This week on the Monday Wire, Jemima speaks to Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson about the new healthy homes minimum standards announced by the government as well as the National Party's new environment policy. Lachlan talks to Sam Archer from the New Zealand Green Building Council about their thoughts on the new minimum standards for rental homes. Jemima discusses high interest loans and unsafe credit with Robert Choy from Ngā Tangata Microfinance. Lachlan speaks to Tony Blackett from Amnesty International New Zealand about the global crackdown on human rights organisations. 

Ricardo Menéndez March joins The Thursday Wire to discuss the State Housing Waiting List and the state of state housing in general. 

Grace speaks to Gerry Devlin, medical director at the Heart Foundation and cardiologist at Gisbourne Hospital about New Zealand's biggest killer, heart disease.

The full show podcast of The Wire for February 21st, 2019. We are joined for conversations with Minister Andrew Little, Ricardo Menéndez March of Auckland Action Against Poverty and Gerry Devlin of The Heart Foundation as well as a slightly janky return of This Day in History. 

This day in history goes back to 1972 for Richard Nixon's journey to China, the first official trip by a sitting US President to the PRC.

On Dear Science today we talk about the end of the Opportunity Rover on Mars, push ups and heart disease, and the best order to drink wine and beer together as well as a profile of the element Americium from the Periodic Table.

Fletcher Tabuteau is with us this week and Lillian Hanly spoke with him about the Digital Services Tax and the possible shift away from the use of 1080.

Finally, Lillian has something special in store for Wednesday listeners over the next month or so, and that is A Seven Part Chat with Rod Oram. This will be explained later in the show but basically there were some articles around the possibility of another global financial crisis and Lillian wanted to know more about that, and whether we should be keeping money out of the bank... 

Heaps of great interaction from listeners today too with lots of good points about alcohol poisoning and tax and fairness.

Why is everyone panicking about the China / New Zealand alleged worsening relationship?

Our producer Lisa Boudet (briefly) reports. 

On the show today:

Why have 7 UK Labour MPs resigned overnight? I talk to our correspondant in Europe, Justin Wong.

The Green Desk is back for another week: Today, Mitchell talks to the executive director of Greenpeace Russel Norman about the state of New Zealand’s fishing industry

Then, Liv talks to economic and political journalist Rod Oram about the government’s plans to impose a new digital services tax (DST) on multinational companies operating in New Zealand and briefly discusses the capital gains tax.

Finally, for our international segment, Lisa looks at the developments in the China / New Zealand relationship

Governments all over the world are paying more and more attention to the financial activities of digital giants such as Google, Facebook and Uber. And New Zealand isn’t being left out of the picture - our government has just announced plans to impose a new digital services tax on multinational corporations operating in New Zealand. Finance Minister Grant Robertson sez highly digitalised companies currently earn a significant income from New Zealand consumers without being liable for income tax. He adds the current tax rules also provide a competitive advantage to foreign companies in the digital services field compared to local companies offering similar online services. So will this proposed digital tax affect the operating activities of these online global giants in New Zealand? Olivia Holdsworth spoke to economic and political journalist Rod Oram about the new tax. Olivia also asked him about his thoughts on the upcoming tax working group report and specifically the capital gains tax which would see profits from the sale of assets and investments such as rental properties and shares being taxed at people's marginal income tax rate. Olivia began by asking how the digital services tax will affect multinational corporations.

Today on the Monday Wire, Jemima speaks to Green Party co-leader James Shaw about the possibility of a blue-green political party emerging before the next election. Lachlan talks to Leroy Beckett from Action Station about online harassment. Lachlan also spoke to Te Pora Stephens from Save Our Unique Landscape about Ihumatao and the national day of action held last Friday. Jemima wraps up with National Coordinator for the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective, Catherine Healy, about sex-for-rent advertisements and arrangements.