The Wire with Caeden

Last week, the government announced plans to scrap a policy that gave university students one free year of study, known as fees free, with commitments to reallocate that funding to trades training. This comes at a time when an increasing number of young people are absent of employment, education and training.

And an OECD report spelled bad weather for the New Zealand economy. To correct course, they urged for reforms to increase the age of eligibility of Superannuation all the way up to 72, among other policies. This was picked up by the National Party, who are campaigning on moving forward with their previous plans to raise the retirement age up to 67.

So for our weekly catch-up with the Green Party, host Manny spoke with MP Ricardo Menéndez March about the scrapping of fees-free and raising the eligibility age for superannuation, but as we called in, Mr Menéndez March was just leaving an extended sitting of parliament to scrutinise Erica Stanford's Immigration Amendment Bill, and we began with a discussion on how he believes it will hurt vulnerable migrant communities.

A recently released report to the Associate Minister of Transport, James Meager, outlined progress on the resilience and security of New Zealand’s critical underwater infrastructure. The heavily-redacted 9 page report detailed ten ‘no-cost, low-effort’ options to mitigate vulnerabilities to undersea cables and to improve ways of working with industry and regional partners.

While the incidents of cable faults that the report pointed to were typically accidents, or related to currents and seismic activity, a particular impetus for the report was the growing threat to critical underwater infrastructure internationally.

With 99% of our international internet coming from just five cables, their importance to our day-to-day lives is difficult to understate. So, to discuss the report and the importance of the undersea cables connecting New Zealand to the rest of the world, producer Theo spoke to Dr Ulrich Speidel, from the School of Computer Science at the University of Auckland.

This week on the Tuesday Wire...

For Dear Science this week, our expert, Professor Allan Blackman chatted with us about stress in sports, the chemistry behind the taste of beer, and Nobel Prize Winner Dorothy Hodgkin. 

For our weekly catchup with the National Party, News Director Castor spoke with MP Ryan Hamilton about plans to scrap the Broadcasting Standards Authority, the government’s stance on TVNZ and RNZ, and the proposed new test for immigrants. 

For Green World this week, Producer Liam spoke to Richard Capie, Chief Advisor at Forest and Bird, about the government’s proposed Conservation Amendment Bill which could make it easier for the government ministers to sell off conservation land, and what this could mean for Aotearoa’s natural heritage. 

He also spoke to Martin Campbell, Vice President of the New Zealand Professional Firefighter’s Union, about the continuing firefighter strikes in New Zealand, what issues the fire service currently faces, and what the Professional Firefighters Union hopes to achieve. 

Last week, NZ First Leader Winston Peters leaked that the government is planning to cut the fees free programme that would see University students not paying course fees during their last year of study. The plan was later confirmed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis.

Many students and educators have expressed displeasure at the announcement. The original policy, fees free for the first year of study, was changed by this government earlier in its term to affect the final year. At the time, the argument was that the change would motivate students to finish their degrees. Now, with the programme set to go, it’s unclear what the reasoning is from the government. 

To discuss what the fees free programme meant for students and the financial benefits it presented, News Director Castor spoke to President of Te Aka Tauira the Victoria University of Wellington Student’s Association, Aidan Donoghue.

Next, to discuss the educator perspective on the announcement, they also spoke to National Secretary of the Tertiary Education Union, Amy Ross