The Wire with Caeden

This week on the Tuesday Wire...

For Dear Science this week, our expert, Dr Cushla McGoverin speaks with us about Artemis II, and forever chemicals in bacteria.

For our weekly catchup with the National Party, Host Alex spoke with Ryan Hamilton about the cabinet reshuffle, the Auckland Housing Amendment Bill, and public transport.

Alex also spoke with Assistant National Secretary of the E tū union, Annie Newman, about the rise in Living Wage, and what it means that minimum wage is lagging behind.

And Producer Liam spoke to Sinéad Deighton-O’Flynn, the agricultural campaigner at Greenpeace Aotearoa, about the result of Greenpeace’s lawsuit against Fonterra, which recently admitted to having falsely advertised its butter to consumers, and the impact this will have in New Zealand. 

Last week, Fonterra admitted that the claim that its Anchor butter came from “100% New Zealand Grass-Fed” cows was false and contravened the Fair Trade Act 1986. Greenpeace, which was behind the lawsuit, argued that cows were being fed palm kernels imported from South East Asia, and that therefore this label was misleading to the New Zealand public. 

Wire producer Liam spoke to Sinéad Deighton-O’Flynn, agricultural campaigner at Greenpeace Aotearoa, about 'greenwashing' in New Zealand and the impact that this decision will have on the New Zealand dairy industry. 

A new law change known as the Policing Amendment Bill is raising concerns about privacy and police powers in Aotearoa.

The bill would give police expanded powers, including the ability to record and retain short-lived videos in public.

Supporters say it will help police respond more effectively to crime, but critics are worried the rules are too vague, with a low threshold for collecting personal information and not enough safeguards around how that data is stored or used. There are also concerns that the changes could disproportionately affect Māori and young people.

Wire Producer Pranuja spoke to Gehan Gunasekara, Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Auckland Business School, about what this could mean for everyday New Zealanders.

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Labour’s Shanan Halbert about university funding shortfalls, the living wage rise and the default KiwiSaver contribution rate increasing.

And they spoke to Aaron Gilbert, Professor of Finance and Associate Dean Research at Auckland University of Technology, about the minimum KiwiSaver contribution rate increasing.

For City Counselling this week, News Director Castor spoke to Councillor Julie Fairey about the second round of changes to PC 120 and about the council’s disagreements with central government over fuel crisis support. 

Producer Pranuja spoke to Gehan Gunasekara, Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Auckland Business School, on the new Policing Amendment Bill.