The Wire with Caeden

Last Friday was Waitangi Day, with over 35,000 people visiting the Waitangi grounds on the day.

The fast-track approvals panel has turned down a bid from Trans-Tasman Resources to mine the Taranaki seabed.

And Labour’s Camilla Belich has lodged a joint members' bill with National MP Greg Fleming to combat modern slavery. 

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden asked MP Shanan Halbert about all of these topics.

This week on the Wednesday Wire...

For our weekly catchup w/ the Green Party, Host Manny spoke with MP Ricardo Menéndez March about the National Party's idea of a rates cap, local governments infrastructure crisis and the decision to decline a seabed mining project in Taranaki.

They then spoke to Elvisa van der Leden, Waikato and Taranaki regional conservation manager for Forest and Bird about the draft decision to decline the sea bed mining project in Taranaki, their appeal of the Waihi north Goldmine application, and the reforms to the fast track approvals scheme which is cutting them and other community groups out of the process.

Finally producer Theo spoke to Law Professor Jodi Gardner on the first two cases pursued by the commerce commission under its unconscionable conduct prohibition.

The Commerce Commission, responsible for regulating competition and fair trading in Aotearoa New Zealand, recently took two businesses to court over their ‘unconscionable conduct’.

Among other behaviour, the businesses were found to have misled and exploited consumers, and targeted particularly vulnerable customers.

This is the first time that the Commerce Commission have pursued cases under this prohibition, with ‘unconscionable conduct’ being added to the Fair Trading Act back in 2022.

To understand exactly what ‘unconscionable conduct’ entails, and how future cases may play out, Producer Theo spoke to Professor of Law at the University of Auckland Dr Jodi Gardner.

For Dear Science this week our expert, Professor Allan Blackman chats with us about snow, ice, and “freezing-point depression” 
For our weekly catchup with the National Party, Wire Host Sara spoke to National MP Ryan Hamlilton about Waitangi Day & National Party views on some of the recent environmental legislation
For Green World, Sara spoke to Professor Carl Rhodes from the University of Technology in Sydney, about the influence of billionaires on global climate progress
Producer Toby spoke to Associate Professor Maria Armoudian, from the University of Auckland, about the Trump administration’s targeting of political opponents in the United States