The Wire with Oto

Last Monday marked one year since the 2023 general election. Since this election, we’ve seen a range of policies and changes from this new National-led government. Many of these policies have been met with protest and controversy, leading poll numbers for National to waver. In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Katie Nimon Wire host Castor asked about how these poll numbers will influence the party moving forward. 

This past week, we also saw a reveal that $60,000 was spent on catering for a Health NZ Te Whatu Ora conference in late March. The budget accounted for breakfast and lunch across 300 members, roughly working out to 100 dollars per meal. Given this government’s attitudes towards public spending, this reveal has raised some eyebrows. 

On the 23rd of October, a nationwide hui will be held by thousands of workers in 12 different places in the country, following policies coming into place since the current government took power last year that impacts workers’ rights, such as abolishing fair pay agreements, and mass job cuts in the public sector.

According to RNZ’s tracker, 2000 public service jobs have been cut from the period of December last year to June this year, with 7000 being cut from the public sector.

News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to the President of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU), Richard Wagstaff, about the plans for the nationwide hui, and what the NZCTU hope to get out of this day of action.

On Friday, staff at the University of Auckland held a strike on campus, over ongoing conversations with the University regarding bettering working conditions and improving pay for staff.

This follows similar protest action that happened on campus THREE weeks ago, with members as a part of THREE different universities striking on the same day. These rallies were attended by 4,000 Te Hautū Kahurangi | Tertiary Education Union members overall, making this strike action the largest since staff from all EIGHT universities striked two years prior.

News and Editorial Director, and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to the organiser of the Tertiary Education Union, Nicole Wallace, about the most recent strikes at the University of Auckland, and what this means moving forward.

The government is reintroducing a ‘social investment agency’, an organisation last seen during Bill English’s National government. 

The agency assesses the cost of individuals to the state, largely the cost of beneficiaries. Once this is assessed the government steps in to prevent those deemed most costly from creating these costs. This includes managing individuals' benefits, putting a limit on what they can spend and sanctioning them if they miss support sessions or meetings. 

The move is largely created to save the government costs, rather than addressing poverty and disadvantage at the root. 

Teaching fellow at the University of Auckland, Dr Eileen Joy says this approach completely ignores the systemic causes behind disadvantage.

Producer Evie spoke to Dr Eileen Joy about the system, how it’s implemented and what impacts it will have.