The Wire with Caeden

The Budget 2024 includes cuts to funding for the environmental sector such as the Department of Conservation, the Ministry for the Environment, Environmental Legal Aid, and the Climate Change Commission. 

Greenpeace Aotearoa has said these cuts provide more reason to join the March for Nature on this Saturday the 8th of June. 

Producer Sofia Roger Williams spoke to Greenpeace Aotearoa Executive Director, Dr Russel Norman, about the march and Greenpeace’s response to Budget 2024. 

She began their kōrero asking him what parts of the Budget concerned Greenpeace the most. 

This week the Thursday Wire's usual host Caeden was away, so Tuesday Wire host Castor filled in.

For City Counselling this week, Castor spoke to Shane Henderson about the draft regional land transport plan for Auckland and the council’s hopes for budget announcements later today. 

Producer Jasmine spoke with Dr. Hiran Thabrew about mental health funding following the Government’s budget announcement regarding investment in the I Am Hope Foundation.

She also spoke PSA Delegate Sian Dalaway about pay parity negotiations for NZ Blood Service workers ahead of tomorrow’s strike.  

She also spoke with Ella Sargison from the Burnett Foundation about June’s Sweat With Pride initiative.

Strike action by more than 290 NZ Blood Service Workers across the motu begins tomorrow. The decision follows seven months of stalled negotiations in pursuit of funding that seeks to rectify the 13-35% pay gap between NZ Blood Service Workers and their colleagues of the same job roles, skills, experience at Te Whatu Ora. Representatives of strike action have affirmed the support of the executive team at NZ Blood during this process, and have emphasised that frustrations lie around the unnecessary and harmful delays in securing the funding to solve the issue. Producer Jasmine Gray spoke to Public Service Association Delegate, Sian Dallaway, ahead of tomorrow’s strike. 

Health outcome gaps for Māori and Pasifika suffering from cardiovascular conditions have been apparent for quite some time.
In order to address this ongoing problem, a group of researchers involved in Manawataki Fatu Fatu for ACCESS conducted a qualitative study, where they interviewed Māori and Pasifika patients in cardiovascular care to uncover the causes behind these health gaps, as well as potential solutions. 

To discuss the study and its findings, Oto spoke to Senior Research fellow Karen Brewer from the University of Auckland, of Whakatōhea and Ngaiterangi descent, who conducted the study and had some insights to offer on Māori and Pasifika cardiovascular health gaps.