The Wire with Alex

There is a mystery to be solved with NZ’s copper butterfly species and The Butterfly Discovery Project has been established to find and fund a PhD student to solve it. Stella spoke with Angela Moon Jones, a project leadm to know more.

This week on The Wire for Rāapa Wednesday!

News and Editorial Director Jess Hopkins speaks to David Seymour in our weekly chat with the ACT Party.

Joe looks at the suicide rate dropping for the third year as well as having a korero about mental health. He speaks to Shaun Robinson, the Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation, and Kaaren Mathias, a Senior Lecturer from the University of Canterbury.

We have Eurovision with our European Correspondent Cameron Adams! 

Joe also speaks to Rhys Jones Associate Professor Te Kupenga Hauora Maori, at the University of Auckland about Health inequities between Māori and non-Māori adults costing NZ$863.3 million per year.

That's us for this weeks Wednesday Wire!

Yesterday, the Annual Provision Suicide Data was released. It showed that 538 people died by suspected suicide, down from 607 the year before and 628 in the year to 2020. 

This release showed the rate per 100,000 was 10.2, which is statistically lower than the average rate over the last 13 financial years. It is also the third year in row suicides have decreased. 

The Mental Health Foundation says, "each of these 538 people leave behind grieving whānau and friends. We send you all our aroha and acknowledge your deep pain and loss.”

Joe spoke to the Chief Executive of The Mental Health Foundation, Shaun Robinson, on the matter.

Māori health inequity directly costs the health system $39.9 million per year, according to a new Indigenous-led study. When researchers added indirect costs of $823.4 million from lost years of life and lost wages, which were mostly borne directly by Māori whānau, the overall cost skyrocketed to over $863.3 million.

Māori significantly under-utilised primary care, creating an annual saving to the health system of $49.4 million per year. The authors point out that these are conservative estimates, and say that the 'cost of doing nothing' about health inequity is predominantly borne by Indigenous communities and society - less than 5% of the cost is borne by the health system.

Joe spoke to Rhys Jones, Associate Professor in Te Kupenga Hauora Maori, from the University of Auckland on the matter.