The Wire with Caeden

95bFM's youngest reporter, Iris Butler, interviews the Kelvin Powell of the Hamilton City Council about Lime scooters in the Waikato River.

Mayor Brown' draft for the annual 2023/24 budget includes drastic cuts for the arts. The plan is to stop regional grants for arts, events, community recreation and heritage. 8 million in total. And the removal of 20 million from community and social development programmes, which includes art events, education programmes and community programmes.

Daniel spoke with Lauren Whitney general manager of New Zealand comedy trust, an organisation that produces the New Zealand international comedy festival and supports the comedy industry.

Daniel also spoke with Mark Harvey who is part of Arts Makers Aotearoa, which was formed by a group of arts makers who are concerned about the lack of support for the arts in this country and he is also part the creative arts industries faculty at the university of auckland 

Lastly Daniel spoke with Cat Ruka the executive director of Basement Theater.

We spoke about the impact of these plans on the city of auckland and the consequences these plans will have for individual and community wellbeing and mental health. And what is exactly the intrinsic value of art?   

It's the best of The Wire! We have a few new pieces, and take a look back at some of our favourites from 2022.

We take a look back at Tuva’as live and in person chat with Health Minister Andrew Little from June of this year,

I’ll also be replaying my chat with Taylor McGregor from Save our Venues about the importance of small music videos and the struggles this year has seen them put through,

Hanna is speaking to 0800 What’s Up about mental health support during the holiday season,

We also have a Tomorrow's World about Blood Transfusion, 

And lastly I’ll be talking to Cameron Adams for our last Eurovision of 2022!

For their final interview this year, News and Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to ACT's Brooke Van velden about the Government's expansion to the immigration fast track list. They also discussed Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenksy addressing Aotearoa’s parliament and what we can expect from the ACT Party next year. 

Then she spoke to Epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker about how people can minimise the risk of catching and spreading Covid-19 this summer. 

And for our Best of the Wire special, we recapped the year that was in news and current affairs. This year, Emilia Sullivan spoke to Geoff McLay from Victoria University Law School about the Supreme Court hearing arguments in a case against Aotearoa’s seven largest polluting companies. On Eurovision, our Europe Correspondent, Cameron Adams, spoke to Emillia about Russia’s mobilisation and so-called annexation referendums in Ukraine. And on The Green Desk, Frances spoke to Gabrielle Feather, a PhD student at the University of Tasmania about the changing climate and its connection to mental health.