The Wire with Castor

Wire Host Caeden speaks to Labour’s Shanan Halbert about Labour’s attendance at Palestine protests in Tāmaki Makaurau and the newly announced National Land Transport Programme and its lack of support for public transport.

And for State of the States this week, they speak to Yale Daily News’ Andre Fa’aoso about the ballot measures, college political campaign groups, and the recent school shooting in the state of Georgia.

For City Counselling this week, Sofia catches up with Councillor Shane Henderson about changes to Auckland Council’s committee structure, a proposal to introduce fortnightly rubbish collection, and what the government’s National Land Transport Programme means for Auckland

She also speaks to Associate Professor at the Department of Tourism at the University of Otago, Julia Albrecht, about the government introducing an increase to the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy. 

She also speaks to the National Chair of Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa, John Minto, about the UK government suspending arms shipments to Israel and whether Aotearoa New Zealand should follow its lead. 

Following a call of urgent action from energy minister Simeon Brown and the coalition government, the government intends to reverse the ban on oil and gas exploration beyond onshore Taranaki. 

This decision comes after Simeon Brown declared New Zealand to have an energy shortage, leading to the highest wholesale electricity prices of comparable countries. At the same time however, there has been a continual increase in solar panel power which may solve New Zealand’s energy crisis.

Sasha spoke to Professor Barry Barton from the University of Waikato about the governments’ intention to remove the oil and gas exploration ban.

For their regular catch-up, Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menéndez March about the National Land transport Programme, the Ministry of Education removing information on charter schools from their website and the party’s nomination for bird of the year.

He spoke to Professor Christine Rubie-Davies from the University of Auckland to talk about the practice of streaming in classrooms and the Kōkirihia initiative led by Ngāi Tahu which looks to replace it with High expectation teaching and mixed ability classrooms.

And he spoke to Researcher Leueta Mulipola from the University of Auckland to talk about a study she conducted on anger studying anger through the lens of Samoan youth in Aotearoa.

Sasha spoke to John Minto from Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa about double standards in New Zealand's media coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza.

He also spoke to Professor Barry Barton from the University of Waikato about the government’s intention to reverse the oil and gas exploration ban.

The government recently announced its New National Land Transport Plan for 2024- 2027. The plan would consist of a $32.9 billion package, largely going towards the development of new roads, many of which are part of the Roads of National Significance programme, as well as maintaining and repairing existing highways and improving public transport in Aotearoa’s major cities.

Based on the it's large expenditure on road and highway development, the Greens issued statements calling out the plan for increasing car dependency and the potential for greater emissions shortly after it was announced. 

For our weekly catchup, Oto spoke to Green Party MP Ricardo Menendez-March about the party’s take on the National Land Transport plan. 

They also had a chat about the Ministry of Education removing information on previous iterations of charter schools from their website, as well as the party’s nomination for bird of the year and why it’s important.