The Wire with Caeden

The free school lunch program has been in the headlines here in Aotearoa for several weeks after facing significant impacts to their quality and delivery following a complete restructure of the program led by associate education minister David Seymour.

Many schools have reported late deliveries of meals beyond the lunch period, plastic packaging melting into the food and one student even experiencing burns from the packaging that required medical attention.

This, of course, has the greatest impact on the more than 150,000 Tamariki living in severe poverty, who relied on programs like Ka Ora Ka Ako to receive daily meals.

In response, the Child poverty action group has made a call to senior government ministers and Finance Minister Nicola Willis to restore the funding that was cut from the school lunches program so that schools across the motu could receive meals from local community suppliers.

Oto spoke to Rich Greissman - Deputy Chair of the Child Poverty Action Group's Governing Committee, to discuss the group’s call and why it’s important for the government to ensure the provision of healthy school lunches to Tamariki.

This week on the Tuesday Wire...

For Dear Science this week, our expert, Professor Allan Blackman, chatted with us about seal blood oxygen levels, phrases boosting citations, and an Australian man importing plutonium.

In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Tom Rutherford, I ask about Sam Uffindell’s new private members bill and Winston Peters’ war on woke. 

They also speak to Senior lecturer at the University of Auckland, Dr. Charlotte Oyston, about a proposal to increase the maternity hospital stay period. 

And producer Amani spoke with former NZ Herald editor Dr Gavin Ellis on why he believes a digital-only strategy could shatter the future of the NZ Herald, and how he feels about the recent board-overhaul

This week on Dear Science, our expert Professor Allan Blackman chatted with us about grey seals' blood oxygen levels, phrases likely to get your articles cited, and an Australian man importing plutonium.

Thanks to MOTAT, the museum inspiring the innovators of tomorrow!

This week on the Monday Wire...

For our weekly catch up with Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to her about the Winston Peters meeting with his US counterpart, Marco Rubio, the recent Ipsos Issues Monitor Survey findings, and the recent developments in Israel’s war on Gaza.

For our weekly catch up Producer Evie spoke to the ACT Party’s Simon Court about the ACT party entering candidates into local elections, ACT MP Mark Cameron criticising National’s approach to rural communities, as well as David Seymour failing to inform the Education Minister that a key school lunch provider was going into liquidation.

Evie also spoke to Geopolitical Analyst at the University of Otago, Geoffrey Miller about Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters recent trip to the US, and what outcomes this achieved for US New Zealand relations.

Joel spoke to the Political Marketing Expert from the University of Auckland Edward Elder about the most recent Ipsos Issues Monitor Survey, which recorded the government as having the lowest score since the survey started collecting data in mid-2017.

And Global Innovator, Matt Hart, joins us in studio today to discuss the new tv series ‘Adolescence’, and how this relates to creativity and innovation.

Whakarongo mai!