The Wire with Caeden

Today on the Wire, we start with Dear Science. Christina Huang asks AUT Professor Marcus Jones about how Omicron affects children, the concerning rise in methane levels in the atmosphere, astronomers taking a stand against an the massive number of satellites in space.

Christina speaks to the National Party’s Covid-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop live about the party's ten point plan to tackle Omicron.\

Aneeka Moheed reports on her conversation with Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon about his call for compulsory Te Reo Māori classes to be introduced in schools.

Christina talks to Associate Professor Danny Osborne from the University of Auckland Social psychology department about the recent antivaccination protests, anti-government attitudes and how our mindset towards the pandemic has shifted over the past two years.

Finally, Jemima speaks to ACT Party Deputy Leader Brooke van Velden about the first three months of the End of Life Choice Act 2019 and the second reading of the bill that would ban conversion therapy in Aotearoa.

For the last few weeks, News and Editorial Director Jemima Huston has been following the calls made by people working in the arts and culture sector for more consistent and reliable government support to get people through the red setting. Last week, the government announced that $121 million of Covid relief funding for the sector had been made available and Jemima spoke to Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni about this. The Minister said that workers should be able to take comfort in the fact that the funding announced for Arts and Culture in 2020 had not yet been spent and that the government is taking any calls for help seriously. 

This week Jemima wanted to know what the industry reaction to the latest funding announcement has been. She caught up with promoter representative and freelance tour manager Sarin Moddle to ask what her thoughts were on the $121 million fund. Sarin says she has had mixed feelings about the fund but has settled on a belief that the government has simply "tinkered around the edges of what was already there" and have not made funding avenues that fit the purpose of providing direct financial support to industry workers. 

Sarin spoke with Jemima last week about what little help there is out there for people working in the arts, music and events industry. To listen to that podcast and find more coverage on this issue, click here. 

As the pandemic continues, many businesses and industries across New Zealand are struggling to stay afloat. This includes New Zealand’s tourism industry and all of the businesses which rely on overseas travelers to make up most of their annual income. A sector of the tourism industry which has been hit hard is the tourism bus and coach businesses. It has been reported that roughly a third of these companies have closed over the course of the pandemic, and if the pandemic is to continue for much longer, a further thirty percent more could also shut down. Emily Bell spoke to Ben McFadge, the CEO of the Bus and Coach Association New Zealand about the need for support from the government and what the future looks like for the industry.

This week has seen a couple of major announcements from the government regarding their response to Covid-19 and the Omicron variant. 

Firstly, the gap between the second vaccine and the booster shot has been shortened from a four month gap to just three, and the steps for Aotearoa to open up its borders have been laid out. 

Liam spoke to Doctor Dion O’Neale, a Principal Investigator, for Te Pūnaha Matatini and a senior physics lecturer at the University of Auckland about these decisions.