls of this age, with 40% vaping regularly. 

Daniel spoke with associate professor Andrew Waa, Public Health researcher at the University of Otagoa, bout these issues. 

A devastating earthquake in Southern Turkey and Northern Syria earlier this week has left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.

The death toll passed 20 thousand this morning, and is expected to rise even further.

Search and rescue efforts and relief organisations from around the world are pouring into the country to look for survivors, and help displaced peoples.

David spoke to Carlos Calderon from Oxfam Aotearoa about the situation on the ground and what New Zealanders can do to help.

To donate to relief efforts in the region, head to:
www.oxfam.org.nz
www.redcross.org.nz
www.unicef.org.nz