Ngawha prison is a former maximum security facility that now houses many prisoners who are on remand awaiting trial. They recently had a surprise inspection from the Office of the Ombudsman, which found a number of faults with how the prison is being run, including issues around prisoner privacy and lack of rehabilitative programmes. Lachlan spoke with Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier about the report.

Ngawha prison is a former maximum security facility that now houses many prisoners who are on remand awaiting trial. They recently had a surprise inspection from the Office of the Ombudsman, which found a number of faults with how the prison is being run, including issues around prisoner privacy and lack of rehabilitative programmes. Lachlan spoke with Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier about the report.

With a non-binding referendum on legalising cannabis approaching, Patrick Gower has explored its place in New Zealand in a new documentary. He spoke to Mary-Margaret about the need for debate, and what is standing in the way. Mary-Margaret also asked the Drug Foundation's Ross Bell about public hesitations, and the presence of misinformation.

It's a packed Thursday Wire this week! Host Stewart Sowman-Lund is joined in studio by Deb, Mary-Margaret and Justin. This week:

All that plus another Poll Position and texter feedback. It's The Thursday Wire and it's wired!

The government’s KiwiBuild housing programme was officially reset yesterday, by new Housing Minister Megan Woods. The target of 100,000 houses over a decade is gone - replaced with a target to simply build as many houses as possible, as quickly as possible. Buyers of KiwiBuild studios and one-bedrooms now only having to commit to living in the house for one year rather than three, before they can sell it. And, there’s a commitment of 400-million dollars to a progressive home ownership scheme - something which was in the Green Party's confidence and supply agreement, but which we don’t have a lot of information on just yet. 

National’s Housing Spokesperson Judith Collins has been very critical of the policy since its inception. Host Stewart Sowman-Lund spoke with her this morning to get her reaction to the reset… and started by asking her if she feels any better about KiwiBuild after the reset.

Justin recaps a turbulent week in British politics, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson prorogued Parliament last Friday, rouge government MPs forcing through a bill blocking no-deal Brexit and Johnson failing to push for a general election in October.

Yesterday RNZ released a report detailing findings that Internal Affairs has been providing funding to anti-abortion charities’ counselling services for the last 15 years through their Community Organisations Grants scheme. Despite providing hundreds of thousands of dollars to these groups, the provision of funding actually appears to go against their rules for Community Organisation Grants.

Deb speaks with Terry Bellamak, National President of ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa, who begins by describing the organisations Internal Affairs has been funding.

Recent scrutiny surrounding foreign political donations have flared after revelations that the National party received one hundred and fifty thousand dollars as a gift from Chinese Billionaire Lang Lin. Lin is an prominent figure in the Chinese horse racing industry and mad the donation through the Inner Mongolian Ride Horse Industry Group. This large sum has lead to fears over foreign influence on New Zealand’s political system. While the cap for overseas donations are supposedly set at fifteen hundred dollars, Lin managed to skirt these laws by donating through a New Zealand based company. Some, such as Victoria University's Dr Simon Chapple have called for an outright ban on foreign donations, as well as a cap on domestic ones. William Boyd spoke with Dr Lara Greaves from the Politics department at the University of Auckland about the laws on donating and the unequal amount gifted to right-leaning parties. William started off by asking Dr Greaves to clarify what the current laws are over foreign donation.

Tuwhenuaroa speaks to Philanthropy NZ Chief Executive Sue McCabe about severe government underfunding of essential social services.

Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and former Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, has given her support to a YES vote in the upcoming cannabis referendum. Today, the Helen Clark Foundation has released a report outlining the reasons for legalising and decriminalising cannabis. The Foundation is an independent, non-partisan, public policy think tank from Aotearoa and aims to contribute to policy debates on how to achieve a more inclusive, sustainable and peaceful society. The report’s release comes in the lead up to the referendum set for next year on whether to decriminalise cannabis and Clark has spoken about the need for informed debate around this issue. Lillian Hanly spoke with her and started by asking her to explain the findings of the report.