The Wire with Caeden

In its annual survey of top CEO pay issued last week, The New Zealand Herald showed the average earnings of CEO’s jumped 12 percent last year to $1,750,141 compared with a 2.4 percent rise for average New Zealanders.

As several researchers, including the University of Auckland’s Tim Hazeldine, have pointed out, the trend of overpaying CEOs “lacks any obvious empirical justification in terms of general improvements in marketing, productivity, and profitability.”

Rachel Simpson talks to Peter Malcolm, who is the Secretary General of Closing the Gap NZ. They talked about how to keep up the pressure on the government, corporates and CEOs during the upcoming election year.

The National Parties Denise Lee joins Laura Kvigstad for their weekly chat. This week, they have a chat about the Waitangi Tribunal and Simon Bridges comments that it should be disestablished "at some point". After that, they touch on the potential partnerships that the National Party could be interested in with the coming election. 

New vaping educational resources that have been launched by the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation, Laura Kvigstad has a chat with Chief Executive, Letitia Harding why the resources are important in addressing the concerns of rising youth use of vapes. 

On 11 November 2019, Gambia filed a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Myanmar of breaching its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention. The complaint included an urgent request for the Court to order “provisional measures” to prevent all acts that may amount to or contribute to the crime of genocide against the Rohingya and protect the community from further harm while the case is being adjudicated. De facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, rejected accusations of genocide, and urged the court to reject the case and refuse the request for provisional measures. At the end of last month, the Myanmar government- established Independent Commission of Enquiry concluded that while the Myanmar security forces may have been responsible for war crimes and “disproportionate use of force”, it found no evidence of genocidal intent. The full report has yet to be made public. However, the International Court of Justice has now officially ordered Myanmar to take “provisional measures” to prevent genocidal acts against the Rohingya community. Lillian Hanly spoke with Francisco Bencosme, the Asia Advocacy Manager for Amnesty USA, about what this means.