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The Budget for 2025 came out last week on Thursday, with news for the nation on how funds will be allocated over the coming year. While some of the budget announcements were new news, the government had staggered others over the previous few weeks. In the new announcements were changes to Kiwisaver and the Jobseeker benefit. 

The Kiwisaver changes involved a 50% reduction in the government’s Kiwisaver contribution, from around $500 a year to around $250. To compensate, the government increased the minimum employer and employee contributions from 3% to 4%. While this means people will end up with similar or greater amounts of money in Kiwisaver, it also means people will have access to less money right now. 

The Jobseeker changes were also announced in the budget, with further restrictions added for 18-19-year-olds applying for the benefit. 18-19-year-olds applications will now be tested against their parents’ incomes, restricting large groups from accessing the support. 

These changes both appear to primarily affect young people. While the government claims to care so much about education and schools, they seem comfortable with taking support away from Aotearoa’s young adults as soon as they finish high school. In our weekly catchup with National’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor asked about the Kiwisaver and Jobseeker changes in this year’s budget.

In the 21st century, microplastics are in almost everything. They’re detrimental to both the environment, and those who consume them... But are we really aware of how easy they are to inhale?

Producer Faith spoke to the University of Auckland’s Dr Joel Rindelaub about a recent study showing how inhalable microplastics are actually more common indoors, rather than outdoors.

A 19-year old from Palmerston North recently died after suffering a head injury while playing a private "run it straight-style" tackle game.

“Run it Straight” has been introduced as a new combat sport, involving a runner and a tackler running full speed at each other to mirror physical collisions seen in rugby league matches.



The sport was gaining prominence in Australia, with contestants winning cash prizes of up to $20,000 Australian dollars in cash, before making it’s way to Aotearoa quite recently, although West Auckland’s Trusts Arena recently cancelled one of their championships following the death of the teenager. 

Oto spoke to Professor Patria Hume, a Professor in Human Performance at AUT, about run it tackle games and the inevitably of serious injuries or deaths during these high-collision games.

Another significant funding gap in this year’s budget announcement was long-awaited funding for additional cancer treatments, particularly for blood cancer.

With no additional funding for blood cancer treatments announced in this year’s budget, patients, advocates and doctors have said that blood cancer patients have been left behind in the announcement and have called on the government to clear Pharmac's "backlog" of unfunded blood cancer medicines.

Oto spoke to Rodger Tiedemann, A Hematologist at Auckland City Hospital and Associate Professor of Cancer Research at the University of Auckland, about the lack of additional funding for blood cancer treatments in Budget 2025.

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