The Wire with Caeden

For their regular catch-up, Oto speak to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menéndez March about the government’s new traffic light sanctions for beneficiaries, as well as cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency and the party’s petition to roll back speed limit reversals. 

He spoke to Maude Loutsch from the University of Auckland about the impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle on housing in Aotearoa.

And, for this week’s Get Action! He spoke to Louisa Wall and Samantha Green a about a petition of theirs calling on public officials to be held accountable for sharing disinformation.

Sasha spoke to Professor Jodi Gardner from the University of Auckland to discuss government-funded energy deals for lower-income New Zealanders, including concerns surrounding heating and electricity

In the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, there was widespread damage to homes across affected areas in the North Island, with the housing market across the whole country facing massive subsequent reductions. 

Around 170 homes were deemed unsafe to enter, with almost 5000 others facing other infrastructural damages. 

Oto spoke to Maude Loutsch, a lecturer and PHD candidate in the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland, to discuss the impacts to housing caused by Cyclone Gabrielle and Aotearoa’s preparedness for housing impacts in the event of natural disasters.

The government also announced increased visa application fees, some of them now more than double the previous cost. The government says this change will make Immigration NZ entirely self-sufficient, no longer at any cost to the taxpayer.

However, the projected gain from this fee increase is four times as much as Immigration NZ currently spends annually. While the increased funding is expected to be reinvested in improving services, the actual impact or allocation is currently unknown. 

Additionally, increased fees may deter potential applicants and increase costs to businesses looking to hire employees from overseas. The change may therefore reduce the number of overseas teachers and healthcare professionals, among other jobs. 

Wire host Castor spoke to CEO of immigration advisory group Aims and chair of the New Zealand Association of Migration and Investment, Arunima Dhingra, about the changes and their impact on immigration. 

The government recently announced increases to visa application fees across several groups, in some cases more than doubling the cost to applicants. These changes are due to increase revenue for Immigration NZ, and are said to make the organisation 100% self-sufficient. 

On the 12th of August, the New Zealand Police Association released an open letter to the government calling out their exclusion from discussions around firearms legislation reform. The letter spoke to the necessity of existing legislation, and criticised the involvement of former and present gun lobbyists in the process, including the minister in charge Nicole McKee. According to the ACT party website, McKee was formerly the spokesperson for The Council of Licensed Firearms Owners, a gun lobbyist group. 

In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Katie Nimon, Wire host Castor asked about the changes to visa application fees and the involvement of police and gun lobbyists in firearms legislation reform.