The Wire with Manny

On today's Wire we talked with Chris Whelan from Universities NZ and Will Matthews from the AUSA about a vote to raise student fees.

Host Harry spoke to Labour MP Phil Twyford about the ongoing coalition negotiations.

We also had David Mills from the Kereru Brewing Company as well as Kim Collins from Forest and Bird to talk about who's going to win the Bird of the Year competition.

For our regular State of the States feature Harry spoke to Nick Sawhney about the latest Donald Trump controversy.

Finally, Lachlan talked to Julie Chapman from KidsCan about schoolchildren going hungry, and Ben takes us back to 1987 for This Day in History.

A new quarterly Consumer price index report has been released by Statistics New Zealand.

The consumer price index, or CPI,  measures the rate of price change of goods and services purchased by New Zealand households. For the September year housing and household utilities increased 3.0 percent. Food prices increased 2.8 percent and vegetables were up 9.0 percent.

In a press release, Council of Trade Unions Secretary, Sam Huggard said that "Prices are rising faster than wages, and some of the biggest price rises are basic necessities for the lowest paid."  He added that  "In the year to June, the average hourly wage rose only 1.6 percent and the Labour Cost Index rose only 1.7 percent"

Producer Reuben McLaren spoke to Sam earlier and asked him about the new CPI findings.

On today's show, we speak to drug testing group KnowYourStuff about their latest research. Journalist Gia Garrick takes us through the highs and lows of working in the parliamentary press gallery, and covering her first election.

On The Green Desk, Jack Marshall has a chat with Dr Alexander Taylor about one of the great mysteries of intellect in animals

Lillian speaks with Valerie Morse who was arrested in the 2007 Urewera terror raids, and we hear from Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara who is seeking a pardon. And we speak to ABC journalist Hagar Cohen about revelations New Zealand’s high commissioner to Fiji was threatened with expulsion from the country last year.

India chats to political reporter Gia Garrick about the highs and lows of covering her first election, following politicians around the country, and how she's passed the time waiting for Winston.