The Wire with Caeden

The Fox River debacle has been slowly and steadily coming to an end. You may remember the severe flooding that occurred in the Southland region which caused the river to overflow, and a landfill to flood. This meant that all that rubbish was then strewn along the river for kilometres. What followed was tension between national and local government. Local government said they didn’t have enough money to clean it up, national government said the local government's hadn’t planned well enough. And during this time, there weren’t enough hands on board to do the literal clean up. In the end, volunteers took it into their own hands, along with the NZ Defence Force and DOC. Because there was also a race against the Spring rains which might make the damage worse. And, more generally, DOC director general Lou Sanson said that climate change will make this sort of disaster a lot more likely. Finally, two days ago it was announced that protecting the river from future rubbish spills could cost the Westland District Council up to 2.8 million dollars. So, Rachel Simpson spoke with Eugenie Sage, the Minister for Conservation, and started by asking why so many people volunteered to help out.

On Dear Science with AUT’s Marcus Jones we talk about ebola drugs, e-cigarettes and cats eating grass

bFM reporter Rachel Simpson spoke with Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage about the end of the Fox River clean up 

Sherry speaks to University of Auckland employment law professor Bill Hodge on the recent bullying and intimidation allegations from the Labour Party 

Lillian speak with Polly Atatoa Carr of the University of Waikato about the effects of a significantly low response rate from Census 2018

And Tuwhenuaroa speaks with Jordan Aramoana Waiti about Waikato University’s new Bachelor of Health degree focussed on Hauora Maori.

Welcome to The Wire for Tuesday the 13th of August. Podcast edition.

On the show today; 

At the Green Desk, Mitchell talks to AUT’s Associate Professor Sebastian Leuzinger about Kauri tree stumps and their root graft systems.

Olivia talks to Jean Te Huia, midwife and Māori health advocate, about how our child welfare system has developed since its founding in colonial law and what needs to be changed. 

And finally for Board Games, Sarah Trotman and Josh Doubtfire, of Communities and Residents, join us to talk on their Waitematā local election campaigns.

A big thank you to everyone who talked to us today! 

Host Olivia talked to the incredibly insightful Jean Te Huia about the child welfare system and how it's structure disproportionately affects Māori. They discussed the history of the child welfare system and also talked about some recommendations for its reform. Olivia began by asking what the origin of Aotearoa's child welfare system was?