The Wire with Caeden

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 rates rises cap, The Labour Party announcing they’d be providing low-interest loans for family GP practices, and last week’s Government announcement that they'd be majorly shaking up local government.

Producer Flo spoke with Dr Katherine Doolin, a Senior Law Lecturer at the University of Auckland, to talk about the effectiveness of Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Courts, the upcoming conference on AODT courts and hopes for their further implementation in the future.

Max spoke with Peter Shepherd, a Professor in the department of molecular medicine at the University of Auckland, to discuss the World Health Organisation listing Ozempic-style weight loss drugs as a recommendation to combat obesity.

And Flo spoke with Wei-Qin Zhuang, an Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Auckland, to discuss a new methodology to remove nitrate from water supplies.

On Monday, the government announced that they’d be introducing a rates rises cap, which is expected to be legislated by the end of 2026. The cap would be a minimum of 2% and a maximum of 4% nationwide.

When talking about the reasoning for the introduction of a rates cap, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said that ratepayers in New Zealand were “fed up”.

Along with this, The Labour Party announced that if they were to be elected in next year’s election, they would offer doctors and nurse-practitioners low-interest loans to set up new practices or buy into existing ones. In their policy, Chris Hipkins stated they would hand out up to 50 loans per year, which would be up to 90% of the cost of buying into a practice, capped at $500,000 dollars. They also specified they’d be prioritising areas that had no general practitioners or practices with closed or partially closed books.

And last week, the Government announced a proposed major shake-up of local council. Where Mayors of cities and district councils would take over the duties of regional councils.

For our Weekly Catchup with The Green Party, Wednesday Wire Host Max spoke to MP Ricardo Menendez March about the Government’s regional council’s announcement and Labour’s low-interest loans for family GP practices.

But first, they discussed The National Party’s rates rises cap.

This week on the Tuesday Wire:

For Dear Science this week, our expert, Dr Cushla McGoverin chats with us about food waste and strategies for limiting waste, the five stages of brain development, and scientists using E. coli to create rainbow dye, thanks to MOTAT.

For our weekly catchup with the National Party, News and Editorial Director Joel spoke to MP Stuart Smith about the substantial changes to region councils, and Health Minister Simeon Brown’s calls to decentralise Health New Zealand.

For Green World, Tuesday Wire Host Sara spoke to Dr Sze-Wing Yiu, a Wildlife Ecologist at the Bioeconomy Science Institute, about this week’s wildlife conference in Queenstown.

Producer Vihan spoke to Sam Pilisi, a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Auckland, about his study on burnout within New Zealand-born Pacific communities.

And Joel spoke to Peter Saxton, an Associate Professor in the School of Population Health and HIV researcher at the University of Auckland, about the Ministry of Health’s HIV Monitoring Report.

Whakarongo mai!

From today until the 4th of December, a conference will be held in Queenstown that will look into pest management and how best to protect native species.

The event not only brings experts in the sector from Aotearoa, but will also involve Australian experts as well.

Tuesday Wire Host Sara spoke to Dr Sze-Wing Yiu, a Wildlife Ecologist at the Bioeconomy Science Institute, about this week’s conference, and what to expect.