The Wire with Castor

The Government has announced it is investing $5 million into Māori-owned businesses as part of its initiatives to support economic growth and create jobs. 

It follows a mixed bag of funding and cuts to Māori organisations in Budget 2026. 

For Politics with Māni Dunlop from Te Ao Māori News, Wire Host Caeden has Māni on the line to discuss these recent announcements. 

The Green Party has announced a new policy to fine individuals and companies for privacy breaches. This includes fines of up to $500,000 for breaches by individuals and $10 million for corporates. 

Wire Host Caeden spoke to Professor Gehan Gunasekara, a privacy law expert at the University of Auckland Business School, about this proposal. 

Per- and polyfluoralkyl substances (or, PFAS) have been called ‘forever chemicals’. That’s because these synthetic chemicals are incredibly durable, lasting thousands of years. This durability has made this large group of chemicals useful in a variety of industries, from cosmetics to electronic and cookware. However, PFAS have been linked to a myriad of health risks including cancers, liver damage, and suppressed immunity, bad news, given their ubiquity within the environment and humans.

Recently, the Australian Government moved to sue the manufacturing giant 3M for $2.4b NZD, for their use of forever chemicals in firefighting foam, which contaminated numerous defence force bases across the country.

While no such legal action is yet on the cards for New Zealand, increased attention is being given to the presence of PFAS in our environment. In 2022 PFAS were for the first time included in the suite of compounds analysed in a quadrennial groundwater survey.

However, there is still a lack of information on how present PFAS are in Aotearoa New Zealand, so later this year the Environmental Protection Authority will be engaging with councils and other agencies to carry out further groundwater testing. To learn more, producer Theo spoke with the Environmental Protection Authority's acting manager of hazardous substances applications, Dr Shaun Presow.

The revelation of hidden correspondence shared between major NZ polluters and a private email account of someone working in the Prime Minister's Office has sparked a spiralling scandal. 

Why were the emails not revealed when any such correspondence had been specifically requested if it existed? 

Were key law changes made specifically to end a high-profile court case against these polluters? 

How could the government’s failure to provide such emails not be in breach of fundamental transparency rules? And what else might be hidden? 

The Greens are now asking the Ombudsman to expand his investigation into the emails to use the full breadth of the powers availableto him to determine what has gone down.

And this week the government walked back their plan to fund an import terminal for Liquid Natural Gas with a levy, or tax, on Kiwis’ energy bills. While the policy is still going forward, how it will be funded remains an open question.

And following the energy shock caused by the US war with Iran, the Greens highlighted their support for Rewiring Aotearoa’s Ratepayers' Assistance Scheme to provide cheap loans for installing home solar systems, which they say would make widespread solar uptake accessible to more kiwi’s, lowering energy bills and increasing energy security.

So for our weekly catch-up with the Green Party, Host Manny spoke with MP Ricardo Menéndez March about the ongoing scandal over the government's missing emails and energy policy.