The Wire with Manny

Last week, resource consents were approved for a $3.5 billion AI Data Centre to be constructed near Invercargill. While most of the commentary around the data centre is discussing how it could benefit New Zealand’s economy or connectivity, few are discussing the potential environmental ramifications. 

While the consent applications aren’t public, data centres overseas have been known to have varying degrees of environmental impact, including pulling drinking water out of communities and farmlands and subsequently creating droughts and increasing temperatures.

To evaluate how a data centre could operate in New Zealand, News Director Castor spoke to director of Pūtahi research, a consulting firm specialising in water and climate resilience, Daniel Collins.

Last week, Heinz Watties announced plans to close its factories in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin, and cease packing at its frozen lines in Hastings. This will leave 350 workers without jobs in an already tough job market.

Additionally, many seasonal employees, who have worked in the factories for decades, could be left redundant without financial compensation. Concerns have been raised about potential ripple effects the closures will have on the economy, with 220 growers in the Canterbury region alone relying on supplying the Christchurch Factory.

To discuss the consequences of these decisions and what more the government could be doing to protect workers and local New Zealand production producer Thomas talked to E tū Union Director for manufacturing and food Finn O’Dwyer-Cunliffe.

Last year, the govenment announced siginificant budget cuts to the school lunch programme formerly known as Ka Ora, Ka Ako, reducing the funding available per meal and reshaping how the programme is delivered in schools. Now, New Zealand's Healthy School Lunch Programme covers only a quarter of schools based on the Equity Index, reaching about 240,000 students, so more than half of children experiencing food insecurity do not attend school that recieve the programme. 

New research by Dr Kelly Garton, a research fellow in the School of Population Health at the University of Auckland, and a spokesperson for Health Coalition Aotearoa, compares New Zealand’s programme with Brazil’s national school meal system, which has been running for over 70 years and is considered a global gold standard.

Producer Pranuja spoke with Dr Garton about what New Zealand could learn from Brazil’s approach to school meals, and what a stronger programme here might look like.

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to MP Shanan Halbert about Labour’s portfolio reshuffle ahead of the election, phase two of the Royal Commission Inquiry into Covid-19, and the results of the select committee inquiry into social media harm and young people. 

For International Desk this week, they spoke to Deakin University Research Fellow Dr Ali Mamouri about rising islamophobia in Australian politics. 

For City Counselling this week, News Director Castor spoke to Councillor Shane Henderson about March Madness and changes to PC 120. 

And Producer Pranuja spoke with Dr Kelly Garton from the University of Auckland on her recent article comparing New Zealand's Healthy School Lunches Programme to Brazil’s. We discussed the budget cuts to New Zealand's lunch programme and what we could learn from Brazil’s long-running national free school meal scheme.