The Wire with Caeden

Today on the Wire, Emily Bell speaks to Doctor Amanda Kvalsvig, an epidemiologist at the University of Otago campus in Wellington, about the debate about N95 masks and how important they are.

The move to the red setting has posed a serious hit to the music and arts industry, with all events over 100 people being cancelled and many artists losing out on work. Jemima Huston interviews event directors John Minty from Splore, Matthew Davis from The Others Way and Dan Hesson from Freqs Out East about their cancellation and postponement decisions. Jemima also speaks to musician and artist Jazmine-Mary about the letter they have written to the Prime Minister asking for support for artists and performers who have lost their jobs in the face of the red setting.

Finally, Emily talks to Manager of the South Island Kōkako Trust Inger Perkins about the search for the South Island Kōkako bird and how the public can get involved.

Following the government’s announcement that Aotearoa would move to the red setting of the traffic light system on Monday 24 January, a number of events were forced to cancel or postpone. This is yet another massive blow to the music, arts and events industry, whose artists and workers have spent the last two years of the pandemic struggling to find consistent work and promoters have had to cancel or change the dates for their events multiple times. 

News and Editorial Director Jemima Huston reaches out to a few people working in the performance art sector who have been impacted by the red setting. Firstly, Jemima speaks to Director of Splore John Minty, Director of Freqs Out East Dan Hesson and Director of The Others Way Mathew Davis, who are all promoters for summer festivals that have had to cancel or postpone due to the shift to the red light setting. They discuss how the pandemic has affected events and whether the exisitng events support schemes are enough to get the people involved in the industry through the Omicron outbreak. 

Secondly, Jemima chats to artist and musician Jazmine Mary who says there is no support available for artists who have effectively lost their jobs under the red setting and cannot access the wage subsidy. Jazmine has penned a letter to the Prime Minister and submitted a parliamentary petition request to call for support for artists and musicians in Aotearoa unable to work under 'red'. They explain what sort of financial support is needed and how the public can help their call for action from the government. 

To check out the follow up podcast on this issue, click here. 

Welcome.

On this week's Monday wire: 

Louis spoke to Child Matters' Chief Executive Jane Searle about the changes needed to reduce child abuse rates and Federated Mountain Clubs' President Jan Finlayson about their 90th anniversary. 

Charlie was joined by Make Good's founder Jacinta Fitzgerald and fair&good's Prasanna Nara about the impacts of fast fashion, as well as University of Victoria's Anton Hovius about a recent mosquito census. 

Enjoy. 

Fast fashion and over-consumption of fashion items has become a prevalent issue in the past few years. With hundreds of kilos of textile waste filling up New Zealand’s landfills each year, sustainable fashion is necessary for fashion to be an ethical product. Charlie spoke with Jacinta Fitzgerald, founder of Make Good regarding clothing wastage. Prasanna Nara, Communications Manager for fair&good, also spoke with Charlie to discuss sustainable fashion strategies.