The Wire with Manny

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.

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.

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.

This week on the Tuesday Wire...

For Dear Science this week, our expert, Professor Allan Blackman, chats with us about taking too many vitamins, bees, and AI failing psychological tests.

For our weekly catchup with the National Party, Host Alex spoke with MP Ryan Hamilton about the US threat of further tariffs on New Zealand, our relationship with the US, and changes to local government committees to limit the impact of unelected members.

Producer Liam spoke to a range of people, including Chris Casey of the Cachet foundation, about the current deteriorating state of the former Carrington Hospital in Mt Albert, also known as Building One, and efforts to see it restored and repurposed. 

And Alex also spoke with Rachel Mackintosh, National Secretary of E Tū, about where the 2026 Budget leaves struggling care and support workers in Aotearoa.