The Wire with Caeden

Last week Te Whatu Ora, Health New Zealand announced they were offering voluntary redundancies to admin and advisory staff. This follows 268 roles already being cut from Te Whatu Ora’s commissioning team. 

The organisation has said that the “majority of their expenditure is on people costs, and Health NZ needs to review its size and structure.” Adding that “they are providing the opportunity for eligible staff to consider voluntary redundancy ahead of likely formal change consultation processes over the coming months.” 

However many health staff say a cut to admin will put more pressure on the already understaffed and overworked nurses, doctors and primary care workers. 

New Zealand Nurses Organisation Chief Executive Paul Goulter says Te Whatu Ora did not follow the correct consultation processes before arriving at the conclusion that there should be redundancies. 

He added that any reduction of staff will impact on the people who remain. Saying removal of supporting roles means that other staff must pick the work they’re doing, something he calls unacceptable. 

Producer Evie spoke to Goulter about Te Whatu Ora’s voluntary redundancies and the impacts they will have on other healthcare workers. 

Last week Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced that levies paid by the fishing industry will be slashed by nearly $5 million dollars. 

The levies are used to manage the environmental impacts of commercial fishing. This includes monitoring fish populations, making sure observers are on boats, and researching the impacts fishing is having on the wider ocean environment. 

The same day, Jones announced a bill that will extend coastal permits for marine farms by 20 years. 

It was opposed by Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori due to environmental concerns. Greenpeace says that Jones is prioritising private commercial gain over the wellbeing of the oceans. 

Producer Evie spoke to Greenpeace’s Ellie Hooper about the changes made by Shane Jones and the potential environmental impacts they could have on our oceans.

Earlier this year, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith in a private meeting with Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones and seafood industry representatives discussed potential changes to the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011, which is a piece of legislation that replaced the controversial Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004. 

The Takutai Moana Act allows Māori to apply for certain customary rights over the foreshore and seabed under customary marine title. 

The government intends to change section 58 of the Act which currently requires an applicant group to prove they have "exclusively used and occupied it from 1840 to the present day without substantial interruption". The proposed changes would change the section 58 test to reduce the 100% of coastline subject to customary marine title to 5%.

As a result, an urgent Waitangi Tribunal claim into the government’s proposed changes to the Act had its hearings this week. 

This is the seventh urgent inquiry by the Tribunal into the coalition government’s policies. 

Producer Sofia spoke to lawyer at Te Mata Law, Harry Clatworthy (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngai Te Rangi, and Ngāti Uenuku-Kōpako), about these proposed changes as well as the historical context of foreshore and seabed ownership in Aotearoa.

A recent study involving commuters in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, found that women and people of intersectional identities were more likely to avoid using public transport out of fear of harassment. 

Anti-harassment strategies proposed in that study promoted the idea of encouraging members of the public to become “active bystanders” during situations of harassment, where they could intervene by helping to de-escalate situations, reporting harassment incidents to transport staff and directly confronting perpetrators as a last minute resort.

Oto spoke to Doctoral candidate Kirsten Tilleman from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Auckland, to discuss what active bystanders are and the role they could play in preventing harassment on Auckland’s public transport