The Wire with Castor

University of Auckland professor of Experimental Economics Ananish Chaudhuri is calling for Aotearoa to adopt an independent body for economic policy fact-checking. He wants us to model after the US Congressional Budget Office, in order to improve accessibility to understanding policy, and hold parties to a higher standard of economic accuracy. 

Rosetta spoke to Ananish about his ideas and what more needs to be done to improve the reliability of budgeting policy

Rawan speaks with ACT MP Simon Court about the party’s immigration policies. 

She started off by asking about their proposed Regulatory Impact Analysis which aims to regularly report on immigration outcomes and policy. We then spoke about their pledge to remove complicated temporary work visas and how they plan to tackle migrant workers exploitation.

Rawan also asked about their parent resident visa and how they plan to make it more efficient for Aotearoa citizens to bring their parents to New Zealand.

Migrant exploitation has been a prominent issue for the last few of months with several protests by community groups that lead to labour launching an immigration review. 

Aotearoa Tongan Response group is one of the community groups involved in this movement, advocating for the Pasifika community in particular. Rawan spoke with the group’s organiser and community leader, Manase Lua. 

They spoke about the state of migrant exploitation, especially his experience with Pasifika migrant workers. I also asked about his thoughts on both National and Labour’s response to this issue and what policies and actions need to be taken.

The mental health system continues to be overloaded, with approximately five hundred thousand people not being able to access the support they need. Experts have discussed the need to lessen the burden on our overloaded system, through preventative strategies.  

Olivia spoke to Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Canterbury, Julia Rucklidge, about the need for a preventative approach to mental health, and strategies we can take to improve it.