Shakti is a organisation that supports women, youth and children experiencing domestic violence, specifically from Asian, Middle Eastern and African communities. They have launched a crowdfunding campaign for the international 16 Days of Activism campaign to support the immediate survival of Shakti Wellington Refuge, which is near closure after 5 years of negotiations with the Ministry of Social Development to be given more government funding. Mengzhu Fu is the National Youth Co-ordinator for the organisation and Lillian Hanly spoke to them to find out more about the campaign as well as the organisation itself. Lillian started by asking how Shakti started.
Could vertical farming be the answer to New Zealand's lack of food security plan? Horticulture NZ's environmental policy advisor Rachel McClung says no, in a recently published report. With producer Lisa Boudet, she discusses the benefits of growing up, not out, in a country where farmland is shrinking, but also points out why it cannot be New Zealand's miracle solution.
Taiwan’s local election over the weekend brought disastrous results for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. Out of the 22 elections for the head of the local authorities, the DPP lost a half of their mayorships from 13 to 6 while the opposing Kuomintang doubled their current gain from 6 to 15. Justin looked into what contributed to the result and (spoiler alert) China contributed to a large part to it.
Predator Free New Zealand has announced as a conservation plan in July of 2016. The policy has the ambitious goal of exterminating all stoats, possums and rats from New Zealand by 2050. According to some ecologists, this policy is not only impossible but also counterproductive for conservation goals. Critics argue that the policy is technically and financially flawed, socially unaware, ecologically unscientific and ethically irresponsible. To explore some of these criticisms, Ella spoke with Wayne Linklater, associate professor at Victoria University.
It's pretty much the biggest news story of this Holiday season. A petition has been launched to try and restore the winking eye and beckoning finger of the giant Santa above Farmers on Queen Street. A few years ago, the giant Santa had it's identity threatened when his massive winking eye and subtle winking finger were forcefully removed. Thankfully, Hayden Donnell from the Spinoff has hopes that Santa will wink another wink.
Stewart Sowman-Lund had a chat with Hayden... and things got pretty weird.
This week on the Monday Wire, Jemima speaks to co-leader of the Green Party, James Shaw, about his recent trip to Scott Base in Antarctica. Ella reports for Under the Weather about extreme flash flooding and record cold temperatures. Damian speaks to Danni Wilkinson from Socialist Aotearoa about the diverse reactions to the Pride Board's ban on uniformed police at Pride Parade. Stewart talks to the Spinoff's Hayden Donnell about his petition to get Queen Street's santa restored to it's original glory with its winking eye and beckoning finger.