The Week in Detail: Waitlist algorithms, teacher strikes, and the Kermadecs

Every weekday, The Detail makes sense of the big news stories.

This week, we looked at why a proposal for one of the biggest marine sanctuaries in the world has failed to get over the line, what it's like to work as a high school teacher in New Zealand, the new laws for registering firearms, the "ticking time bomb" of a shipwreck lying under the waters in the Hauraki Gulf, and how an algorithm giving priority to Māori and Pasifika patients became a political minefield.

Whakarongo mai to any episodes you might have missed.

Where to next for a Kermadec ocean sanctuary?

Announced in 2015 by then-Prime Minister Sir John Key – to much international fanfare – the Kermadec ocean sanctuary was meant to be one of the world's largest marine protected areas.

But last week, the sanctuary hit another major roadblock. After years of negotiations to reach an agreement, Te Ohu Kaimoana – the group representing Māori interests in the marine environment – resoundingly voted against the proposal that was on the table.

Tom Kitchin speaks to Stuff senior journalist Andrea Vance and pūkenga matua of Māori laws and philosophy at Te Wānanga o Raukawa Carwyn Jones.

What it's like to be a high school teacher in New Zealand

Teacher strikes haven't been far from the headlines in 2023.

"Secondary teachers are really determined to get a pay rise that keeps their pay up with inflation...they've been looking at inflation figures and saying 'you're looking around seven percent inflation, we want a seven percent pay rise' – and the government's not come to the table with a seven percent pay rise.

"Most teachers are paid at or close to the top of their scale, which is around $90,000. If you look at the pay rises that have been offered so far, for most teachers it's probably half the rate of inflation, maybe three-and-a-half per cent."

Tom Kitchin speaks to two high school teachers currently working in the profession to find out what it's really like.

Tracking the guns

One of the biggest pieces of New Zealand's gun law reform puzzle is about to fall into place.

More than four years after the Christchurch mosque attacks, the firearms registry goes live this weekend.

Sharon Brettkelly and Sarah Robson break down everything that led up to the law change, and whether it will really make communities safer. We hear from journalist Charlotte Graham-McLay, national coordinator of the Islamic Women's Council of New Zealand Aliya Danzeisen, and Firearms Safety Authority executive director Angela Brazier.

The oil disaster waiting to happen

For 83 years, the fascination of the wreck of the RMS Niagara has been around its secret gold cargo. 

Now, it has a much scarier problem, surrounding something else in its corroding hold – oil. 

There's an increasing clamour of voices, from shipwreck divers to environmentalists and mana whenua, raising the alarm over a potential disaster of epic proportions that could blanket the Hauraki Gulf in thick tar. 

But they feel they aren't being listened to.

Alexia Russell speaks to Hauraki Gulf Forum chief executive Alex Rogers and shipwreck expert Keith Gordon.

The waitlist algorithm that morphed into a political weapon

The story that set the political tone for the week came out on Monday morning.

Since February, Auckland hospitals had been using an algorithm to help determine patients' positions on the waitlist for non-urgent surgery. One of the weightings was priority for Māori and Pasifika patients.

The prime minister called it righting past wrongs - but Opposition parties called it promoting racial discrimination.

Sarah Robson talks about the surprising history of the policy with Newsroom's political editor Jo Moir.

Long Read: Strange Days on Lake Rotomahana

This is The Detail's Long Read - one in-depth story read by us every weekend.

This week, it's Strange Days on Lake Rotomahana, written by Tim Bollinger and published in White Fungus, a kiwi-run, Taiwan-based arts magazine.

It's an account of the violent end of the Pink and White Terraces, once New Zealand’s very own wonder of the world, now scrubbed from the face of the earth.

You can read the full article here.

Famed for their rare romantic beauty, the Pink and White Terraces of Lake Rotomahana were promoted to 19th-century travelers as the "8th Wonder of the World" in the earliest days of New Zealand tourism. Overdressed in their Victorian finery, a parade of wealthy foreign visitors arrived by schooner, stagecoach, whaleboat, and canoe to visit these naturally formed terraced pools in the heart of the North Island's Hot Lakes District. Their vivid descriptions, a handful of paintings, and a shoebox of photographic postcards are now all that remain of this geological wonder, lost to the world forever in a single night of violent volcanic destruction.

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