The Wire with Caeden

Last week, the NZSIS released it's New Zealand Security Threat Environment report for 2023, outlining what the government sees as the biggest threats to Aotearoa's domestic security. The largest threats were outlined as violent extremism, foreign interference, and espionage. 

Wire producer Rosetta spoke to Dr William Hoverd, associate professor at Massey University, about the NZSIS report, and what he believes are the risks involved with publishing potential security threats to the public.

This week on Dear Science, Rosetta and Lou were joined in the studio by Allan Blackman to talk about the math behind how many lotto tickets you need to buy to win, Leslie John Comrie, and whether it's possible to fry in space.

The Labour Party announced their tax policy over the weekend. It included policies like dropping GST off fruits and vegetables and changes to Working for Families.

The Policy has received some support, but several organisations advocating for the eradication of poverty and tax reform say it does not go far enough to address the wealth gap in Aotearoa.

Caeden spoke about this with Glen Barclay, Chair of Tax Justice Aotearoa and the Better Taxes for a Better Future campaign which is a coalition of 20 organisations aiming to work for better taxes to grow revenue and have a fairer tax system.

They started by asking Glen if Labour’s announcement is fair tax policy.

Caeden also spoke to economist Susan St John for the Child Poverty Action Group’s position on the announcement. As they have been quite critical of it, they started by asking what the issues were.

The government recently announced a partnership with BlackRock, an American multinational investment company. BlackRock will invest two billion dollars into green energy, aiming to achieve one hundred percent renewable energy.

Olivia spoke to Climate Justice Taranaki researcher, Catherine Cheung, about their concerns with this deal and possible alternatives.