The Wire with Caeden

The government has recently announced some major reforms to how regional councils operate, with regional councillors proposed to be replaced by boards made up of city and regional mayors, and potentially even Crown-appointed representatives, called combined territories boards, or CTBs.

The ‘shake-up’ of regional councils has left concerns that the move would water down environmental regulations at a local level, reduce Māori and iwi voices in decision making, and would result in central government overreaching into local politics.

As well as this, Parliament’s Justice Committee has recommended passing the Electoral Amendment Bill, albeit with some amendments

For our weekly catch up with the ACT Party, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host Joel spoke to MP Simon Court about both of these topics, starting with the changes to regional councils.

The Government has proposed to abolish regional councils, with city and district councils taking over these duties instead.

Labour Party MP Duncan Webb has introduced a member's bill to repeal the Regulatory Standards Act.

And the Reserve Bank has cut the official cash rate, bringing it to its lowest level in three years in an effort to support economic renewal.

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Shanan Halbert about all of these issues.

Wire Host Caeden spoke to marine microplastics researcher at the University of Auckland, Dr Samantha Ladewig, about the impact of car tyres on microplastic pollution in marine environments and what the potential solutions are.

On Monday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced a new National Party Kiwisaver policy, where they’re looking to further increase the default Kiwisaver contribution rate. Luxon said, if re-elected, National would continue to gradually increase the default contribution rates by 0.5% per year until 2032, when both employees and employers would pay 6% each.

The Government also announced that New Zealand would become the latest country to halt new prescriptions for puberty blockers for young people with gender dysphoria. In response to this, Ricardo Menendez March told RNZ that the government was “buying into imported culture wars”. 

And last week saw the end of the COP30 climate summit. One of the major outcomes of the summit was that more than 80 countries, including the United Kingdom and Pacific Island Nations, signed a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, but New Zealand chose not to.

For our Weekly Catchup with The Green Party, Wednesday Wire Host Max spoke with MP Ricardo Menendez March about The Green Party’s reaction to the COP30 summit, as well as their thoughts on the Government’s decision to halt new prescriptions of puberty blockers for young people with gender dysphoria.

But first, we started with National’s new Kiwisaver policy.