The Wire with Sara

Today on the Tuesday Wire, Emily Bell discusses Aotearoa moving to the new traffic light system on December 2nd at 11:59pm with University of Canterbury professor and Covid-19 modeller Michael Plank. 

Jemima Huston speaks to Deborah Hart from ASH New Zealand about the new Smokefree 2025 laws being put in place this week to protect children from smoking inside cars. 

Tuva’a Clifton catches up with the latest news from Waiheke Island's Pūtiki Bay and the building of the Kennedy Point marina. 

Emily interviews the Executive Head of the New Zealand Drug Foundation Sarah Helm about the increase of homelessness and anti-social behaviour in the Auckland CBD and what can be done to improve it.

Finally, this month is Movember! Jemima talks to Robert Dunne, the Country Manager for Movember New Zealand, about the charity and how it works to support and fundraise for men's health. 

This week new Smokefree 2025 law will take effect. The law aims to protect children under the age of 18 by banning smoking and vaping inside cars either moving or parked. This latest move is part of the government’s commitment to ensuring that by 2025 fewer than 5% of New Zealanders will be smokers or what is more commonly known as Aotearoa's Smokefree 2025 goal. 

News and Editorial Director Jemima Huston speaks to ASH New Zealand Director Deborah Hart about the new law. They discuss the how the law came to be, why the inclusion of vaping in the ban is confusing, and whether the Smokefree 2025 goal is realistic. 

ASH NZ is the leading independent smokefree campaign organisation in New Zealand whose work in supporting policy makers and leading a social campaign aims to reach the Smokefree 2025 goal. 

Recent research suggests that the Transeurasian language family originate from Chinese millet farmers 9,000 years ago. This goes against common views that these languages developed independently, which has been used to promote unique national and cultural identities. 

Louis spoke to the lead author of this research, Dr. Martine Robbeets, who is a comparative linguist at the University of Mainz and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Social Sciences. They talked about the origin and spread of these languages, as well as how they impact nationalistic arguments. 

Last week, the New Zealand Police published their annual report which included statistics of family violence. Every four minutes, a report of family violence is made, with this number expected to increase to every two and a half minutes by 2025. Shine's Policy Advisor, Holly Carrington, spoke with Charlie about why New Zealand is still continually seeing an increase in family violence, and what you can do to help vulnerable victims.