The Wire with Manny

The prison population reaching an all time high has come as a result of this government’s “tough on crime” policies, which they say are making New Zealand safer. 

In contrast, Te Pāti Māori last week announced a policy of prison abolition leading up to this year’s election. They say prisons do not work in Aotearoa, especially for Māori, who are consistently overrepresented.

To discuss how our prison population got so high, and how Te Pāti Māori’s plan could work in practice, Wire host Castor spoke to academic and activist Dr. Emmy Rākete. 

This week on the Monday Wire...

For our weekly catch-up with the ACT Party, Wire host Castor spoke to MP Simon Court about the ACT party’s stance on a new modern slavery bill and the prison population reaching an all time high.

On the prison population and Te Pāti Māori’s new policy of prison abolition, they spoke to academic and activist Dr Emmy Rākete.

And they spoke to the University of Auckland’s Hyesop Shin about the challenges involved with introducing congestion charging.

Producer Alex spoke to Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland, Treasa Dunworth, about New Zealand’s refusal to join the ‘Board of Peace,’ and what it means for our recognition of Palestinian Self-Determination.

He also spoke to Senior Research Fellow in General Practice and Primary care in the school of population health at the University of Auckland, Dr Samantha Marsh, about the new trial over Social Media Companies’ liability for adverse health affects of social media, and how it reflects and mirrors the decades of fighting against tobacco companies.

The Broadcasting Standards Authority has called for legal change, citing unclear jurisdiction in a modern broadcasting climate. The Crown entity was established in 1989 and currently operates under a 35 year-old definition of broadcasting, which is becomingly increasingly difficult to apply in a digital landscape.

Producer Jasmine Gray spoke to University of Waikato’s Cyber Law Lecturer Rachel Tan about this issue.

Current US foreign policy under the Trump administration has significantly broken with long-term partnerships and traditional structures of the so-called international rules based order. With the US being at odds with its long-term strategic partners Canada and Europe, the future of NATO as well as security in the pacific have become contentious issues. Trump’s actions have revealed contradictions within the previous dominant functioning of International Relations with his administration’s foreign policy radically utilising the power position asserted and given to the US on the world stage.

Flo spoke to Dr John Battersby, senior fellow for the center for defence and security studies at Massey University about current global security, the practical absence of an international rule based order and implications of US foreign policy on New Zealand.