The Wire with Manny

For City Counselling this week, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Councillor Shane Henderson about a new AA members survey on time-of-use charging and Labour Leader Chris Hipkins ‘State of Auckland speech last week. 

And they spoke to Sapna Samant, who is a GP, storyteller, and activist critical of Indian Prime Minister Modi, about his expected visit to New Zealand later this year.

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Producer Pranuja spoke with Shanan Halbert about public service cuts, Budget priorities, and changes to NCEA.

She spoke with Associate Dean Sione Taufa about how crypto investment schemes are spreading through trusted Pacific community networks.

She also spoke with Dr Mohsen Mohammadzadeh about the risks of using AI to streamline public sector jobs and services.

As the Government looks to reduce public sector roles, there has been growing discussion around whether artificial intelligence could help streamline public services. But experts are warning that frustration around slow AI uptake should not override the need for proper safeguards and consideration of the workers most affected.

Producer Pranuja spoke with Dr Mohsen Mohammadzadeh, Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Planning from the University of Auckland, about the risks of automating public sector work, the social consequences of AI, and what responsible implementation should look like.

A survey of Automobile Association members' views on time-of-use charging has been presented to the Auckland Council’s Transport and Infrastructure Delivery Committee. 

The survey found that members were open to congestion charging if it worked, even if they thought it was unfair.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins gave a ‘State of Auckland’ speech last week, focusing on the need for cross-party collaboration on infrastructure projects.

Wire Host Caeden spoke with Councillor Shane Henderson about both of these topics.

Last week, figures published by RNZ showed that Afterpay made close to $20m in late fees in Aotearoa New Zealand, in the year to December 2025.

This revenue is an increase on their 2024 earnings, and comes after legislation was introduced to bring Buy Now Pay Later lending services—such as Afterpay—under similar regulation to other lenders.

Prior to September of 2024, buy now pay later lenders were exempted from the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act that governs other lenders. This is because, unlike other lenders such as credit card companies, buy now pay later schemes do not charge interest or any other fees—so long as the debts are repaid on time—meaning they did not meet the definition of a ‘consumer credit contract’.

After September of 2024, however, they came under the act, with some exemptions, such as that they don’t have to carry out the same checks as other lenders to see if a borrower can actually afford a loan.

A later amendment exempted them from the prohibition on charging unreasonable fees and also exempted them from being required to ensure default fees do no more than reasonably compensate the provider for their costs.

Earlier this year, Consumer New Zealand and FinCap (with support from Victoria University and funding from the Borrin Foundation) published the second stage of their report examining Buy Now Pay Later schemes in Aotearoa New Zealand, before and after these regulatory changes. So, to discuss the recently reported Afterpay late fee revenues within the wider context of what that report found, producer Theo spoke to the senior policy advisor at FinCap, Jake Lilley.