The Wire with Caeden

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party Wire Host Caeden speaks to Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni about the oral submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill and Luxon’s State of the Nation speech where he revealed National’s intention to campaign on asset sales next election.

For the final State of the States, they speak to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about recent executive orders from Trump, the near-miss trade war with Colombia, DeepSeek AI, and the future of the Trump presidency.

For City Counselling this week, Producer Sofia speak to Councillor Julie Fairey about Auckland Council’s progress on storm recovery, two years on from the Auckland Anniversary floods. 

She also speaks to Professor of Māori Studies at the University of Auckland and te Tiriti o Waitangi expert, Margaret Mutu, about the Treaty Principles Bill oral submissions hearings which began this week.

It is a fact that what makes Aotearoa New Zealand an amazing place to live is nature. Our export industries are built off the idea of a ‘clean, green New Zealand’, attracting tourists and food exports.

Greenpeace’s Executive Director Russel Norman claims that “Luxon’s relentless War on Nature burns the natural capital of Aotearoa for short term GDP growth.”

He has called it a ‘war on nature’, and says that the clean-up costs of a coal mine are greater than a full year of royalties that coal companies pay to the government.

Sasha spoke in depth about Christoper Luxon’s continued ‘war on nature’ with Russel, further speaking on international implications.

Last week saw the redistribution of some important portfolios between National’s cabinet ministers. The two most important changes were the shift of Dr Shane Reti’s Health portfolio to Simeon Brown and Nicola Willis’ adoption of the new Minister for Economic Growth. 

In Luxon’s State of the Nation speech he spoke about the future of the country and promoting economic growth. He also spoke about his concern about New Zealanders heading overseas to see big name artists perform. 

In our weekly catchup with National’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor asked about each of these issues, starting with the National Party reshuffle.

Last week in a speech from ACT party leader David Seymour which he described as his own “State of the Nation” speech, he called for the privatisation of government assets. Seymour noted recent issues in public sectors such as health and housing, proposing that private organisations would manage operations better than the government. 

The Public Service Association says the privatisation of the health sector will lead to the prioritisation of profits over health outcomes for individuals. Countries like the United States where the health system is almost entirely private see those with or without insurance rejected from hospitals, unable to pay for life-saving treatment. 

Wire host Castor to National Secretary of the Public Service Association, Fleur Fitzsimons, about how a private health system would work in Aotearoa.