The Wire with Caeden

A devastating earthquake in Southern Turkey and Northern Syria earlier this week has left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.

The death toll passed 20 thousand this morning, and is expected to rise even further.

Search and rescue efforts and relief organisations from around the world are pouring into the country to look for survivors, and help displaced peoples.

David spoke to Carlos Calderon from Oxfam Aotearoa about the situation on the ground and what New Zealanders can do to help.

To donate to relief efforts in the region, head to:
www.oxfam.org.nz
www.redcross.org.nz
www.unicef.org.nz

Already in October 2010 Māori health organisations raised concerns about the shocking toll tobacco use has in their communities. They found that overall people were smoking less, but more and more maori and pacific people were smoking. 

As response the NZ government developed the Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan. The plan features three radical interventions. One, called the smoke-free generation strategy, will make it illegal to ever sell combustible tobacco products to those born in 2009 or later. The goal is to create an ever-growing generation that never picks up the smoking habit. Together with two other policies, reducing nicotine content in tobacco to below addictive levels and less retail outlets selling tobacco, tobacco use would virtually end.

There are two issues: Vapes and Inequities. Daily smoking rates are in general at an all-time low but remain high for Māori. 34% of Māori teens aged 14 and 15-year vape regularly and The statistics are even higher for Māori girls of this age, with 40% vaping regularly. 

Daniel spoke with associate professor Andrew Waa, Public Health researcher at the University of Otago, about these issues. 

After years of campaigning by community groups to table better protection against hate speech, the government has announced that law reform will be postponed and referred to the Law Commission. While some claim this move better recognises the right to freedom of expression, others argue the right should be balanced against other rights, such as the right to freedom from discrimination. 

Hanna spoke to Lisa Woods, Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand's Campaigns Director, about Aotearoa's hate speech laws, why reform is urgently needed, and what can be done in the interim. 

First up on our series of policies PM Chris Hipkins has pulled back on is the public media merger of Radio New Zealand and Television New Zealand. 

Kris Fafoi and Willie Jackson, the former and current broadcasting minister respectively, had initially set out a preferred deadline of March 1st with a final deadline of July 1st this year.

However, Hipkins claimed the merger was too expensive and unnecessary, replacing it with a funding boost for NZ on Air and RNZ. 

To learn more about what this means for public media in Aotearoa, Liam spoke to Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington’s Peter Thompson.