The Wire with Caeden

This week on the Tuesday Wire...

For Dear Science, our expert, Professor Allan Blackman chats with us about personalised gene therapy treatment, using molecules to crack passcodes, and Olympic pool bombing. 

In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor asked about Pay Equity in light of the government’s recent changes. 

They also spoke to Professor Terryann Clark from the University of Auckland about social media use among young people. 

Producer Faith spoke to the Dr Chanelle Duley, an economics lecturer at the university of Auckland, about how financial technology can be used for good, and what we need to be cautious of.

She also spoke to Professor Frederique Vanholsbeeck from the university’s physics department about deep tech, and how NZ can better utilise it. 

Many experts believe that New Zealand should also be grabbing more opportunities to keep up with the rest of the world, and invest more in “deep tech."

Producer Faith spoke to Professor Frederique Vanholsbeeck from the University of Auckland’s physics department about deep and quantum technologies, and their benefits. 

Just under two weeks ago the government passed the pay equity amendment bill under urgency. This bill would change existing pay equity legislation to make it more restrictive, which the government says will save billions of dollars. 

The process was originally introduced to address issues of pay inequity between sectors. While the Equal Pay Act mandates that people working the same job are paid the same regardless of gender, Pay Equity is meant to ensure industries dominated by women are not paid less than similar industries dominated by men. The process has worked by allowing applicants to compare their positions with positions in other sectors with similar workloads, skills, or experience. 

The government’s changes will limit the criteria for comparators, allow only industries with over 70% women in the workforce as opposed to the previous 60%, and removing the ability for the authority to award back pay, among other changes. 

These changes have been met with criticism from rights organisations, advocacy groups, and opposition parties. In our weekly catchup with National’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor asked about the government’s reasoning behind the Pay Equity Amendment Bill. 

Last week Finance minister Nicola Willis announced a $190 million social investment fund that will invest in at least 20 social service initiatives over the next year. 

Three projects will receive initial funding: an Autism New Zealand programme providing early support to 50 families; an expansion of Emerge Aotearoa’s work with at-risk youth; and He Piringa Whare, a data-informed programme to support at-risk Māori.

Social Investment is a policy that has been seen from previous National governments, largely associated with former prime minister Bill English. 

Under English, the policy involved using data to calculate which groups of people cost the government the most over a lifetime. Interventions aimed at reducing that cost are then targeted at those people. 

However critics say this often leads to fiscal outcomes being valued over social outcomes, or profit over people. 
This time around the government claims they’ll focus on social outcomes over financial ones - but the policy’s real effects are yet to be seen. 

Producer Evie spoke to the University of Auckland’s Associate Professor in Environment Tom Baker about the fund, and how we can expect it to take effect this time around.