The Wire with Alex

The government announced two new initiatives aimed at moving young people out of benefit dependency, and are looking to motivate them to stay in work by providing a $1000 incentive if they are able to keep stable work for more than 12 months. In the same announcement, they stated that young adults, aged 18 and 19, will no longer be eligible for Jobseeker payments if their parents can support them, for which they set the bar as an annual household income of just over $65,000.

In addition to this, The Green Party conducted a public interview on Monday, with the families of the three New Zealanders who were detained by Israel aboard the Sumud flotilla. The goal of the flotilla was to break through Israel’s illegal blockade that has existed since 2007, and provide aid to those suffering in Gaza.

As a result of rising tensions towards the Government’s stance on Gaza, Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ Auckland home was vandalised on Tuesday, the day after the press conference where Chloe Swarbrick urged the Government to act against Israel. Peters then quickly blamed the vandilisation – where a protestor broke his window and left a note saying “welcome to the real world” – on what he described as the “radical left”.

For our weekly catchup with the Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez-March, Wednesday Wire Host Max speaks to him about the vandalisation of Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ Auckland home, what the Green Party is asking of the government as a next step in Aotearoa’s stance on Gaza. As well as the Government’s initiatives aimed at moving young adults towards independence.

We also spoke about Associate Education Minister David Seymour’s announcing a change to how the government contracts school attendance services.

This week in Aotearoa, the Hauraki Gulf Tīkapa Moana Marine Protection Bill is set to pass its third reading in parliament. The legislation extends existing protections and introduces new areas of marine reserve. The move is providing what many have described as long overdue in Aotearoa’s conservation efforts, as only 0.3% of our waters are currently under full marine protection. However, experts have also raised concerns about the balance of consideration of commercial fisheries comparative to that of local whānau and hapū groups.

Producer Jasmine Gray spoke to Fiona McCormack, an Associate Marine Anthropology Professor at the University of Waikato, about the nature of this legislation and what it means for wider marine conservation efforts.

Following the arrest of Freedom Flotilla activists last week including New Zealanders Rana Hamida, Youssef Sammour and Sam Leason, the families of these activists alongside the Green Party coleaders held a press conference yesterday where they called for the New Zealand government to fulfil its obligations to international humanitarian law and answered questions from the media.

First, Wire Host Sara shares some recordings from the press conference. 
As political leaders appear conflicted in their response to the situation in Gaza, especially in light of the attempts of citizens to put pressure on politicians as well as by-pass blockades themselves with the Freedom Flotilla, I was interested in the legal frameworks that exist for responding to this conflict.

To discuss this topic, Sara spoke with both Victoria University of Wellington legal professor Marnie Lloydd and University of Waikato law expert Alexander Gillespie about the obligations of other nations including New Zealand to act. 
Her first interview was with Marnie Lloydd.
Then, further to this topic international law expert Alexander Gillespie speaks to New Zealand’s capacity to respond to the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Over the last few months, concerns have been raised over the hosting of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States. Particularly, concerns over human rights in the country, VISA worries, and accusations of sportswashing have been increasingly levied towards the country.

The relative lack of coverage of these concerns, comparatively to concerns over the previous tournament in Qatar, or those in the future in countries like Saudi Arabia, complicate the history that Football and FIFA have with questionable regimes and funding. Despite Trump Administration policies that seem to threaten the tournament, there continues to be a lack of noise around whether or not the three host countries should be reduced to two, removing the US.

Monday Wire Producer Alex spoke to a Doctoral Candidate in the Faculty of Arts and Education at the University of Auckland, Luke Bird, about this Sportwashing, its background, and why the US and countries like Qatar are treated differently.