The Wire with Caeden

New research is claiming that New Zealand has one of the most distorted tax environments for housing of any country in the OECD. Dr. Andrew Coleman, an Affiliate of Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, argues that had tax policy been different, the country might not be seeing the housing crisis currently in effect. bFM reporter Ximena Smith spoke with Dr. Coleman earlier this week, starting with a breakdown of the tax problems we're currently are facing. 

This week, Jogai and Harry chat with Jan Logie about the government rejection of the Green Party’s Equal Pay Amendment Bill, and bFM reporter Katie Doyle has a report on threatened species strategy with Forest and Bird’s Kevin Hackwell. Our news director Ximena Smith catches up with Andrew Coleman to discuss the impacts of tax distortion on our current housing crisis, and Harry chats to owner of Search and Destroy about the changing face of Karangahape Road. Andrew Little is also back for our weekly chat. All this and more on the Thursday Wire - check out the full podcast here.
 

This week on the Wednesday show, Ximena & Adam hear a series of critical perspectives from a number of different voices, including Greater Auckland’s Matthew Lowrie on recent plans from Auckland Transport, as well as the Pacific Panther Network’s Sina Brown-Davis on the concept of Māori-run prisons. Sam Fraser-Baxter also joins us again this week for Dear Science, following-up on last week with a second round of fascinating shark-related fodder.

In New Zealand, Māori incarceration rates are disproportionately high - in 2015, 15% of New Zealand’s population identified as being Māori, while they currently make up around half of the prison population. Earlier this week the idea of Māori-run prisons resurfaced again within the media, with Labour corrections spokesperson Kelvin Davis saying it’s one solution to tackling high Māori incarceration rates, and Marama Fox telling us on The Wire yesterday that this is a solution the Māori Party has repeatedly raised with the government. But not everyone agrees this will be an effective way to approach this problem. Māori prison abolitionist and member of Pacific Panther Network, Sina Brown-Davis, told Ximena her thoughts about the proposal.