The Wire with Caeden

In the past week, we’ve seen several noteworthy legislative moves across sectors. 

First, the government is seeking to address New Zealand’s supermarket duopoly as the cost of groceries for kiwi remains high across the motu. 

Economic Minister Nicola Willis announced numerous legislative changes that she hopes will improve supermarket competition in New Zealand.

Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee has also shared some proposed changes to the Alcohol Sale and Supply Act, including limiting barriers to the approval of liquor licenses and making it easier to provide alcohol in special circumstances.

Finally, Defence Minister Judith Collins has approved changes that make it easier for the Defence Force to cover the operations of striking workers. 

Tuesday Wire Host Sara spoke to Bates about these topics.

Content Warning: This story mentions Image Based Sexual Abuse.

An open letter signed by over 20 AI experts has been sent to the government, expressing the urgent need for AI regulation in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The letter points to low trust, as well as potential harms of AI, as serious issues that need to be addressed. The experts have called for regulations and guardrails to support regulatory confidence and innovation, and reduce harm from deepfakes, fraud, and environmental costs, among others.

Producer Alex spoke to The University of Canterbury’s Dr Cassandra Mudgway about how unregulated AI enables gendered harm against women and vulnerable demographics through Deepfakes and other AI.

New research, ‘Indigenous Rights Beyond the Liberal Frame,’  has shown that certain human rights principles in the country are ironically being used to restrain Māori governance and tino rangatiratanga.

On Thursday last week, Intern Zanoor spoke to Andrew Erueti, an Associate Law Professor at the University of Auckland and the lead of the study, about this study.

Early last week, ACT MP, Todd Stephenson, re-lodged his End of Life Choice Amendment Bill, which seeks to expand the eligibility of the End of Life Choice Act.

This follows recommendations from the Ministry of Health’s office review into the law, which was an official requirement of the original 2019 Act. Stephenson’s bill has accepted all 25 recommendations.

National’s coalition agreement with ACT requires any proposed changes to the Act having to be progressed through as a member’s bill.

As well as this, Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche, has not ruled out absorbing ministries such as the Ministry of Women and Ministry of Pacific People into larger ministries.

In 2023, the ACT Party had campaigned on removing these ministries.

And last week, The Justice Select Committee report into four-year parliamentary terms recommended a referendum on the potential move, but had recommended some provisions of ACT Party Leader, David Seymour, be scrapped.

These provisions include an incoming government only being allowed a four-year term if the government agreed to give the opposition the majority in the select committee. This would mean that some governments would be three-terms, and some would be four terms.

For our weekly catchup with ACT MP Simon Court, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to him about all these topics, starting with Todd Stephenson’s members bill.