The Wire with Sara

Kainga Ora, New Zealand’s state housing provider has been subject to deep cuts under the current coalition Government. Current housing demand demonstrates that nationally nearly 30,000 houses are required. However, most developments that were in Kainga Ora’s pipeline have since been cancelled with the most recent cut coming in Whanganui where 138 planned houses have now been cut down to 7. 

This comes at the same time as the Government is trying to stimulate a sluggish housing market by offering tax incentives to property owners, lowering interest rates and opening up New Zealand’s housing market to overseas investors. This in the hopes that private developers and the market can cater to high levels of demand.

Producer Sanat talked to Vanessa Cole from the Public Housing futures campaign, a group that is trying to halt the deep cuts that are currently being experienced by Kainga Ora.

The University Advisory Group headed up by Sir Peter Gluckman made more than 60 recommendations to improve the fragmentation, poor governance and funding woes of the university sector. Sitting above them all was a ‘highest priority’ call to set up a standalone government agency to administer separate strategy and funding for universities. The Government has said no.

Producer Sanat spoke to the Tertiary Education Union’s spokesperson Sandra Grey about the Government’s response to this report and whether it will change the Tertiary Education Sector fundamentally to respond to the persistent challenges that have affected New Zealand’s Universities.  

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden asked about the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election, the latest update on an Amazon Data Centre opening in Auckland, and a new exemption to the ban on foreign buyers.

For International Desk, they spoke to Associate Professor in Disaster Resilience at the University of Newcastle, Iftekhar Ahmed, about the recent earthquakes in Afghanistan and the challenges of the disaster response.

For City Counselling this week, Producer Sanat spoke with Councillor Shane Henderson about the rise in Dog attacks across Auckland and public opposition to Auckland Council’s proposed housing intensification changes. 

After that he spoke to Vanessa Cole from the Public Housing Futures campaign about New Zealand’s state housing system and why the campaign is fighting for higher quality state housing. 

He also spoke to Tertiary Education Union spokesperson Sandra Grey about the Government’s response to the University Advisory Group’s report.

Earlier this week, The Washington Post published a leaked prospectus for a ‘Gaza Riviera’ plan that had reportedly been circulating the White House. 

Named the “Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust” or ‘GREAT’, the plan includes the forced displacement of Gaza’s entire population of 2 million people, as well as the territory being placed into a US trusteeship for at least a decade. Although it’s not yet clear whether the plan reflects US policy, it seems to match US President Donald Trump’s previously stated ambitions to “clean out” Gaza and redevelop it.

Critics of the plan identify it as a blueprint for mass deportation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people disguised as a marketing development, and that if the plan were to be executed it would include international crimes on an unimaginable scale.

To discuss what the leaked plan says about US foreign policy under Trump and how Aotearoa, as well as other countries, should respond to this, Producer Max spoke with John Minto, Co-Chair of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa.