The Wire with Castor

For Politics with Māni Dunlop from Te Ao Māori News, Wire Host Caeden asked about a new investment from the Government in Māori businesses and funding for Māori organisations in Budget 2026. 

And they spoke to Professor Gehan Gunasekara, a privacy law expert at the University of Auckland Business School, about a new Green Party policy that would fine individuals and businesses for privacy breaches. 

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, News Director Castor spoke with Shanan Halbert about the party’s newly announced $20 fare cap and its broader policy plan for this year’s election. 

And Castor spoke to Professor Michael Baker from the University of Otago about influenza management and improving New Zealand’s public health response.

Labour has announced its first major policy in over six months: a proposal to cap public transport costs at $20 a week in major centres and $10 elsewhere. The party says the policy would help with the cost of living and make public transport more accessible. The announcement comes after the coalition government removed several public transport subsidies introduced under Labour, including half-price fares for young people and free fares for children.

Alongside the fare cap, Labour has already announced a targeted capital gains tax to fund three free GP visits a year and a proposed Future Fund aimed at investing in infrastructure and innovative Kiwi businesses.

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, News Director Castor spoke with Shanan Halbert about these policies.

Last week, the United Nations released a report on the environmental cost of artificial intelligence, giving estimates for the amount of carbon, water, and land that will likely be dedicated to powering AI in the near future. For example, the report predicts that by 2030, Artificial Intelligence could consume 3% of the world’s electricity and require more water than the total amount drunk by the entire population of Earth annually. 

However, experts in AI also predict that the technology will continue to become more efficient as time goes on, requiring less electricity, water and land to operate. To explain how all of this can be true at the same time, some people in the AI world have invoked the so-called “Jevons Paradox”—referring to an insight from the Victorian-period economist William Stanely Jevons, who noticed that the increased efficiency of steam engines went hand-in-hand with increased coal consumption.

This morning, producer Toby spoke to Dr. Amanda Turnbull-McRae, senior lecturer in Law at the University of Waikato, about this apparent economic paradox as it relates to the future of AI.

Sugary drinks are a favourite for many children across the country. However, this consumption of high-sugar drinks is proving harmful, with dental issues, heightened risk of diabetes, and other health issues tied to these drinks.

Despite this, sugary drinks are stil readily available to children across Aotearoa New Zealand, even within their schools. This morning, the New Zealand Beverages Guidance Panel, published a policy brief calling for the ban of sugary drinks from school grounds - prohibiting them from being purchased or brought by students into schools

To learn more, I spoke to the University of Auckland’s Dr Gerhard Sundborn, a member of the New Zealand Beverages Guidance Panel, on their policy brief.