The Wire with Caeden

On the 25th of June, our regular City Counselling guest Julie Fairey was involved in a road collision while she was biking in her local area. Fairey wrote about the close call, which she says could have been a lot worse, in a piece published in the Spinoff, as a reinvigoration of her previous advocacy around the need for road safety measures that improve how safely and efficiently Aucklanders can get around the city.

As well, this week we’ve seen the release of the State of the City report, which compares Auckland on metrics including opportunity and prosperity, culture and experience, place and connectivity, innovation and knowledge, and resilience and sustainability.
The report found that we are ‘falling behind’ other cities, with the biggest emphasis placed on our poor economic productivity in comparison with similar locations.

Producer Sara spoke with Julie Fairey about both of these topics, firstly by asking her what motivated her to write about her recent collision.

Recently, Tōtara hospice in South Auckland announced they would be reducing their patient intake and services by almost a third due to funding gaps.

This announcement follows a hiring freeze the hospice had to put in place last month.

The Hospice helps provide end-of-life care at no direct cost to patients, and is the subject of an upcoming documentary series called ‘Hospice Heroes’.

While Minister of Health, Simeon Brown, has said that funding to the sector increased by 3% this year, representatives of the hospice have said that those figures weren’t nearly enough to cover the costs of their services and that other palliative care centres across the motu were experiencing similar pressures.

News and Editorial Director Joel spoke with Ed Boswell-Correa from the New Zealand Nurses Organisation about the service cuts at Tōtara hospice and how the sector at large is being affected.

Back in April, American company Colossal Biosciences had announced a successful project, from their point of view, to de-extinct the Dire Wolf. Now, the company has teamed up with Sir Peter Jackson, Canterbury Museum and the Ngai Tahu Research Centre, to begin the de-extinction of the South Island Giant Moa.

In April, we conducted an interview with Associate Professor and Director of the Paleogenetics Lab at the University of Otago, Nic Rawlence, who was displeased with the American company’s attempts at the Dire Wolf.

Now, to talk about the recent news of Colossal Biosciences' attempts to de-extinct the Moa, Producer Max spoke to Rawlence once again.

Last week Pharmac workers announced their first-ever strike over cuts to annual pay increases and deteriorating work conditions. Also last week, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation announced plans to strike on July 30th. The nurses' strike follows concerns around understaffing and overcrowding, with many staff members facing burnout. 

These two issues have been attributed to similar causes - not enough funding in the health sector, which is forcing redundancies, increased hours, and understaffing. While the government has committed extra funding to the health sector in the last two budgets, critics say the funding is inadequate and barely catching up to existing deficits. 

In our weekly catch-up with the National party, Wire host Castor asked Tom Rutherford about health funding and the government’s plans moving forward in light of the two recently announced health workers' strikes.