The Wire with Alex

This week on the Tuesday Wire:

For Dear Science this week, our expert, Professor Allan Blackman, chats  about the importance of uranium 235, thanks to MOTAT.

In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Tom Rutherford, Tuesday Wire Host Castor asks about New Zealand’s exit from the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, and new systems in place for ADHD diagnosis.

News and Editorial Director, Joel, speaks to Make It 16 member, and Youth MP for Ilam, Sam Allan, about a majority of Youth MPs backing calls to lower the voting age in both local and general elections.

And Joel speaks to the Northland Regional Manager for Forest and Bird, Dean Baigent-Mercer, about a recently conducted NIWA-led study that shows Aotearoa’s native forests are absorbing substantially more carbon dioxide than previously thought.

Whakarongo mai!

Recently, new NIWA-led research has shown that Aotearoa’s native forest’s are absorbing substantially more carbon dioxide than previously thought.

This has raised concerns that the government is not doing enough to regulate pests that are harming native forest carbon sinks.

News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to the Northland Regional Manager for Forest and Bird, Dean Baigent-Mercer, about this, and what the government is doing regarding these concerns.

This week on the Monday Wire:

There will be no catch up with Te Pāti Māori, and for the immediate future, due to the tragic passing of our spokesperson, Takutai Kemp, last week. Our thoughts go out to her whānau, friends, loved ones, and Te Pāti Māori as a whole.

For our weekly catch-up with the ACT Party’s Simon Court, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, speaks to him about the passing of Takutai Kemp, and the Regulatory Standards Bill, specifically about David Seymour’s posts criticising individuals opposing the bill for suffering from "Regulatory Standards Derangement Syndrome".

Joel speaks to Joshua Yuvaraj, a Senior Law Lecturer at the University of Auckland, about Meta’s copyright win over 13 authors, over using the authors work to train their Llama AI models, and what this case means heading forward regarding AI and copyright infringements.

Producer Sam speaks to Saeid Baroutian, a Professor in the Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering at the University of Auckland, about a world-first study looking into electrical fires in rubbish trucks caused by improperly disposed ion-lithium batteries.

Joel speaks to the Medical Director of the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation, Bob Hancox, about the Healthy Homes Standards coming into effect tomorrow, and the organisation’s concerns regarding landlord’s ability to self-certify that their homes meet these guidelines.

And Sam speaks to the Regional Conservation Manager at Forest & Bird, Nicky Snoyink, about a bill in Parliament that would allow pests such as deer and tahr into our national parks.

Whakarongo mai

From tomorrow onwards, the Healthy Homes Standards will come into effect.

The guidelines require landlords to meet minimum standards of heating, insulation, ventilation, among other things; a law that was signed into effect in 2019.

Despite this, many are concerned that landlords can ‘self-confirm’ they meet these standards without external scrutiny.

News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to the Medical Director of the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation, Bob Hancox about these guidelines, and how the organisation are feeling about the standards heading into tomorrow.