The Wire with Caeden

The coalition government is planning to continue with the passing of the Ram Raid bill which was originally introduced by the labour government. 

This bill would mean that youth offenders as young as 12 years old, would be prosecuted more harshly with some potentially serving up to ten years in prison. 

Many organisations and activists have been vocal about their position on this bill from the beginning and many have now started a petition to stop its continuation.

Rawan spoke with Aaron Hendry, co-founder of Kick back, an organisation that focuses on assisting youth in homelessness and has also been heavily involved in this petition. 

Rawan asked Aaron about what the harmful impacts of this bill are and what this new opposing campaign is about.

The government recently announced it would increase funding to the New Zealand Pharmaceutical agency, also known as Pharmac, by $604 Million over the next four years to fund the treatment of 54 new drugs, 13 of which are cancer treating medication. 

The announcement comes after the government experienced widespread backlash when cancer treatment funding was left out of the annual budget announcement made last month, going against Nationals promise during the general elections to increase funding for cancer treatments. 

For their weekly catch-up, Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menéndez-March to discuss the party’s take on the government’s recent announcement and decision. 

They also talked about the government’s introduction of a new sentencing Category for Young Offenders and the implementation of check-in requirements for Jobseeker beneficiaries.

As part of the ongoing discussions around the government’s recent decision to boost Pharmac funding for select drugs and cancer treatments - Oto spoke to Paula Lorgelly, professor of Health Economics and Population Health at the University of Auckland, for her perspective on the announcement as an economist.

Wire host Caeden spoke to Labour Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about last week’s Labour Party conference and scrutiny week in Parliament.

They also spoke to Kanak youth coordinator Viro Xulue about the struggle for decolonisation in New Caledonia.

They spoke to University of Auckland Lecturer Dr Emmy van Esch about the ethics of monitoring employees’ computers when they work for home.

And they spoke to World Vision’s Dr Olivia Yates about pacific migration due to climate change. 

Producer Oto spoke to Dr Selena Shang from the University of Auckland about the government’s decision to remove agricultural emissions from the Emissions Trading Scheme.

He also spoke to Dr Jennifer Tatebe from the University of Auckland to talk about the impacts of urbanisation on rural schools.