95bFM: The Wire

The coalition government has recently been debating cutting funding entirely for school lunches, but instead have made a significant cut while continuing to keep lunches. 

There have been concerns raised by Health Coalition Aotearoa about the new supplier, Compass Group, stating a potential worse quality of food and inadequacy of future supply.

Sasha spoke to policy researcher from The University of Auckland and the spokesperson of Health Coalition Aotearoa, Kelly Garton, about the new supplier of school lunches and the implications this has for schools and children’s nutrition.

Recently, a study was conducted at the university of Auckland analysing the use of A.I in predicting the prevalence of respiratory disease outbreaks during flu seasons in Aotearoa.

Forecasting models are essential for hospitals in predicting admissions and subsequently allocating resources and beds.

However, during peak flu periods, and, most notably the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals across Aotearoa have been largely underprepared for respiratory disease outbreaks, hence why experts have called for improvements to be made to traditional forecasting models. 

Oto spoke to Dr Steffen Albrecht, a Research Fellow at the School of Computer Science at the University of Auckland and author of the study, to talk about the study and how A.I could help disease forecasting models in hospitals across Aotearoa. 

On the 23rd of October, a nationwide hui will be held by thousands of workers in 12 different places in the country, following policies coming into place since the current government took power last year that impacts workers’ rights, such as abolishing fair pay agreements, and mass job cuts in the public sector.

According to RNZ’s tracker, 2000 public service jobs have been cut from the period of December last year to June this year, with 7000 being cut from the public sector.

News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to the President of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU), Richard Wagstaff, about the plans for the nationwide hui, and what the NZCTU hope to get out of this day of action.

This week on the Tuesday Wire

For Dear Science this week, our expert Doctor Cushla McGoverin chatted to us about Monarch Butterfly Migration, Worms and Snails, and the Tasmanian Tiger genome. 

In our weekly catchup with the National Party, Wire host Castor spoke to MP Katie Nimon about polling numbers and catering spending. 

On the Green Desk, Jack Marshall heads to The Shed to talk to some tinkers. 

And Producer Joel spoke to the President of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, Richard Wagstaff, about a nationwide hui occurring tomorrow over worker’s concerns regarding legislation the government has implemented since forming a government last year.

On Friday, staff at the University of Auckland held a strike on campus, over ongoing conversations with the University regarding bettering working conditions and improving pay for staff.

This follows similar protest action that happened on campus THREE weeks ago, with members as a part of THREE different universities striking on the same day. These rallies were attended by 4,000 Te Hautū Kahurangi | Tertiary Education Union members overall, making this strike action the largest since staff from all EIGHT universities striked two years prior.

News and Editorial Director, and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to the organiser of the Tertiary Education Union, Nicole Wallace, about the most recent strikes at the University of Auckland, and what this means moving forward.

The government is reintroducing a ‘social investment agency’, an organisation last seen during Bill English’s National government. 

The agency assesses the cost of individuals to the state, largely the cost of beneficiaries. Once this is assessed the government steps in to prevent those deemed most costly from creating these costs. This includes managing individuals' benefits, putting a limit on what they can spend and sanctioning them if they miss support sessions or meetings. 

The move is largely created to save the government costs, rather than addressing poverty and disadvantage at the root. 

Teaching fellow at the University of Auckland, Dr Eileen Joy says this approach completely ignores the systemic causes behind disadvantage.

Producer Evie spoke to Dr Eileen Joy about the system, how it’s implemented and what impacts it will have.

This week on the Monday Wire.

For our weekly catch up, News and Editorial Director, and Monday Wire Host, Joel, speaks to Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp about the party failing to release an annual statement, the Samoan Citizenship bill, and 21 new te reo Māori names being allocated for sites around the Māngere-Ōtāthuhu Local Board area.

For our weekly catch up with the ACT Party’s Simon Court, Producer Evie talks about the Green Party using the Waka Jumping legislation to remove Darleen Tana from parliament, Gore district council’s plans to make the region an area of cultural significance and the University of Auckland’s new compulsory paper surrounding Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Joel speaks to the Organiser of the Tertiary Education Union, Nicole Wallace, about the recent union member strikes at the University of Auckland.

Evie speaks to Professional teaching fellow at the University of Auckland Dr Eileen Joy about the government’s approach to social welfare ignoring systemic causes.

And Joel speaks to the Delegate of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, Shannyn Bristowe, about the recent student nurses rallies that happened across the country.

Whakarongo mai!

On Saturday, student nurses rallied across multiple cities in the country; in Auckland, Whāngarei, Hamilton, Mt Maunganui, Napier, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Wellington, and Nelson, over petitioning for the government to implement paid training.

News and Editorial Director, and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to the Delegate of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, Shannyn Bristowe, about the recent rallies, and concerns that studying nursing is gradually becoming a lot less accessible to New Zealanders.

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party Wire Host Caeden speaks to Labour Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about the recent 1-News-Verian poll, the Western Samoan Citizenship Bill gaining unanimous support at select committee, and the divorce law change known as ‘Ashley’s law’ that was passed through Parliament yesterday.

Last week during student-led pro-Palestine protests a student at Otago University was arrested.

Footage later posted by Student Justice for Palestine Otago showed property damage occurred when excessive force was used by campus security, not pro-Palestine students.

The group says campus security ignored student safety in an attempt to block protestors from staging a peaceful sit-in at the University clocktower.

Wire Host Caeden spoke to Student Justice for Palestine Otago spokesperson Liz about the footage of campus security using force against students, as well as why they were protesting in the first place.