The Wire with Castor

Following the revised budget plan for 2024, the government has allocated $191 million dollars over the next four years for early childhood centers. This marks a significant decrease in funding from previous years and has sparked concerns about the neglect of early childhood education.

Rachel spoke with Professor at the University of Otago, Alex Gunn, to discuss the implications of the lack of funding in early childhood education centers. 

Rachel also spoke with the Excutive CEO of the Early Childhood Council, Simon Laube, to discuss their plans on how they will be assisting the early childhood centers and addressing the funding gap.

The National-led coalition government has recently confirmed they will be shutting down he waka eke noa, which was an agriculture emission plan set out by the previous government instead of placing agriculture under the emission trading scheme.

The current government has instead decided to create a pastoral sector group for agriculture with more details yet to come. 

I spoke with Niamh O’Flynn from Greenpeace Aotearoa about how this will further worsen the climate crisis and what actions need to be taken to urgently turn things around.

Last Saturday, thousands gathered in Central Auckland for the 'March for Nature Rally' led by Greenpeace, to demonstrate their opposition towards the government’s Fast Track Approvals bill and other policies involving environmental conservation.

Green Party MP Ricardo Menéndez-March was present at the rally, alongside many of his colleagues, and for their weekly chat, he and Oto discussed the implications of the rally and opposition to the government’s environmental policies. 

They also talked about the recently announced changes to the Emissions trading scheme, as well as the government’s decision to invest $4 billion dollars into a fund to repair potholes.

This weekend’s march for nature saw 20,000 people gathering in Central Auckland to protest against the Fast Track Approvals Bill. Submissions closed just under two months ago, and the select committee is currently reviewing and proposing changes to the bill. 

The bill has been quite controversial since its proposal, with debate from both sides of parliament and the public on whether the potential benefits outweigh the costs. 

The ram raid bill, initially proposed under the previous Labour government, has equally been met with controversy, particularly for how it fails to address the core issues of youth offending, instead proposing prosecuting those as young as 12 years old.

In our weekly catchup with the National Party, Wire Host Castor spoke to MP Tom Rutherford about the Fast Track Approvals Bill as it moves through the select committee process, and how the current government plans to handle the ram raid bill.