The Wire with Castor

This week on the Wednesday Wire:

For our weekly catchup w/ the Green Party, Wednesday Wire Host Max, spoke with MP Ricardo Menendez-March about The National Party’s newly announced Kiwisaver policy, The Green Party’s reaction to the COP30 Climate Summit, as well as their reaction to the Government choosing to halt new prescriptions for puberty blockers for young people with gender dysphoria.

Following this, Max also spoke with Robert MacCulloch, the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics, and Professor in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Auckland, to discuss The National Party’s new Kiwisaver policy.

Producer Castor spoke to James Russel, a Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Auckland, about the government considering adding feral cats to the Predator Free 2050 list.

And News and Editorial Director Joel spoke to Aaron Hendry, the General Manager and Co-Founder of KickBack, about an open letter they have signed over the government’s proposed policy to ban rough sleeping in Auckland’s CBD.

On Monday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced a new National Party Kiwisaver policy, where they’re looking to further increase the default Kiwisaver contribution rate. Luxon said, if re-elected, National would continue to gradually increase the default contribution rates by 0.5% per year until 2032, when both employees and employers would pay 6% each.

The Government also announced that New Zealand would become the latest country to halt new prescriptions for puberty blockers for young people with gender dysphoria. In response to this, Ricardo Menendez March told RNZ that the government was “buying into imported culture wars”. 

And last week saw the end of the COP30 climate summit. One of the major outcomes of the summit was that more than 80 countries, including the United Kingdom and Pacific Island Nations, signed a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, but New Zealand chose not to.

For our Weekly Catchup with The Green Party, Wednesday Wire Host Max spoke with MP Ricardo Menendez March about The Green Party’s reaction to the COP30 summit, as well as their thoughts on the Government’s decision to halt new prescriptions of puberty blockers for young people with gender dysphoria.

But first, we started with National’s new Kiwisaver policy.

Last week, US President Donald Trump put forward a 28 point peace plan as a proposed resolution to the war between Ukraine and Russia — with an initial expectation of response by the 27th of November. 

The initial plan included an agreement by NATO to hold dialogue with Russia, to refuse current and future Ukrainian access to NATO, and not station troops in Ukraine, and Europe commit $100 billion to the investment into Ukrainian construction; also providing “financial compensation” for the role of the United States in mediation.

Following backlash from European leaders as well as negotiations between Trump and Zelenskyy, the plan has been refined, with further discussions to take place over the coming week.

Wire Host Sara spoke to University of Otago professor Robert Patman about Trump’s peace plan and the wider impact on international diplomacy

For Dear Science this week, our expert, Dr Cushla McGoverin chats with us about moss in space, a use for mosquitos, and how turtles detect magnetic fields

For our weekly catchup with the National Party, Wire Host Sara spoke to MP Carl Bates about the recently updated Social Housing Plan, and the government’s decision to “pause” access to puberty blockers.

For Green World, News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to Sebastian Gehreke, Senior Lecturer and Director of the Climate and Energy Finance Group at the University of Otago, about COP30, and New Zealand not joining over 80 other countries in agreeing to a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels.

Sara also spoke with University of Otago international politics professor Robert Patman about Trump’s peace plan for the Ukraine - Russian war