The Wire with Nicholas

Aotearoa, and particularly Te Wai Pounamu, The South Island, is home to unique braided rivers, or rivers that are both land and water, with channels throughout the rivers that cause the rivers to change throughout the seasons. In early 2023, a group of scientists, lawyers, planners, policy experts and engineers formed a group named ‘The Land the law forgot’, which hopes to advocate for the protection of braided rivers, which sometimes go unspoken for in legislation as a grey area between land and water. Advocacy from the group has in part resulted in the Natural and Built Environments Act (2023) which exempts braided rivers from the same umbrella as riverbeds under the previous resource management act, and means they can be protected under their own circumstances. 

Rosetta spoke to Professor Ann Brower of the University of Canterbury School of Earth and Environment, who is the lead author of the recently published research paper, New Zealand’s braided rivers: The land the law forgot, about how braided rivers need to be protected moving forward.

As of Tuesday January 16th, certain fishing vessels operating near Aotearoa’s shore are now required to have cameras on board in order to get a more accurate understanding of the marine mammals and seabirds being injured or killed due to commercial fishing.

Between September 20th, 2023 and January 8th, 2024, the deaths of 6 Hector’s dolphins in fishing nets were identified.

Overseas, camera monitoring on board commercial fishing vessels has become standard practice. As of last year in Aotearoa, only 25% coverage of the country’s entire fleet has been reached.

Beth spoke with Professor at the University of Otago, Liz Sooten, about the impact of commercial fishing on marine mammals and seabirds in Aotearoa, and non-harmful approaches to commercial fishing.

A new road user charge is applying to electric vehicles from the 1st of April this year. This has been expected for a while, but some people are concerned the cost is arbitrary and forcing EV users to pay more to use the roads than their petrol car using counterparts.

Caeden spoke to Massey Professor Ralph E H Sims about why the numbers don’t make sense, and his comment that the whole road user charge system needs to be reviewed.

Producer Olivia spoke to member of the Palestinian community, Katrina Mitchell-Koutabb, about her petition calling for the Government to do more to stand with Palestine.

She also spoke to member of the Disabled Persons Assembly, Paul Brown, about accessibility issues with our current public transport system.

And News and Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to Health Coalition Co-Chair Professor, Lisa Te Morenga, and Action on Smoking Harm (ASH) Director, Ben Youdan, about their stances on the Government repealing smoke-free measures.