The Wire with Manny

The Trump administration has caused issues of significant food waste due to a range of its policies, including immigration raids, tariffs, cuts to food assistance programmes, and the destruction of food for programmes like USAID. 

This has had huge consequences, including environmental impacts, as well as impacts on the estimated more than 47 million people in the US who don’t have enough food to eat, and those who have relied on US foreign aid that has been cut.

For International Desk, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Garrett Graddy-Lovelace, Provost Associate Professor in Environment, Development & Health at American University, about these issues. 

WIPCE, or the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education, is a triennial conference that “celebrates the sharing, promoting of, and advocacy for Indigenous-based initiatives through holistic educational efforts.”

WIPCE 2025 took place here in Tāmaki Makaurau.

Wire Host Caeden spoke to WIPCE 2025 Co-Chair, Professor Meihana Durie (Ranitāne, Ngāti Kauwhata, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Porou, Rongowhakaata, and Kāi Tahu) about his reflections on the conference.

On Monday, the government announced that they’d be introducing a rates rises cap, which is expected to be legislated by the end of 2026. The cap would be a minimum of 2% and a maximum of 4% nationwide.

When talking about the reasoning for the introduction of a rates cap, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said that ratepayers in New Zealand were “fed up”.

Along with this, The Labour Party announced that if they were to be elected in next year’s election, they would offer doctors and nurse-practitioners low-interest loans to set up new practices or buy into existing ones. In their policy, Chris Hipkins stated they would hand out up to 50 loans per year, which would be up to 90% of the cost of buying into a practice, capped at $500,000 dollars. They also specified they’d be prioritising areas that had no general practitioners or practices with closed or partially closed books.

And last week, the Government announced a proposed major shake-up of local council. Where Mayors of cities and district councils would take over the duties of regional councils.

For our Weekly Catchup with The Green Party, Wednesday Wire Host Max spoke to MP Ricardo Menendez March about the Government’s regional council’s announcement and Labour’s low-interest loans for family GP practices.

But first, they discussed The National Party’s rates rises cap.

This Week on the Wednesday Wire:

For our weekly catchup w/ the Green Party Wednesday Wire Host Max spoke with MP Ricardo Menendez-March about The National Party’s newly announced rates rises cap, The Labour Party announcing they’d be providing low-interest loans for family GP practices, and last week’s Government announcement that they'd be majorly shaking up local government.

Producer Flo spoke with Dr Katherine Doolin, a Senior Law Lecturer at the University of Auckland, to talk about the effectiveness of Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Courts, the upcoming conference on AODT courts and hopes for their further implementation in the future.

Max spoke with Peter Shepherd, a Professor in the department of molecular medicine at the University of Auckland, to discuss the World Health Organisation listing Ozempic-style weight loss drugs as a recommendation to combat obesity.

And Flo spoke with Wei-Qin Zhuang, an Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Auckland, to discuss a new methodology to remove nitrate from water supplies.