The Wire with Oto

The coalition government is planning to continue with the passing of the Ram Raid bill which was originally introduced by the labour government. 

This bill would mean that youth offenders as young as 12 years old, would be prosecuted more harshly with some potentially serving up to ten years in prison. 

Many organisations and activists have been vocal about their position on this bill from the beginning and many have now started a petition to stop its continuation.

Rawan spoke with Aaron Hendry, co-founder of Kick back, an organisation that focuses on assisting youth in homelessness and has also been heavily involved in this petition. 

Rawan asked Aaron about what the harmful impacts of this bill are and what this new opposing campaign is about.

Wire host Caeden spoke to Labour Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about last week’s Labour Party conference and scrutiny week in Parliament.

They also spoke to Kanak youth coordinator Viro Xulue about the struggle for decolonisation in New Caledonia.

They spoke to University of Auckland Lecturer Dr Emmy van Esch about the ethics of monitoring employees’ computers when they work for home.

And they spoke to World Vision’s Dr Olivia Yates about pacific migration due to climate change. 

Producer Oto spoke to Dr Selena Shang from the University of Auckland about the government’s decision to remove agricultural emissions from the Emissions Trading Scheme.

He also spoke to Dr Jennifer Tatebe from the University of Auckland to talk about the impacts of urbanisation on rural schools.

As part of their pledge to fund 13 new cancer drugs the coalition government has given Pharmac at least $600 million.

This is welcome news to the 330,000 patients that are currently on the waiting list for medicines on Pharmac’s Options for Investment List.

I spoke to the chair of Patient Voice Aotearoa about the current state of Pharmac’s process, funding and what other reforms are needed on top of the recent changes. 

Patient Voice Aotearoa is a collective of patients, caregivers, whanau, advocates and charitable organisations that campaign for the rights of New Zealand patients.

I began by asking about the state of Pharmac funding prior to the developments.

For their weekly catch up, producer Evie spoke to the ACT Party's Simon Court about the government’s failure to deliver on the promised funding for cancer drugs, and the ACT party’s views on politicians involvement with Pharmac. They also talk about the party’s policy surrounding social media, as old concerns arise surrounding party leader David Seymour’s use of Snapchat. 

Host Sofia speaks to the director for ActionStation, Kassie Hartendorp, about a new report by ActionStation called ‘Protect Māori Wards’ and the government’s proposal to reverse changes made to increase Māori representation in local government by reverting the Māori ward rules to restore the referendum mechanism.

Evie also caught up with Students for Fair Rent organiser, Matthew Lee, about the decision to end their month long rent strike at the University of Auckland, and what actions the group plans to take next. 

And Sofia spoke to Dr Ritesh Shah, a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland about the global refugee crisis, in light of the United Nations Refugee Agency reporting 117.3 million people being forcibly displaced in 2023 - a record high. 

Whakarongo tonu mai!