It recently came to the public’s attention that the Inland Revenue Department had been providing social media firms with the personal details of taxpayers to be used in marketing campaigns. 

While the IRD have tried to reassure taxpayers that their details were anonymised using a hashing process that would replace the letters in their names with numbers, many have raised concerns about the potential privacy implications that could come with their personal data being sold to social media companies, as well as the efficacy of the hashing process itself. 

Wire Host Oto spoke to Gehan Gunasekara, Associate Professor in Commercial Law at the University of Auckland, to discuss the IRD’s selling of taxpayer data to social media firms and its potential implications.

On the 29th of August, TVNZ aired a news story covering the recent Israeli raids into the West Bank in Occupied Palestine, which they described as the “largest counter-terrorism strike” in the West Bank in 10 years. 

The raid, which persisted for a week, killed at least 30 Palestinians, two of whom were confirmed to be children. 

Many of those who witnessed the coverage said that this new story, like others by TVNZ, used biassed media framing to depict the Israeli Defence Forces favourably while ignoring Palestinian civilian casualties and the context of the occupation. 

For this week’s Get Action! Wednesday Wire host Oto spoke to Kareana Kee who launched a petition calling for TVNZ to review their coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Following a consistent year of pressure, the Victoria University of Wellington has announced its divestment from all Israeli government bonds and shares. The foundation has previously reported having close to $50,000, which they have divested following major Student sit ins and pushback.

The divestment is only the first step in a long process of boycotting Israel, however there is continued student backing and a recent petition attempting to further progress the severing of ties to Israel. 

Producer Sasha spoke to spokesperson for Student Justice for Palestine Poneke, Frank Mackenzie about how continued student pressure led to University of Victoria Wellington divesting from Israeli bonds and stocks.

Featuring What's Up with MP Nicola Willis, Aural Emporium, and heaps of tunage. 

The ACT Party’s treaty principles bill was a hot topic during the election campaign last year, and made it into the coalition agreement, with the National party committing to support it to the first reading.

The bill has met controversy since the campaign, criticised by Māori leaders for its potential to remove Māori from decision making processes entirely. Recently, a group of 440 Christian leaders also spoke out against the bill in an open letter to MPs asking them to vote against the bill. 

Wire host Castor spoke to Professor of Māori Studies Margaret Mutu of Ngāti Kahu, Te Rarawa, and Ngāti Whātua, about Cabinet’s reviewing the first draft of ACT’s treaty principles bill and its potential impacts on Māori.

Hosted by PHILLIEE, featuring the Sound of Sydney courtesy of our man Carlos Avilés.

~ Universal Harmony ~

Oozing a grateful ora, massaging the creative mind.

Researchers have estimated that Long Covid could be costing the New Zealand economy $2 billion a year.

The finding follows an Australian study which calculated the economic impact of Long Covid in Australia.

Producer Josef spoke to Professor of Health Economics Paula Lorgelly about the study, Long Covid, and what New Zealand can do about its economic costs.

Buff it up, 180 minutes of magnificent melodies and rude rhythms.

This week on The Green Desk things get shitty — New Zealand has a poo problem: An estimated 100 million tonnes of cow and sheep manure fall onto New Zealand pastures each year, causing an environmental and economic stink.