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Featuring Loose Reads thanks to our friends at Time Out Bookstore. Whakarongo mai nei!

As of last week, the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill came into effect, allowing landlords to end a periodic tenancy without needing to give a specific reason, changing legislation introduced by the previous Labour government in 2020.

The government says the bill, which passed its third reading in December, is aimed at enticing more rental properties to be in the market.

However, this move has raised concerns from those renting, due to concerns such as retaliatory evictions from landlords.

On Friday, News and Editorial Director, and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to the President of Renters United; an advocacy group of renters, Zac Thomas, about the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill coming into effect.

They started off by asking how the organisation is feeling about this amendment as a whole.

A rampant item in the news headlines late last year was David Seymour's promise to cut costs but revamping the Ka Ora Ka Ako healthy school lunch programme. 

He claimed that by changing to larger providers $1.5 million would be saved. Now the school year has officially kicked back off, the lunches have been put into action. 

But last week, hundreds of students in Auckland were left hungry, when their lunches arrived hours late. Teachers pitched in their own money to feed the children and hoped for a better outcome after voicing their complaints. The next day, the industrial kitchens the lunches were cooked in experienced technical issues… delaying the lunches delivery until after lunchtime once again. 

For our weekly catch up with the ACT Party, News and Editorial Director, and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Simon Court about these issues. 

They also asked him about the first Oral Submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill which began last week. As well as comments made by Shane Jones and Winston Peters, attacking migrant MPs.

The government has announced the reversal of blanket speed limit restrictions in 38 sections of New Zealand’s road network with new Transport Minister, Chris Bishop, announcing a further 49 sections will be set to be reviewed during public consultation in the coming months.

This would increase the speed limits in multiple areas, from the Northland region to the top of the South Island.

These developments have faced mixed reactions, with many local leaders deeming this move “reckless”.

There are concerns that in certain regions, the reversal of speed limits would be on stretches of roads that have schools, a shared pathway, and communities.

On Friday, News and Editorial Director, and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to the Transport Planner for Movement; an alliance of national organisations advocating for safe and accessible active transport in Aotearoa that had previously placed an application for judicial review into the decision, Bevan Woodward, about the government changes to speed limit restrictions, and the group’s concerns regarding this.

They started off by asking if there was adequate reasoning for the reversal of speed limits in these sections.

Dubhead & Wastemaster

This week on the Monday Wire...

For our weekly catchup with the ACT Party's Simon Court, News and Editorial Director, and Monday Wire Host, Joel, speaks to him about issues with the government’s ‘revamped’ school lunches programme, oral submissions on the Treaty Principals Bill, and ‘xenophobic’ comments made by NZ First MPs in Parliament.

Joel also spoke to the Transport Planner for Movement; an alliance of national organisations advocating for safe and accessible active transport in Aotearoa, Bevan Woodward, about the government changes to speed limit restrictions.

Producer Evie spoke to Massey University's Professor of Sustainable Energy and Climate Mitigation, Ralph Sims, about the government’s second climate target for 2035.

Joel spoke to the President of Renters United, Zac Thomas, about the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill coming into effect as of Thursday last week, which would grant landlords the right for no-cause evictions.

And Global Innovator, Matt Hart, joins us in studio to discuss AI.

Whakarongo mai!

Last week the government announced their second climate target, in accordance with the Paris Agreement. 

The target outlines how much emissions need to be cut by 2035. The government has chosen a target of getting emissions down by 51 - 55% compared to 2005 levels. This is only 1% higher than their previous target. 

The announcement has been slated as unambitious, particularly in relation to comparable nations, as well as developing countries. 

However, with the proposed climate policies from the government, many of which aren’t even in place yet, Aotearoa isn’t forecasted to reach this goal. 

On Friday, Producer Evie spoke to Massey University's Professor of Sustainable Energy and Climate Mitigation, Ralph Sims about the target and how realistic it really is.