The Wire with Caeden

American singer, Katy Perry, recently had a court win in a long-running trademark dispute with Australian fashion designer, Katie Perry. The singer successfully appealed a 2023 Federal Court decision, resulting in the fashion designer having her trademark cancelled, and being ordered to pay costs.

Producer Athena spoke to Associate Professor at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Law, Rob Batty, about what gave rise to the case, how trademark law was applied, and what the recent decision might mean for smaller names.

Last week the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 was released. 

The report delved into the lessons learnt during the pandemic, featuring 39 primary recommendations within the 713 page report. 

These recommendations explored a number of social, economic and health impacts of the pandemic, how the government responded and how the country could be better prepared for future pandemics. 

The report explores the good and not so good moves by the government, and how they could have been more efficient in their response.  

However, research fellow at the University of Auckland’s Liggins Institute, Dr Anna Brooks says that the report fails to consider the long term impacts of Covid-19 that continue to affect many New Zealanders today. 

Producer Evie spoke to Dr Brooks about these concerns, and how realistic it is that the recommendations will actually be implemented.

This week on the Monday wire... 

Producer Evie speaks to Te Pāti Māori's Mariameno Kapa-Kingi about the thousands who have enrolled in the Māori Roll following the hīkoi mō te tiriti, the gang patch legislation coming into effect, and the COP29 climate summit talks.

Evie also catches up with the ACT Party's Simon Court about the party marking one year in government and how they think they’ve done so far, along with the gang patch ban legislation officially coming into power. 

Producer Yesenia speaks to the PSA’s National Health Sector lead, Ashok Shankar, on the Government planning to axe 1500 public health care roles. 

She also speaks to Associate Professor of Global Studies at the University of Auckland, Chris Ogden, about Donald J. Trump's return to the oval office and his push to authoritarianism.

And finally, producer Evie speaks to senior research fellow at the University of Auckland Dr Anna Brooks on the just released Royal Commission Inquiry into Covid-19 and how it fails to address the long term impacts of the disease. 

Whakarongo mai!

Last week, the government’s ban on wearing gang patches in public went into effect. The legislation was debated heavily from its inception, with some questioning whether it was necessary or raising potential human rights concerns. The legislation passed regardless.

The annual COP29 talks also concluded last week, with countries discussing measures to reduce global emissions to reach climate change targets. The discussions bring about an opportunity to assess our national efforts to reduce emissions, and make projections for our Paris Agreement targets. 

This week in our catchup with National’s Tom Rutherford, Wire Host Castor speaks to him about the gang patch ban and Aotearoa’s emissions targets in light of COP29.