The Wire with Caeden

It's The Thursday Wire with Stewart Sowman-Lund and Deb Rawson!

This week:

• The Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has lashed out at coalition partner Labour, over their handling of the abortion law debate. Commentator Ben Thomas breaks down what this means for the government.
• Plus, the Official Cash Rate dropped yesterday by 50 basis points… double market expectations. But what is the official cash rate? And why should we care that it’s dropped. Economist Shamubeel Eaqub explains it in language we can all, hopefully, understand.
• After that, Justice Minister Andrew Little is here for his weekly catch-up. Stewart asks him whether he was blindsided by Winston Peters’ talk of a referendum on abortion use.
• Then, as protests at Ihumatao continue, Deb asks what this all means from a legal perspective.
• And finally - we’ll catch up with our Australian Correspondent to get all the latest news from across the ditch in Neighbourhood Watch!

It's The Thursday Wire! 

Justin Wong gives an update on the rally at the University of Auckland on the 6th of August, in solidarity with Hong Kong.

Joel Rindelaub is a research fellow at the University of Auckland, he’s currently studying applications of analytical chemistry, whether it’s environmental concerns or forensic science. Recently, he wrote a piece in Newsroom called Why Sources Matter in a Climate of Ignorance? It talked about a so-called climate expert who was not in fact a climate expert. An excerpt from the piece reads as follows: “Not only does he propagate material that misrepresents our current understanding of science, he has also displayed ethically dubious behaviour while doing so.” Lillian Hanly got Joel into the studio to have a chat and started by asking him why he wrote the piece.

This is topical because only this morning National MP Chris Penk tweeted in regards to the abortion reform legislation announcement, “Sure, we expected some changes but nothing so extreme (/cruel?) as liberalising abortion right up to birth.” Which is just blatantly incorrect. 

When questioned on this, leader of the National Party Simon Bridges told Radio NZ, ‘one person’s misinformation is another person’s fact’.

On Dear Science with AUT’s Allan Blackman we talk about rogue molecules, less money for glyphosate cancer rulings and an allegedly boring element.

Justin gives us an update on the rally at uni yesterday in solidarity with Hong Kong.

Tuwhenuaroa was out at Ihumātao this morning, and is live in studio to give us a bit of an update.

Joel Rindelaub, a research fellow here at the university, talks to Lillian about the importance of naming your sources when it comes to climate crisis research.

And Sherry speaks to Jacqui Forbes, general manager of Para Kore about waste minimisation.