The Wire with Manny

The deadline for enrolling to vote in Local elections and nominations for candidates closed last week, with last minute pushes across the country to make sure as many seats as possible were being contested. 

There were concerns from the Electoral Commission and Local Councils across the country that some seats might go uncontested or only have one person running.

Producer Sanat wanted to understand what the state of local democracy is in Auckland and whether the council is doing enough to make sure it is healthy and thriving. 

Also in today’s discussion is a conversation about Regional Deals. Recently Auckland Council signed a memorandum of understanding with the government in order to begin “negotiating” a regional deal. 

Producer Sanat wanted to understand what a regional deal is and what it can do for Auckland, especially as recent unemployment and homelessness figures suggest that our city has been hit hardest by the recent economic downturn. 

He started off by asking Councillor Shane Henderson about the state of Auckland's Local Democracy.

On Monday this week it was announced by the government that they are planning to drop NCEA from the national curriculum by 2030, as a part of a new education overhaul.

Although the full details of the new program haven’t been released, the government is planning to replace the NCEA qualification, which has been in place for more than 20 years, with a new national system weighted heavily towards exams. Associate Education Minister David Seymour described the change as more “challenging” for students, which from his perspective can “only be a positive thing”.

Following on from our previous conversation with the Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez-March, Producer Max spoke to Stuart McNaughton, a professor in the faculty of arts and education at the University of Auckland, to talk about the new education reforms.

Recently, AI-enabled CCTV cameras, number plate recognition systems and other smart technologies have been rolled out in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.While information about these technologies is limited, what is known is that they’re primarily being used to detect traffic violations at the moment, although ethical concerns have been raised about how this technology could be used in the future.

Oto spoke to Dr Mohsen Mohammadzadeh, A senior lecturer in the school of architecture and planning in the faculty of engineering and design at the university of Auckland about the rollout this new AI enabled surveillance technology in Auckland and it’s ethical implications.

On Thursday last week, the coalition government passed legislation to reverse the ban on oil and gas exploration — a ban which had been initiated by the previous government in 2018.

Minister Shane Jones who drove the reversal, highlighted the impact of the ban on economic growth and energy supply in New Zealand. Opposition parties have voiced concerns about the impact of this decision for New Zealand’s climate commitments.

As well, yesterday Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford announced an overhaul of the NCEA system, to be replaced with qualifications that they say will be better to understand, and more aligned with international standards.

Finally, as the United States places 15% tariffs on NZ exports, the Labour party have said the government needs to do more to strengthen our trade relationships to avoid a rise in the cost of living for kiwis.

Host Sara spoke with National MP Carl Bates about all these topics. Sara started by asking him to explain the government’s decision to reverse the ban on oil and gas exploration in New Zealand.