The Wire with Manny

Despite recent years' initiatives to mitigate child poverty, it remains an important issue that negatively impacts children's development and health. Experts have proposed cost-effective solutions to improve children's neurological, physical, and mental health, emphasising the importance of the first 2000 days of a child’s life to development. 

Intergenerational disadvantage and inequity is a key cause of continuing child poverty, with up  to 30% of Aotearoa New Zealand’s children lacking their basic needs’ adequate fulfilment. 

The Knowledge Hub for Maternal and Child Health at Koi Tū has released a report aimed at the Government to implement these solutions through policy, which parents and guardians can read for their own benefit.

Olivia spoke with the leader of the Knowledge Hub for Maternal and Child Health at Koi Tū, Dr Felicia Low, about the current state of child poverty, and Koi Tū’s report on evidence-based solutions.

The Tuesday Wire team is joined by Dr Alan Blackman, where they discuss a failed superconductivity project, the health positives and negatives associated with alcohol consumption and why going Vegan might just be better for our health.

Nicholas spoke to Professor Claire Charters, co-author of He Puapua, about the reports' genesis and controversy surrounding He Puapua.

Nicholas catches up with the National Party's Dr Shane Reti about the policy aimed at Māori will be affected under National’s coalition agreements with Act and NZ First. As well as comments made by Chris Bishop about Labour’s smokefree plans.

Nicholas also spoke to to Kerri Nuku, the spokesperson for the New Zealand Nurses' organisation about the needs they want the new Government to adress.

He Puapua, the odds are that you may not have read it, but it is most likely that you have at least heard of the controversial report.

The report was labelled as “segregation by stealth” by the former National Party Leader Judith Collins, and the report even garnered a special mention in National’s Coalition Agreement with NZ First, with the National Party agreeing to stop all work on He Puapua.

Amidst the controversy and outrage one question has remained unanswered, what actually is He Puapua?

He Puapua was a report published by a working group intended to help envision what Aotearoa would look like if we were compliant with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people.

The National government signed New Zealand up to the declaration in 2010 after we had previously rejected joining the declaration, despite the declaration not having any legislative effect in Aotearoa.

He Puapua was written to give advice and recommendations, but had no legal authority or legislative power.

Despite this He Puapua has been purposefully obfuscated and misconstrued.

Nicholas spoke to Co-author of He Puapua Claire Charters about the report, our discussion began with a question about the reports inception.

The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), or COP28, is currently taking place in Dubai. The conference began on the 30th of November and runs until the 12th of December, and UNICEF Aotearoa is sending a delegation of young ambassadors to represent young New Zealanders priorities’ regarding climate change. The delegation will leave to Dubai on Wednesday, are all aged between 18 and 24, and offer a range of perspectives including Māori, Pasifika, rural and urban living experiences, and LGBTQIA+ youth. COP is the biggest climate conference in the world, and this year over 70 thousand people from both business and political sectors will attend. In the past, youth advocates such as Greta Thunberg have criticised COP conferences as too much talk and too little action, and the conference has already started with controversy after the BBC reported that leaked briefing documents revealed plans by the United Arab Emirates to discuss fossil fuel deals with 15 nations. The conference also comes at an interesting time for Aotearoa, as the new government has pledged to reintroduce oil and gas exploration, which has come under criticism by many of the delegations present at COP28

Rosetta spoke with Vira Paky, who is one of the Young Ambassadors in the UNICEF delegation. We spoke about the importance of having young voices represented at COP28, and discussed what role the new government should be playing in involving Aotearoa in global conferences like this.