The Green Party co-leader phones up to kōrero about the local government election results, particularly Green Mayor Tory Whanau in Wellington, the Green Party's calls for pardon of cannabis convictions, and the farm level emissions scheme. Whakarongo mai nei! 

Birds, bats, and Wednesdays. 

Sharvon Mortimer comes into the studio to kōrero about I Get So Emotional Baby, a brand new choreographed work interrogating womens' emotional ownership under the patriarchal gaze. Whakarongo mai nei, and catch it at Basement from tonight until October 22! 

This week on the Tuesday Wire, Allan Blackman joined Casper and Christina in the studio to talk science news for our Dear Science segment.

Casper spoke to Dr Shane Reti from the National party for our weekly segment about National’s proposed tax cuts as well as his proposal to extend free breast cancer screening

Christina spoke with David Pomeroy and Caitlin Soulsby about the practice of streaming in New Zealand schools, as well as Professor Karen Stockin from Massey University about the mass pilot whale strandings in the Chatham Islands in the past few days.

And Casper also talked to Climate Minister and Greens co-leader James Shaw about the government’s new proposal to reduce agricultural emissions.

The government announced a ‘pragmatic proposal to reduce agricultural emissions’, a scheme formulated in consultation with the agricultural sector which will see it be brought into a kind of parallel to the emissions trading scheme, putting a price on farming emissions.

Casper had a chat with green party co-leader and climate change minister James Shaw about the proposal and what his role was in creating it.

The National party is proposing a set of tax cuts should it get into government next year. These cuts would index tax brackets to inflation but also reduce the overall tax burden of top earners in particular, raising many concerns about a similar scheme which was recently walked back in the UK after causing economic damage and drawing warnings from the IMF.

For Casper's weekly catchup with National MP Dr Shane Reti he asked him about the tax cuts, as well as a call he’s put forward as the party’s health spokesperson to increase free breast cancer screening up to the age of 74.

Today East and I bring you a warm hug over the airwaves!

You may have been part of it when you were in school, and maybe you’ve never noticed, but streaming, or putting students into high, middle, or low ability groups, is a common practice in schools across New Zealand. In theory, matches the students’ needs to the appropriate resources and attention from teachers, but in reality, it has had discriminatory ramifications and can lead to low self esteem. 

Christina spoke to Dr David Pomeroy, a University of Canterbury education lecturer, and Caitlin Soulsby, the head of maths at Mana College, about what streaming actually means for rangatahi in Aotearoa.

Almost 500 pilot whales stranded on the beach of the Chatham Islands on Friday and Monday in two separate mass stranding incidents just days apart. Many of the whales could not be refloated due to the active shark risk to the animals and the rescuers in the region.

For more on mass whale strandings, and whether it’s a common occurrence, Christina spoke to Professor Karen Stockin, a marine ecologist at Massey University.

As a wise man once said, 'it stinks, it stinks, it's stinky' - he's doing alright for himself now