The Wire with Caeden

On Monday, Auckland Council staff were sighted taking belongings such as tents and sleeping bags from rough sleepers at the Grafton United Cricket Club ground. 

This is happening at a time where the amount of rough sleepers on Auckland’s streets has increased 90 percent since last September and 15 percent of those leaving emergency housing are going straight to homelessness. 

On Tuesday, Auckland Council’s Community Committee received updates on the state of homelessness in the city and discussed what the Council’s response will be. 

For City Counselling this week Producer Sanat spoke to Councillor Julie Fairey about the worsening homelessness in the city. 

Sanat started by asking about the incident on Monday and whether Auckland Council is doing enough to respond to homelessness.

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, News and Editorial Director Joel spoke to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni on the spike in homelessness in Auckland, yesterday’s nurses strike, and the end to same-day voter enrollment.

For City Counselling this week, Producer Sanat spoke with Councillor Julie Fairey about reports earlier this week of Auckland Council staff taking tents and sleeping bags from rough sleepers in the CBD and more broadly what Auckland Council’s response to homelessness looks like.

For International Desk, Joel spoke to Justin Sobion, Senior Tutor in Law at the University of Auckland and counsel for Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’, on the recent International Court of Justice ruling on states' climate change obligations.

And Sanat spoke to Associate Dean Pacific of the University of Auckland Sir Colin Tukuitonga about the growing drug crisis in the Pacific.

According to outreach providers, Auckland has had a 90% increase in homelessness since September last year.

Auckland Council’s Community Committee Chair Angela Dalton says government policy changes have “made it harder for people to access emergency housing.”

The committee has called for the government to work with frontline agencies to address the issue.

Yesterday, nearly 36,000 nurses, midwives, and healthcare workers went on strike for 24 hours.

This followed the breakdown of mediation talks between the nurses' union and Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand.

The union says they are striking because of the ‘dire’ staffing situation.

And the government has announced a series of electoral law changes, including the end to same-day voter enrollment. 

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, News and Editorial Director Joel spoke to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about all of these issues.

They started by asking about the increase in homelessness in Auckland.

For our weekly catchup w/ the Green Party Oto spoke with MP Ricardo Menendez-March about the government’s move to scrap same-day election enrolments, the Climate Change Commission’s recent annual monitoring report on emissions reductions and the Greens petition to reinstate passenger rail services across the country.

And for this week’s Get Action! He spoke with Brandon Johnstone, a BDS coordinator at Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa about a petition calling on retailers and stockists to swap out SodaStream for more ethical alternatives.

Max spoke with Dr Catherine Morgan from the University of Auckland, to talk about the new project to develop an AI tool that can predict dementia risk.

Tuesday Wire Host Sara spoke with Sadie Mills the invertebrate collection manager at Earth Sciences New Zealand about a study looking into deep sea species in Aotearoa’s waters