The Wire with Manny

This week on the Monday wire... 

Producer Evie speaks to Te Pāti Māori's Mariameno Kapa-Kingi about the thousands who have enrolled in the Māori Roll following the hīkoi mō te tiriti, the gang patch legislation coming into effect, and the COP29 climate summit talks.

Evie also catches up with the ACT Party's Simon Court about the party marking one year in government and how they think they’ve done so far, along with the gang patch ban legislation officially coming into power. 

Producer Yesenia speaks to the PSA’s National Health Sector lead, Ashok Shankar, on the Government planning to axe 1500 public health care roles. 

She also speaks to Associate Professor of Global Studies at the University of Auckland, Chris Ogden, about Donald J. Trump's return to the oval office and his push to authoritarianism.

And finally, producer Evie speaks to senior research fellow at the University of Auckland Dr Anna Brooks on the just released Royal Commission Inquiry into Covid-19 and how it fails to address the long term impacts of the disease. 

Whakarongo mai!

Last week, the government’s ban on wearing gang patches in public went into effect. The legislation was debated heavily from its inception, with some questioning whether it was necessary or raising potential human rights concerns. The legislation passed regardless.

The annual COP29 talks also concluded last week, with countries discussing measures to reduce global emissions to reach climate change targets. The discussions bring about an opportunity to assess our national efforts to reduce emissions, and make projections for our Paris Agreement targets. 

This week in our catchup with National’s Tom Rutherford, Wire Host Castor speaks to him about the gang patch ban and Aotearoa’s emissions targets in light of COP29.

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden speaks to Labour spokesperson for Auckland and Rainbow issues Shanan Halbert about the new Federal Street Police Station in the Auckland CBD, a potential 70% surge in Public Transport pricing, and an evidence brief on Puberty Blockers from the Ministry of Health.

For State of the States this week they speak to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about new targeted tariffs proposed by Trump, the case against Trump for election interference being dropped, and the new Attorney-General Nominee.

For City Counselling this week, Sofia speaks to Councillor Shane Henderson about the new police station on Federal Street in Auckland CBD which was announced earlier this week. 

She also speaks to Professor of Law at the University of Auckland, Mark Henaghan, about calls to reform children’s housing rights. 

And she speaks to Researcher at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research, Dr Olga Pantos, who is on the ground in Busan, Korea for the final International Plastics Treaty negotiations.

What does the future hold for the world’s children? Twenty-fifty is now twenty-six years away, and a recent report made by UNICEF makes predictions based off of three megatrends they have developed.

By the twenty-fifties, the global child population is expected to stabilise at 2.3 billion, the most substantial areas of growth being in South Asia and most of the African continent. These areas already struggle to meet children’s basic needs, which are also now affected by a rapidly changing climate and a lack of adequate digital infrastructure.

Half of the world’s children today - 1 billion - live in countries where there is a greater risk of climate and environmental hazards. Adding on to this is the gradual increase of urbanisation, the development of compact city living. Without adequate infrastructure to support this influx, these factors will jeopardise the future development of children.

The future is ours to shape, and to continue down a ‘business as usual’ is the easiest path, but will create a worse reality. To understand these ideas in full, Sasha spoke to UNICEF Aotearoa Director of Communications, Tania Sawicki Mead about the recent report and its implications for the future of global childhood.