The Wire with Caeden

Figures from the hospitality job platform Barcats have shown the industry is short by 30,000 workers.

But John Crocker from Unite Union says the industry's current wages do not reflect this critical need for staff. 

"What the industry needs to do to attract workers is lift wages and conditions. The industry has had forever to do this, and it simply hasn't."

The Government's proposed Fair Pay Agreements Bill, currently awaiting its second reading, would provide a framework for collective bargaining for fair pay agreements across industries like hospo. 

News & Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to Crocker about the union's campaign for a Fair Pay Agreement for hospo workers, which they say is the best way to resolve ongoing shortages in the sector.

The government announced a ‘pragmatic proposal to reduce agricultural emissions’, a scheme formulated in consultation with the agricultural sector which will see it be brought into a kind of parallel to the emissions trading scheme, putting a price on farming emissions.

Casper had a chat with green party co-leader and climate change minister James Shaw about the proposal and what his role was in creating it.

Streaming, or putting students into high, middle, or low ability groups, is a common practice in schools across Aotearoa. 

In theory, streaming matches students’ needs to the appropriate resources and attention from teachers, but in reality, it can be discriminatory and lead to low self esteem. 

Christina spoke to Dr David Pomeroy, a University of Canterbury education lecturer, and Caitlin Soulsby, the head of Maths at Mana College, about what streaming actually means for rangatahi in Aotearoa.

The National party is proposing a set of tax cuts should it get into government next year. These cuts would index tax brackets to inflation but also reduce the overall tax burden of top earners in particular, raising many concerns about a similar scheme which was recently walked back in the UK after causing economic damage and drawing warnings from the IMF.

For Casper's weekly catchup with National MP Dr Shane Reti he asked him about the tax cuts, as well as a call he’s put forward as the party’s health spokesperson to increase free breast cancer screening up to the age of 74.