The Wire with Castor

On Wednesday the 21st of February New Zealand was shocked to learn of the sudden passing of Greens MP Fa'anānā Efeso Collins.

Efeso began his career as a youth worker before joining the Auckland Council as a councillor for the Manukau ward. 

He later ran for Mayor with the endorsement of both Labour and the Greens, before campaigning for the Green party in last year's election.

In his maiden speech Collins highlighted his wish to be a champion for underserved and underprivileged members of our society;

"The government cannot be a bystander to people suffering confusion and disenfranchisement. New Zealand must close the divide between those who have and those who have not, because the reality for my community is that those who have more money often wield more power, more health, more housing, more justice, more access, more canopy cover, more lobbyists with swipe cards, and more time,"

Nicholas spoke to Green Party co-leader James Shaw about the passing of his friend and colleague Fa'anānā Efeso Collins.

The public service commission recently conducted a review into the Accredited Employer Work Visa, a visa scheme given to foreign workers with job offers from New Zealand-based employers. The review was conducted following a number of incidents, where migrant workers in Aotearoa were found to have been exploited by their employers, with some paying upwards of SIXTEEN-THOUSAND New Zealand dollars to receive visas for non-existent jobs.
The review found that the visa scheme reduced the number of checks Immigration officers were required to perform on employers, which was done to reduce processing times so more workers could be brought into Aotearoa, which ultimately led to the exploitation of workers across the country. 

Oto spoke to John Crocker from Unite Union, a union that advocates for migrant workers amongst a number of groups, who said that there was more to the scheme than what was found in the review.

In our weekly interview with National’s James Meager, producer Castor began with National’s promised ban on wearing gang patches in public. The ban is due to come later this year as part of a bundle of legislation aimed at reducing gang presence in communities. 

A similar law was passed by the Whanganui District Council in 2009, which was later reviewed by the High Court and found to be unlawful and in violation of the Bill of Rights. 

Castor then briefly discussed Labour’s clean car discount, which was repealed by the National government on the 31st of December last year. Ministry of Transport data shows that registrations of new electric vehicles have decreased from 1 in 4 in 2023 to 1 in 26 in January this year. 

For Dear Science this week, Dr Cushla McGoverin chatted with news and editorial director Jessica Hopkins about Northern Patagonian rock art, an inchworm-inspired robot with enhanced transport capabilities, and the FDA approving the first medication to treat severe frostbite. 

Producer Castor spoke to National’s James Meager about gang patch legislation and the clean car discount repeal.

And producer Sofia spoke to co-chair of Health Coalition Aotearoa, Lisa Te Morenga, about the repeal of the Smoke-Free legislation and current legal requirements for public policy-making transparency in New Zealand.