The Wire with Oto

Yesterday the Abuse in Care Inquiry was released to the public. It came with a set of formal recommendations, including a suggestion for a formal apology from the government, compensation, and new legislation to do with mandatory reporting. 

Labour Leader Chris Hipkins also acknowledged Labour’s role in beginning the inquiry and their response to the 2021 interim report, stating, “We didn't do enough and the ball now falls to you and your government.” He added that “this must be bigger than politics.”

And Data released last week showed the number of benefit sanctions being issued by the government is up 50% compared to this time last year. This has been met with criticism but the Minister for Social Development says the sanctions are because the government is serious about getting people into work.

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden asks about both of these topics, as well as a bill that was dumped yesterday because the Minister failed to turn up to its first reading. 

They started by asking about the number of benefit sanctions.

Last Friday 19 July the International Court of Justice found Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories to be illegal under international law. For the first time it amounted what Israel is doing to apartheid against the Palestinian People. 

The Court’s opinion is non-binding but can carry immense weight in the international community. It has added to pressure for Israel to end their siege on Gaza.

Wire Host Caeden spoke to Kate Stone from Justice For Palestine about the ruling and New Zealand’s consequent obligations as a United Nations member state.

Just this week, US President Joe Biden announced his exit from the US general elections and abandoned his candidacy, amidst concerns from his own party regarding his age and cognitive abilities and a disastrous debate performance against his political adversary, republican nominee Donald J Trump. 

After making the announcement, Biden announced his support for Vice-President Kamala Harris to succeed him as the democratic candidate and urged his contemporaries within the party to do the same. 

But with a mere 3 months until the finale of the US general elections, many commentators are discussing the next steps for the democrats, and whether or not they have the ability to compete with Trump’s branding and unanimous support from the country’s right-wing.

Oto spoke to Dr Edward Elder, Professional Teaching Fellow in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Auckland, to discuss the next steps for the democrats and the role of party branding in the outcome of the US general elections.

Following last week’s major IT outage which caused major disruptions for flights, banking and trading, questions were raised about whether cybersecurity should be concentrated in a few companies’ hands. The power outage highlighted governments’ overreliance on tech companies and concerns surrounding personal online information.

Sasha spoke with Gehan Gunasekara, an associate professor of commercial law from the University of Auckland, to discuss the legal and liability implications that come from last week’s power outage.