The Wire with Sara

Geoff Simmons is the leader of The Opportunities Party, the political party founded by Gareth Morgan before the last election, that failed to win a seat in Parliament. This is despite a strongly fought election campaign that saw them ultimately end up with 2.4 percent of the Party vote.

Host Stewart Sowman-Lund sat down with Geoff in the 95bFM studio to talk about the Party's election prospects and the state of politics in New Zealand.

ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa are starting a campaign similar to the In Her Shoes website from Ireland which highlights personal stories of women seeking abortions. It is an effort to combat stigma around the issue and instead increase education and conversation around it. Terry Belamak is the National President of the pro-choice group ALRANZ in NZ whose purpose is to ensure everyone has the freedom to decide for themselves whether or not to receive abortion care. Lillian Hanly spoke with Terry about the campaign as well as the history of ALRANZ and the progress of the pro choice movement itself. 

If you wish to share your story, you can contact ALRANZ on info@alranz.org or directly message them on the Abort the Stigma Facebook page. 

The full show podcast for the Wire show of Tuesday the 5th of March. 

On Today’s show, we have a fair few items. Mitch talked to Dr Mels Barton about Sea Week, The Community Garden has migrated from Thursdays and this week we were joined by Tim from The Warren up on Cross St in Central Auckland, we have a new segment as well called Board Games, tune in to find out more and finally, we go to the international desk to talk about USA and North Korea nuclear talks and Algerian Protesting. 

Official figures show almost 18,000 retail workers are on minimum wage, currently $16.50 an hour. FIgures also show 67 percent of retail workers see it as their career. First Union is fighting for the living wage through their worth it campaign, arguing retail is valuable work that often goes unnoticed. The campaign has included negotiations with employers, public information campaigns, and picketing. Lachlan spoke with Robin Wilson Whiting of First Union about retail workers’ wages and their recent picket of a supermarket, first asking her what conditions were like for retail workers currently.