The Wire with Caeden

Welcome to the Tuesday Wire! This week on the show:

• For Dear Science, Allan Blackman joins Milly and Rosetta in the studio to talk uncertainty, Superconductors and one worm in particular 
• For our weekly catch up with the National Party, Milly chat to Dr Shane Reti about the Breast Cancer Screening Bill and removing GST on fresh fruit and vegetables  
• Milly also speaks to Carina Walters from the University of Auckland about Opioid use in New Zealand 
• Rosetta speaks to Tracy Clelland, lecturer from the University of Canterbury and project director of Te Puāwaitanga: Beyond the Birds and Bees, about improving Relationship and Sexuality education in Aotearoa.
• Rosetta also spoke to Ella Shepherd, President of Abortion Law Reform Association New Zealand, about the newly implemented safe areas across different clinics in Aotearoa. 

Researchers from the University of Cantebury have launched the new online app and social media campaign Te Puа̄waitanga: Beyond the Birds and Bees, aimed at creating widely accessible and accurate information online for young people regarding relationship and sexuality education. 

Wire producer Rosetta spoke with Tracy Clelland, lecturer at the University of Cantebury and project director of Te Puа̄waitanga, about how the platform opperates and why such resources are important.

Last week E Tū picketed outside the special general meeting of the Building Service Contractors of New Zealand, the employer association for cleaning companies.

E Tū have been in negotiations for a collective agreement but have been offered nothing by employers - including a lack of a 30c pay increase which has been offered in previous years.

This comes during the cost of living crisis, and Auckland Airport cleaner Jackie Clark said, “We feel that cleaning companies don’t care about the cleaners, and they don’t respect us.”

Caeden spoke to E Tū Campaign director Sarah Thompson about why they picketed, fair pay agreements and what we can expect to happen in the context of the election.

The Labour government announced last week that it will make ram-raiding its own criminal offence and build two new Youth Justice residences. We thus enter an election season where both major parties converge on using 'tough on crime' measures on rangatahi. 

Hanna spoke to Te Pāti Māori's Takutai Kemp about why the party does not endorse Labour's policies even though they claim to have a more rehabilitative focus than National's, their strong opposition to placing rangatahi in carceral institutions, addressing the systemic drivers behind youth offending through community integration and manaakitanga, and what space Te Pāti Māori have to push their policies when both Labour and National agree on punitive approaches to youth offending.