The Wire with Sara

Last week, Education Minister Erica Stanford confirmed the latest additions to draft curriculum changes for English and Maths, with the hope for implementation in 2026.
While she says the changes are not significant to the existing system, teachers have said the draft proposes an entire overhaul and greatly increases workload expectations.

Also, ACT MP Laura McClure has put forward the Deepfake Harm & Exploitation Bill to update legislation around exploitation committed on digital platforms especially with AI.

Finally, after 30 years of MMP, the New Zealand Initiative, a kiwi policy thinktank, has proposed a four year parliamentary term and more MPs for Parliament, among numerous electoral reforms that they think can make New Zealand more effective for representing the population.

Wire Host Sara spoke with MP Carl Bates about all of these topics, starting with the curriculum changes.

For Dear Science this week, our expert, Professor Allan Blackman chats with us about ice variations, the international space station, and a problem in the atmosphere.. 

For our weekly catchup with the National Party, Host Sara spoke to MP Carl Bates about the new draft curriculum, the Deepfake Harm & Exploitation Bill, and the New Zealand Initiative call for electoral reforms
For Green World, Sara spoke to AUT School of Future Environment senior lecturer Dr Priscila Besen, about the upcoming COP30 in Brasil 
And finally, Sara spoke to University of Auckland associate professor Dr David Moreau about his latest research on the effects of fasting on the brain

The government has recently announced a new draft curriculum for years 0-10 that has seen changes to various subjects, including history, as per National/ACT coalition agreements.

ACT Party Leader, David Seymour, says the changes to the Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories curriculum removes “dismal, divisive and overly political ‘big ideas’”.

However, these changes have received criticisms from the NZ History Teachers Association over a multitude of concerns.

For our weekly catch up with the ACT Party’s Simon Court, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host Joel spoke to him about these changes.

They also discussed Labour’s Capital Gains Tax policy, and the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

But first, they talked about the government’s proposed history curriculum.

Last year. Half a million parking tickets were given out in Auckland by the city's growing fleet of Automatic plate-recognition vehicles. The city now has 25 of these vehicles. With non-compliance tickets having doubled since 2024, concerns have been raised over how these systems generate revenue for Auckland Transport and the council. 

While Auckland Transport has defended revenue as an unavoidable consequence of non-compliance systems, and insisted that they must stay consistent in their policing and management, some have labelled this as a ‘commodification of non-compliance’

Monday Wire Producer Alex spoke to Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland, Mohsen Mohammadzadeh about these tickets, revenue, and how this technology should, or shouldn't, be used.