The Wire with Caeden

Last week United States bank Wells Fargo made headlines for firing a dozen employees who were caught faking working from home.

Wells Fargo has started monitoring employees' computers which showed software being used to establish fake activity from employees’ computers.

Wire Host Caeden spoke to the University of Auckland’s Dr Emmy van Esch about this Wells Fargo example and the ethics of monitoring employees' computers more generally.

A new international study has recently been published showing the potential harmful impacts of old satellites on the ozone layer. 

The study concluded that the increase of old satellites orbiting the earth might seriously harm the recovery of the ozone layer.

This morning Rawan spoke with Dr Laura Revell from the school of physics and chemical science at the University of Canterbury about this new research. 

They discuss what the state of the ozone currently is and how exactly these old satellites will impact its recovery. 

They then talk about what we can expect in the short and long term and what precautions need to be taken to address these issues.

This week is scrutiny week in Parliament. This is a chance for the opposition to question relevant Ministers about the budget in select committees, and for the public to see the inner workings of government questioned in an accessible way. 

Some of the headlines to have come out of this week include discussions of New Zealand failing to uphold climate commitments, supporting media, and what makes this country liveable in light of the high numbers of New Zealanders moving overseas.

For our weekly catch-up with Green Party MP Ricardo Menéndez March Wire host Caeden asks about all these topics. 

They started by asking about what scrutiny week means.

The government is proposing the repeal of several speed limit changes introduced across the country under the previous government since 2020. Among these changes include the expansion of school zone speed limits to cover the full day. These changes have been criticised for their potential risk to particularly children and other young people. 

The Emissions Trading Scheme is a program introduced in Aotearoa to reduce emissions in line with global standards. The program requires emitters to log and report their emissions, and limits the quantity of emissions. Emitters can sell or buy emissions units from others to allow them to emit more or less. By removing agricultural emissions, farmers would no longer be required to adhere to these requirements.

In our weekly catchup with the National party, Wire host Castor spoke to MP Suze Redmayne about the speed limit changes and removal of agriculture from the ETS. Particularly, he touched on the speed limit risks to children and how the government will restrict farmers’ emissions without the ETS covering them.