The Wire with Castor

Former Green Party MP Darleen Tana has been under investigation and public scrutiny after allegations of migrant worker exploitation emerged at E Cycles, a business owned by Tana’s husband.

After the allegations surfaced, Tana was dismissed from the Green Party, but maintained her innocence, saying she had limited involvement in her husband’s business and that the allegations made against her were false.

In response, an independent investigation into the allegations and Tana’s involvement in her husband’s business was launched, which the Green Party released an executive summary of last week. 

For their weekly catch-up, Oto spoke to Green Party MP Ricardo Menéndez-March to discuss the executive summary, it’s findings, as well as Tana’s response.

A recent study has discovered that there is production of oxygen on the bottom of the ocean. Almost eight-hundred marine scientists have signed a petition highlighting the importance of the discovery and for a pause on seafloor mining. The oxygen is produced by metallic nodes underneath the ocean, containing metals which are commonly mined for batteries. This oxygen could potentially support fragile aquatic life.

Sasha spoke with Juressa Lee, a deep sea mining campaigner from Greenpeace about the new discovery, as well as steps that are being taken to reduce ocean floor mining.

On Wednesday the 17th of July, the government opened submissions on the second Emissions Reduction Plan.

The Emissions Reduction Plan outlines the steps the government intends to take to meet its emission budgets.

This second Emissions Reduction Plan will lay out the government’s climate plans from 2026-2030.

The plan includes initiatives such as setting a target of 10,000 electric vehicle chargers by 2030, investigating carbon capture and storage, and improving organic waste and landfill gas capture.

However, the draft has received criticism from climate experts for not being ambitious enough in it’s initiatives to reduce emissions.

Producer Josef spoke with Ralph Sims, Professor Emeritus of Sustainable Energy and Climate Mitigation at Massey University, about the draft plan and how he thinks the plan will impact Aotearoa’s emissions reduction efforts.

For more information on the plan and to have your say, you can go to consult.environment.govt.nz, submissions close on the 21st August 2024.

On July 1st, the excise tax on heated tobacco products (or HTPs) was dropped unannounced by fifty percent. 

Speaking on the change, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello sez the reduction will help the government test the effectiveness of HTPs as a tool to help people quit smoking. 

However, given Costello’s previous parroting of tobacco industry talking points, there are worries that this change could also be coming from industry backed research. In addition, the scientific research to support the use of HTPs is slim to nonexistent. 

Wire host Castor to professor of public health at the University of Otago and co-director of the Aspire Aotearoa Research Centre, Janet Hoek, about heated tobacco products and the evidence to support them.