The Wire with Castor

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Caeden speaks to Labour spokesperson for Education and Women Jan Tinneti.

For City Counselling they speak to Auckland Councillor Lotu Fuli about feminist cities.

And they also speak to E Tū negotiation specialist Michael Wood about the job losses at TVNZ.

Jessica spoke to World Vision New Zealand’s Head of Advocacy and Justice, Rebekah Armstrong, about their report on the rising cost of basic food items in Aotearoa.

And Jasmine speaks to Dr. Hayden McRobbie from Te Whatu Ora and Sharon Pihema from the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation about Youth Vaping Culture in Aotearoa and the efficacy of current prevention initiatives.

The population of Aotearoa is growing rapidly, increasing by more than 100,000 people annually, with the largest recent growth happening in the years after COVID-19. In order to accommodate for this increase, Aotearoa needs to ensure that there is robust investment going into its public infrastructure so that the growing population has adequate access to services such as medical care and public transport. 

Currently, the coalition government seems to be ensuring the opposite of that, cutting around $2.4 billion in expenditure across the public sector to fund tax cuts as part of their commitment to what they call “fiscal responsibility”. As a result, it is speculated that already limited and struggling public services in Aotearoa will become more scarce and inaccessible to both Kiwis and the growing population. 

Oto spoke to Craig Renney, the economist and director of policy at the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, who wrote a report titled “Investing in a growing population” that specifically details the problem and impacts of public spending cuts on the growing population here in Aotearoa.

Associate Education Minister and ACT Party Leader David Seymour has indicated that Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunches Programme is under review as the government puts together their new budget.

Ka Ora Ka Ako was introduced under the Labour Government in 2019. The programme currently provides lunches for 220,000 students at a cost to the Government of around $325 million a year.

Seymour has claimed that there is no hard evidence that the programme positively affects academic performance, a claim that is disputed by Health Coalition Aotearoa.

A petition has been launched by the Health Coalition Aotearoa, to advocate for the government to continue supporting the programme.

Nicholas spoke to Co-chair of the coalition Professor Lisa Te Morenga about the programme's benefits, as well as their new petition.

https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/save-healthy-free-school-lunches

A new report from World Vision looking at food prices in 67 countries has found the average cost of basic food items in Aotearoa increased by 56% in 2023 compared to the previous year. This is compared to a 29% decrease in cost in Australia.

Jessica spoke to World Vision New Zealand’s Head of Advocacy and Justice, Rebekah Armstrong, about these findings.

They started off the interview by discussing what basic food items the report looked at.