The Wire with Caeden

This week for our weekly catchup with Dr Reti, Nicholas asked Dr Reti about the National Party’s plans to scrap Fair Pay Agreements.

Fair Pay legislation was passed last year, the legislation would require employers in certain sectors to negotiate minimum working conditions for employees, with Unions and employee representatives.

The interview began with a question about National’s potential lack of MP’s of Pacific Island descent. As it currently stands Angee Nicholas would be the only National MP of Pacific Island descent. Angee Nicholas currently holds her seat by thirty votes so it is possible she may end up out of parliament. 

Nicholas began by asking Dr Reti how National plans to make sure the Pacific Island population of Aotearoa is represented in the new government.

The Tuesday Wire team is joined by Davide Mercadante for Dear Science. The team discusses the discovery of hidden trees throughout Europe that gives new hope for carbon storage, potentially hazardous litter leaf and the pitfalls of biodegradable bags might not be as good as we thought to recycle organic waste!

For our weekly segment Nicholas catches up with the National Party’s Dr Shane Reti to discuss National’s potential Pasific Island caucus and the Party’s plans to scrape Fair Pay legislation.

Nicholas also spoke to activist and academic Te Matahiapo about Matike Mai, a working group looking into possible avenues for constitutional reform in Aotearoa. 

Lou spoke to Samuel Andrews on his findings on Sexualised Drug use in Gay and Bisexual men in New Zealand

And, Josh spoke to Dr Arama Rata on the coverage of the Auckland Palestine march, and coverage of Palestine, in New Zealand Media and Omar Hasaniah, a former Gazan Resident, on his experiences in Aotearoa this month.

Under a new government, Christopher Luxon has committed to getting rid of the offshore oil and gas exploration ban, which had been in place since 2018. This decision has caused widespread opposition and cries for a commitment toward clean energy, and the International Energy Agency has released a report condemning the plan, which they call “non-sensical” and “foolish”. Greenpeace Aotearoa has condemned Luxon’s plan, and has launched an open petition to the oil and gas industry which has gained more than 8,000 signatures. 

Rosetta spoke to Greenpeace spokesperson Amanda Larsson about the policy and it’s environmental and economic impacts. She started by asking Amanda to explain what this policy would look like and how scrapping the ban would come into place.

On the show today...

Rosetta spoke to Greenpeace spokesperson Amanda Larson about Christopher Luxon’s plan to reintroduce offshore gas and oil exploration, and the IEA’s report on this.

Rosetta also spoke to ​Virologist and Professor at the University of Otago Jemma Ghee-gan about the rise in outbreaks of avian influenza, or bird flu, around the world and in the Antarctic region.

And for our bi-weekly segment of Get Action, where we speak to petitioners from Get Action about their causes, Rosetta spoke to Erin Thomas, director and change maker at ICAAD about their petition to bring justice to the Banaban People of Rabi, Fiji.

For our weekly catch up with the ACT Party Rawan spoke with Simon Court about updates regarding the ACT and National coalition as well as the party’s viewpoints on the Israel-Palestine war

Rawan also spoke with Samira Zaitoun, the Co-convener of Justice for Palestine about the Pro-palestine marches over the weekend as well as clarifications around statements made by Simon Court. 

Thanks for tuning in!