The Wire with Sara

Colonisation continues to deeply affect the Pacific, with the production of health inequities tied closely to the unequal power dynamics still inflicted on Pacific nations by external high-income countries.

A recent article by a group of women academics and health professionals based in Fiji, Tonga, Sāmoa, and Aotearoa New Zealand has called for a reimagining in how global health is approached in the Pacific.

This proposed shift would see greater sovereignty exercised by Pacific nations in research and health, and a pluralistic worldview reflecting Indigenous Pacific knowledge systems.

To understand the state of global health in the Pacific, the reimagining her group has proposed, and the role that Aotearoa New Zealand can play, Producer Theo spoke to Public Health Medicine Specialist Dr Sainimere Boladuadua.

Last week, communities around the world took part in the first annual ‘Reclaim the Economy’ week, calling on grassroots action to develop alternatives to existing economic systems that prioritise growth over people and the planet.

Wire Host Sara spoke to environmental activist and Director of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance Aotearoa Gareth Hughes about the meaning of ‘reclaiming the economy’ and the context behind this movement.

We are now more than a year into Donald Trump’s second term as president. Over the past twelve months, we’ve seen the United States flex its military muscles both within the Western Hemisphere and beyond, launching a military operation in Venezuela and capturing president Nicolas Maduro, making further threats to take over Greenland, and provoking Iran by sending a fleet of warships to the Persian Gulf.

Last year, President Trump even signed an executive order, renaming the ‘Department of Defence’ to the ‘Department of War’ on the basis that the former name was too “woke.”

This morning, Producer Toby spoke with University of Auckland professor Chris Ogden about the assertion of hard power in American diplomacy, and how this can be understood through the theory of ‘political realism.

This week on the Monday Wire...

For our weekly catch-up with the ACT Party, Wire host Castor spoke to MP Simon Court about the ACT party’s stance on a new modern slavery bill and the prison population reaching an all time high.

On the prison population and Te Pāti Māori’s new policy of prison abolition, they spoke to academic and activist Dr Emmy Rākete.

And they spoke to the University of Auckland’s Hyesop Shin about the challenges involved with introducing congestion charging.

Producer Alex spoke to Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland, Treasa Dunworth, about New Zealand’s refusal to join the ‘Board of Peace,’ and what it means for our recognition of Palestinian Self-Determination.

He also spoke to Senior Research Fellow in General Practice and Primary care in the school of population health at the University of Auckland, Dr Samantha Marsh, about the new trial over Social Media Companies’ liability for adverse health affects of social media, and how it reflects and mirrors the decades of fighting against tobacco companies.