Last week, Education Minister, Erica Stanford, announced that the construction of open-plan classrooms would be halted.

The National Party had previously petitioned for the classroom design in 2011, with the idea of pushing for flexibility in the way students were taught, and to accommodate a shift in how technology is used in educational spaces.

However, the classroom design has received a mixture of responses. 

Some say the classroom design resulted in a noisy and distracting environment.  Despite this,  surveys by the Council for Educational Research showed that most teachers liked open-plan classrooms, adding that students benefitted from the classroom design.

News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to Blair Dravitski about the government’s move regarding open-plan classrooms.

Dravitski is a spokesperson on the topic for the New Zealand Principals’ Federation, and Tumuaki/Principal of Te Uru Tarata | Lemonwood Grove School in Rolleston.

This week, Auckland council is facing scrutiny as Council chief executive Phil Wilson investigates the liquidation of a company owned by chief of staff, Jaswant Singh. 

In other news, Auckland Council is reinvigorating calls for stronger powers and the dog control act, as community leaders report a crisis of abandoned and roaming dogs across Auckland.

As well, a recent survey has found that local alcohol policy changes enacted at the end of 2024 have had a positive impact in Auckland. But one community advocate believes the council should not be complacent about improving policies to make the community safer against the harms of alcohol.

Tuesday Wire Host Sara spoke with Shane Henderson about all of these topics, starting with Singh’s company liquidation

The United Kingdom is passing significant electoral reforms as part of an effort to “boost public trust in democracy.”

One of these reforms is to lower the voting age to 16 for all elections, aligning voting rights with Scotland and Wales which already have lowered their voting ages.

The reforms also include expanding acceptable voter IDs, a new automated system to register to vote, and a tightening of rules surrounding political donations. 

For International Desk, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Ralph Hall, advisor for the Electoral Reform Society, about these changes.

Earlier this week New Zealand Parliament voted to support a joint statement with 27 other countries calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

On Wednesday, Labour MP Camilla Belich’s members bill titled the “Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill” passed its second reading.

And 50,000 people have made withdrawals from their KiwiSaver for the reason of financial hardship this year.

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden asked Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about all of these topics. 

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about the war on Gaza, Labour MP Camilla Belich’s pay secrecy bill, and the increase in KiwiSaver hardship withdrawals. 

For International Desk, they spoke to Ralph Hall, advisor at the Electoral Reform Society in the United Kingdom, about the significant electoral reform in the UK. 

News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to the New Zealand Principal’s Federations’ Blair Dravitski, on the government stopping the construction of open-plan classrooms.

For this week’s City Counselling, Tuesday Wire Host Sara spoke with Councillor Shane Henderson about the liquidation of council chief of staff’s business, calls for stronger powers to respond to roaming dogs, and Auckland’s local alcohol policy.

For our weekly catchup w/ the Green Party Oto spoke with MP Ricardo Menendez-March about the recently published inflation statistics, The Greens call to lower the voting age to 16 and The most recent unemployment statistics on beneficiaries.

The government is considering amending the Terrorism Suppression Act, which was enacted in 2002. 

In a copy of the document seen by Newsroom, the Ministry of Justice says the reason for the potential overhaul stems from existing offences in the law not “captur[ing] the full range of behaviours or activities of concern that are part of the contemporary threat from terrorism”.

Some of the proposed amendments include making membership of a terrorist entity a criminal offence, establishing new offences for public support of an assigned terrorist act or designated groups, which would include the display of insignia, and updating definitions for digital forms of support. 

Despite these proposed amendments, concerns have been raised over what would be defined as a ‘terrorist entity,’ and what implications this could have on free speech and political participation, in light of events seen overseas.

News and Editorial Director Joel, spoke to Richard Jackson — a Professor in Peace Studies at the University of Otago, about these potential amendments, and the concerns around this move.

Freshwater quality across Aotearoa has been in decline for some time, with almost 70% of monitored groundwater sites failing to meet drinking water standards for E. coli and almost half of the country’s rivers being unsuitable for recreational activities like swimming due to bacterial contamination.

Many concerns about the future of Aotearoa’s freshwater have been exacerbated by the government’s recent changes to Freshwater National Direction, with experts speculating that many of the proposed policy changes would favour commercial activity and lead to the further contamination and pollution of freshwater sources.

Oto spoke with Marnie Prickett - A research fellow at the department of public health at the University of Otago in Wellington and a member of the Public Health Association about a freshwater policy statement put out by the Public Health Association calling for urgent action to protect freshwater in Aotearoa and outlining freshwater protection as a critical public health priority.

Ireland is to become the first country in the world to include mandatory cancer warning labels on alcohol products. A move that has been hailed as world-leading. 

Aotearoa hasn’t followed their lead just yet, but Marlborough winery Villa Maria Estate have complied, by putting the warning on all their bottles getting sold in Ireland.

Many public health experts have praised these moves, and believe it’s time for us to address alcohol issues, here in Aotearoa. Producer Faith spoke to public health expert Dr. Karen Wright from the University of Otago about these decisions, and what further steps we need to take.

The government’s $231m boost for breakthrough technology has drawn praise for being a step forward, but scientists, researchers, and academics have criticised the risks involved– and how the money was reallocated. 

Producer Faith spoke to Professor Nicola Gaston from the University of Auckland about the investment, and the potential opportunities it will create.