The Wire with Caeden

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden speaks to Labour’s education spokesperson, Jan Tinetti, on education unions opposition to charter schools, the reallocation of te reo Māori funding towards the maths curriculum, and the government’s new plan to lift school attendance rates. 

For States of the States, 95bFM’s US election coverage, they speak to Yale Daily News’ Andre Fa’aoso about the vice presidential debate.

And they speak to University of Sydney’s Lisa Asher on the declined Foodstuffs merger and what it means for grocery prices and the supermarket duopoly.

For City Counselling this week, Sofia speaks to Councillor Shane Henderson about Council's progress on emergency response systems and the buyout scheme for homeowners impacted by floods

She also speaks to senior lecturer at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries in Architecture and Planning, Dr Karamia Müller, about why Māori and Pacific housing needs and aspirations need to be considered on a wider scale. 

Oto reached out to Paula Lorgelly, a professor of Health Economics and Population Health at the University of Auckland for an expert opinion on the end of Free Covid Test distribution. 

From Monday this week onwards, Rapid Antigen Tests would not be provided from pharmacies freely and would instead need to be purchased directly from retailers.

A pack of 5 covid tests would cost $16.99 at Chemist Warehouse, for example.

Around Mid September, the coalition government issued a directive to departments across the public sector to refocus the delivery of services so that they would be prioritised on the basis of need instead of race.

In line with this, the government scrapped a policy requiring government agencies to ensure at least 8% of their annual procurement contracts were awarded to Māori businesses, as well as a Hawke's Bay health initiative granting free GP visits to young Māori and Pasifika.

The decision has been criticised by experts and members of the public, who say that ethnicity focused initiatives are needed to address health and wealth gaps between certain ethnic groups and the wider population of Aotearoa. 

Oto spoke to Clair Mills, A senior lecturer at Te Kupenga Hauora Maori, the department of Maori health at the University of Auckland, and a medical specialist trained in public and population health, to discuss why Ethnicity focused-health initiatives are necessary.

Associate Health Minister, Casey Costello, is pushing for smokers to switch to Heated Tobacco Products, otherwise known as HTPs, as an alternative to other forms of smoking, for what she says is a part of a solution to try work towards Smokefree 2025.

The plan, which aims to get 7000 people to switch to HTPs, will result in a cut of 50% to excise tax to the products at a cost of up to $216 million.

Currently, tobacco giant, Philip Morris, owns a Monopoly of HTPs in New Zealand, which would mean that this company will solely profit off of the tax cuts.

Many are concerned that Costello is prioritising profits over actually working towards lowering tobacco usage within Aotearoa.

As well as this, Philip Morris’ HTPs, known as IQOS’ have recently been pulled from shelves over being classified as vapes, and therefore going against Labour’s vaping regulations, which require vaping products to have child safety mechanisms, as well as having removable batteries. 

News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to Professor of Health Economics at the University of Auckland, Paula Logelly, on Costello’s push for HTPs, and whether she believes that Costello is putting money over people’s health.