95bFM: The Wire

A 19-year old from Palmerston North recently died after suffering a head injury while playing a private "run it straight-style" tackle game.

“Run it Straight” has been introduced as a new combat sport, involving a runner and a tackler running full speed at each other to mirror physical collisions seen in rugby league matches.

Oto spoke to Professor Patria Hume, a Professor in Human Performance at AUT, about run it tackle games and the inevitably of serious injuries or deaths during these high-collision games.

Another significant funding gap in this year’s budget announcement was long-awaited funding for additional cancer treatments, particularly for blood cancer.

With no additional funding for blood cancer treatments announced in this year’s budget, patients, advocates and doctors have said that blood cancer patients have been left behind in the announcement and have called on the government to clear Pharmac's "backlog" of unfunded blood cancer medicines.

Oto spoke to Rodger Tiedemann, A Hematologist at Auckland City Hospital and Associate Professor of Cancer Research at the University of Auckland, about the lack of additional funding for blood cancer treatments in Budget 2025.

In the 21st century, microplastics are in almost everything. They’re detrimental to both the environment, and those who consume them... But are we really aware of how easy they are to inhale?

Producer Faith spoke to the University of Auckland’s Dr Joel Rindelaub about a recent study showing how inhalable microplastics are actually more common indoors, rather than outdoors.

This week on the Tuesday Wire...

For Dear Science this week, our expert, Doctor Cushla McGoverin, chatted with us about night vision contact lenses, giant sloths, and how to best break down biofilms. 

In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor asked about Kiwisaver and the Jobseeker benefit in light of the Budget announcements last week. 

Producer Faith spoke to the University of Auckland’s Dr. Brian Don about the links between economic hardship and wellbeing.

She also spoke to Dr. Joel Rindelaub about microplastics, and how they’re more common than we think.

Many studies show that mental health affects physical health, and vice versa.. But during a recession and cost of living crisis...   what are the negative effects of financial insecurity- or one’s perception of their financial status, and comparing it to others? A recent study highlighted these correlations.

Producer Faith spoke to Dr. Brian Don from the University of Auckland about this study, and what is says about modern society.

This week on the Monday Wire:

For our weekly catchup with Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, speaks to her about Budget 2025 and its impacts on Māori initiatives, and the deferral of the debate into the suspension of Te Pāti Māori MPs.

For our weekly catchup with the ACT Party’s Simon Court, Joel speaks to him also about Budget 2025, specifically around spending on education and how the Budget will impact young people.

They speak to Brian Roper — an Associate Professor in Politics at the University of Otago, about the 2025 Budget, and how much of an impact this Budget will have for the National Party’s chances of a re-election.

And they speak to the Co-Founder and General Manager of KickBack, Aaron Hendry, about his concerns with Budget 2025 in addressing the youth homelessness crisis.

Whakarongo mai.

With the announcement of how the government is planning to spend money over the next year comes the question of how this will impact the National Party’s chances of being re-elected into power in next year’s General Election.

When presenting her work to Parliament, Finance Minister, Nicola Willis, said that “every Kiwi knows this government has their back”.

However, elements of the Budget have been criticised by opposition parties and various activist groups, with opposition leader, Chris Hipkins, calling funding decisions in the Budget “strange and unnecessary”.

The Budget can play a major role in whether a government will be re-elected or not. 

Labour’s 1958 Budget, for example, which has since become known as the ‘Black Budget,’ resulted in Finance Minister at the time, Arnold Nordmeyer, imposing additional taxes on cars, alcohol, and tobacco, in an attempt to limit the need for international goods during the payments crisis in late 1957. This caused political tensions, and as a result, Labour lost the 1960 general election after one term.

News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Brian Roper — an Associate Professor in Politics at the University of Otago, about how Budget 2025 will impact National’s chances to be re-elected, and his opinion on what party, or parties, will make up the next government.

Concerns have been raised about how little youth homelessness has been addressed in Budget 2025, as well as how funding is being allocated, that will impact vulnerable rangatahi and tamariki.

Boot camps have received a $33 million boost over four years to create more camps, $1 billion has been stripped from emergency accommodations, and 18 and 19 year olds are set to have their Jobseeker and emergency benefits tested against their parents. 

News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Aaron Hendry - the co-founder and general manager at Kickback; an organisation aimed at tackling youth homelessness, about Budget 2025, and how youth homelessness should have been addressed in the Budget.

Since Covid-19 shocked the global health system with the impacts of lack of pandemic preparedness, the World Health Assembly has undertaken intense negotiations to help develop a stronger and more equitable response to future pandemics. 

Producer Sara spoke with the Chief Scientist at Toha, and founder of Te Pūnaha Matatini about the pandemic treaty adopted by the World Health Organisation, and how New Zealand should be preparing for future health crises.

Today is Budget Day, the day the government releases their spending plans for the next year.

The embargo on the budget lifts at 2pm, however, there have already been several pre-budget spending announcements.

Earlier this week, the debate on the Privileges Committee report into the Treaty Principles Bill haka, led by Te Paati Māori, was deferred. 

Opposition MPs have raised concerns that because the debate has been deferred, the Te Paati Māori co-leaders may not be back in time to vote on the budget.

For our weekly catch-up with Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni, Wire Host Caeden asked about all of these topics.