The Wire with Castor

An Official Information Act request reported on last week by Newsroom revealed Minister for Resources Shane Jones obscured the nature of an undeclared meeting with multiple mining companies about the Fast-Track Approvals process in February. 

Initially, Jones told Newsroom the dinner was a “last minute thing”, however he corrected the record the following day saying the dinner was arranged in advance with two other participants. 

In response, Communities Against the Fast-Track, a coalition of communities, groups and other individual community organisers, have called for Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to remove Jones from his portfolio.

Wire host Sofia Roger Williams spoke to spokesperson for Communities Against the Fast-Track, Augusta Macassey-Pickard, about this, starting the interview asking her how concerned she and the Communities Against the Fast-Track groups were about this behaviour. 

In breaking news early this morning, President Joe Biden stepped down as the democratic candidate in the election race. It comes following mounting concern around Biden’s age and competence to serve another term as President, as well as a campaign from the party itself for the President to step back. 

Now, only three and half months out from election day the democrats must pick a new candidate, likely to be Vice-President, Kamala Harris. 

Producer Evie spoke to Geopolitical Analyst from the University of Otago, Geoffrey Miller, about what happens next and what effect this will have on the democrats chances of staying in office. We also talk about what impact the result of the election will have here in Aotearoa, as well as on the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine.

Wire host Caeden speaks to Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime about the beginning of boot camps for youth offenders at the end of this month and funding cuts at Oranga Tamariki. 

They speak to Dr Simone Watkins from the University of Auckland about the importance of equitable approaches for Māori, Pacific, and Indian communities in our health system.

And they speak to the University of Auckland’s Liz Beddoe about the state of reproductive justice in the United States two years on from the overturning of Roe v Wade.

For City Counselling this week, Producer Sofia speaks to Councillor Julie Fairey about flood prevention work in Māngere and Muriwai as well as increasing public safety in Auckland’s CBD. 

Tuesday Wire host Castor spoke to Professor of business at the University of Auckland, Alex Sims, about the history and impact of planned obsolescence.

For their regular catch-up, Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menéndez March about the new climate strategy announced by Climate Change Minister Simon Watts. 

He spoke to John Minto from Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa about the updated death toll in Gaza published by UK Medical Journal - The Lancet, as well as New Zealand’s participation in RIMPAC and the government’s increased support for Ukraine.

For this week’s Get Action! He spoke to Ayah Kayed from Students for Justice in Palestine Pōneke to talk about a petition calling for Victoria University of Wellington to divest from the state of Israel.

And he spoke to Professor Emeritus Ralph Cooney from the University of Auckland about advancements in solar and wind power and the contribution to our net zero emissions goals.

Sasha spoke to Professor Emeritus Ralph Cooney from the University of Auckland about advancements in solar and wind power and it's contribution to our net zero emissions goals.