The Wire with Caeden

Yesterday Minister for Racing Winston Peters told a select committee he would not rush a decision on whether Greyhound racing will be banned or not.

He cited the potential legal ramifications of a ban and also made the comment ‘dogs love racing.’

Wire host Caeden spoke to Campaign Manager for the Animal Rights group SAFE, Emma Brodier, about this delay in making a decision on a ban. 

They started by asking about SAFE’s thoughts on Peters’ more controversial comments.

The current coalition government has decided not to implement Labour’s plans to do mandatory reporting for pay gaps with companies that have more than 250 employees. 

Instead they will introduce a voluntary tool for companies to use in order to determine Gender pay gaps.

Rawan spoke with Senior human rights advisor Oliver Christeller from the Human rights commission about what this tool is and what the benefits could be. 

They also talked about the Commissioners' call to include ethnicity pay gap into the conversation. They discussed the current state of the ethnicity pay gap and why there needs to be an increased focus on this now more than ever.

This week is scrutiny week in Parliament. This is a chance for the opposition to question relevant Ministers about the budget in select committees, and for the public to see the inner workings of government questioned in an accessible way. 

Some of the headlines to have come out of this week include discussions of New Zealand failing to uphold climate commitments, supporting media, and what makes this country liveable in light of the high numbers of New Zealanders moving overseas.

For our weekly catch-up with Green Party MP Ricardo Menéndez March Wire host Caeden asks about all these topics. 

They started by asking about what scrutiny week means.

For Dear Science this week, we chatted to Dr. Cushla McGoverin about a potential new treatment option for polycystic ovary syndrome, and a new development in the study of pain and 34,000 year old termite moulds. 

Wire host Castor spoke to the National Party’s Suze Redmayne about changes to speed limits and agriculture being removed from the ETS. 

He also spoke to the University of Auckland's Kendra Cox about removal of section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act. 

He also spoke to Dr Gabriela Baron about green consumerism and its impacts on the environment. 

Producer Elle spoke to Greenpeace Aotearoa’s Freshwater Campaigner Will Appelbe about the Resource Management (Freshwater and other matters) Amendments Bill.