This week on the Monday Wire...

For our weekly catchup with the ACT Party's Simon Court, producer Evie spoke to Simon about his members bill to change alcohol laws in West Auckland, Mike King’s controversial comments surrounding alcohol and mental health and the government’s funding of King’s Gumboot Friday initiative, as well as police pulling back from mental health call outs.

News and Editorial Director, and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Senior Lecturer in the Department of Population Health at the University of Otago, Dr Rose Crossin, about a briefing she co-authored regarding the correlation between suicide and alcohol, following controversial statements made by I Am Hope and Gumboot Friday campaigner, Mike King, in which he claimed alcohol is a solution for people with mental health problems.

They also spoke to Associate Professor in the School of Health at the University of Waikato, Sarah Gordon, about the police’s phased approach to attending fewer related mental health callouts that are not correlated with a level of high risk or crime.

And Evie spoke to climate scientist and honorary academic at the University of Auckland, Kevin Trenberth about calls for world leaders to scrap net zero targets that look to offset emissions, and instead endeavour to remove all emissions in a ‘real zero’ initiative.

Whakarongo mai!