The Wire with Castor

The Plant Variety Rights Act 2022 is the first legal major reform to implement the Waitangi Tribunal's recommendations in response to Wai 262: Ko Aotearoa Tēnei, or more commonly known as the indigenous flora and fauna claim. 

Senior Lecturer Above the Bar at the University of Canterbury Faculty of Law and legal anthropologist, Dr David Jefferson, is researching the Act, as well as other legal frameworks, focussing on the impacts and potential for mana whenua in biodiversity management to protect taonga plants and mātauranga Māori.  

Producer Sofia spoke to Jefferson about his research, and whether the Plant Variety Rights Act 2022 fulfils the Crown's treaty obligations.

Last week, resources Minister Shane Jones released a draft strategy for mineral mining, aiming to double the amount of exports in the sector. 

The strategy also mentioned "significant amounts of different types and grades of coal deposits" in Aotearoa, and aimed to align consents for coal to other minerals in order to increase coal extraction.

In response, the Green party has created a petition, calling on the government to completely roll back on its coal mining initiatives and to protect the natural ecosystems of Aotearoa. 

For their weekly catch up, Oto spoke to Green Party MP, Ricardo Menendez-March, to discuss the petition. We also had a conversation about the Defence Minister Judith Collins decision to extend New Zealand Defence Force deployments to the Middle East and Africa

For Dear Science this week, Professor Allan Blackman chatted to us about reconstructing the genomes of extinct moa, a protein folding prediction programme, and a discovery forcing us to rewrite chemistry textbooks. 

Wire host Castor spoke to the National Party’s Katie Nimon about the Waikeria prison development and funding for corrections in advance of this week’s budget announcements. 

He also spoke to People Against Prisons’ Emmy Rākete about these developments and the government’s approach to crime more broadly. 

Producer Sofia spoke to Associate Professor of Medical Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland, David Menkes, about concerns over direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicine in Aotearoa. 

And Producer Ezra spoke to co-director of the New Zealand Centre for Human Rights Law Practice and Policy at the University of Auckland, Carrie Leonetti, about how Aotearoa needs to criminalise stalking.

An urgent open letter has called on the Minister of Justice, the Honourable Paul Goldsmith, to amend the Crimes act to include the act of stalking. 

Producer Ezra spoke to co-director of the New Zealand Centre for Human Rights Law Practice and Policy at the University of Auckland, Carrie Leonetti, about why criminalising stalking will help prevent innocent people from living in fear.