The Wire with Sara

With the recent case of a 23-million-year-old whale fossil recently excavated by a private collector on the West Coast of the South Island. Karamea locals and Ngāti Waewae, who viewed the fossil as a treasured local attraction, and has led to a police investigation.

Despite the upset it caused, the actual legal situation remains unclear. But the incident has generated significant local and international media attention, and raised questions about the role and ethics of private fossil collecting and trading

Joe spoke to Dr Nic Rawlence from the Paleogenetics Lab at the University of Otago on this matter.

Our segment with OurActionStation is back! This week Joe spoke to Project Gender about their campaign on pulling TV Show F-Boy Island. They say our public broadcasters need to do better. In an open letter to TVNZ, Project Gender demanded the network pull the FBoy Island NZ show immediately. This is because it normalises and champions predatory and dangerous sexual behaviour that harms people, particularly our rangatahi.

Joe spoke to the Director at Project Gender Angela Meyer about the research surrounding this campaign and the importance of promoting safe sexual practices.

The all important US midterm elections take place on Wednesday our time.

Control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate is up grabs.

Who has the majority in these two chambers will impact how US President Joe Biden and the US government will operate.

David spoke to Otago University Professor of International Relations at the Department of Politics Robert Patman about the topic.

Justice Minister Kiritapu Allan has recently announced that she plans to reform New Zealand hate speech laws before next year's general election. 

This comes after a royal commission report stemming from the christchurch terror attacks stated that  New Zealand does not "provide a workable mechanism to deal with hate speech".

Amnesty International Aotearoa has called for stronger laws covering digital hate speech and a widening of which groups are covered.

However, the opposition has opposed these calls, with the ACT party stating they would overturn the changes if they went into power. 

Liam spoke to Lisa Woods from Amnesty NZ about the laws, first asking for an overview of the current hate speech laws.