When:
Where:
Come early to get a good seat and have a beer or a meal at the Backbencher Pub before the show starts! Show starts at 9.10pm, so head along with your friends to support Gareth and enjoy a night of live pub politics.
Watch Wallace Chapman, Damian Christie, the Back Benches Panel and Parliament's youngest guests - Gareth Hughes (Greens), Jacinda Ardern (Labour) and Nikki Kaye (National) - go head to head over the week's hottest topics!
This week:
CUTTING CLASSES: NZ Universities are cutting class sizes - saving space for students with top marks - keeping an estimated 3500 young people out of the schools of their choice. Is raising the bar for student entry unfair? Or will it leave room and funding for the students who want it most?
STAYING SAFE: It's hard to keep teens healthy and safe when they have a devil-may-care attitude or lack of knowledge - STIs are skyrocketing in NZ. The Ministry of Health is reporting 30% of students have had intercourse by age 15 and NZ has the third highest teen pregnancy rates in the world. What should we be doing to lower these rates? Is it about education in schools? Or is it up to parents?
FREEDOM OF SPEECH: The Green Party Co-Leader Dr. Russel Norman stirred up controversy with his protests of the Chinese Vice-President. NZ has a proud tradition of free speech while China, on the other hand, is not renowned for it's tolerance of free speech. Was Dr. Norman's protest an acceptable use of free speech? Or was it, as Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said, an abuse of parliamentary privilege?
Or tune in to TVNZ's Channel 7 at 9:10pm to watch the programme. TVNZ 7 is available on Freeview & SKY or you can watch online at www.tvnz.co.nz/back-benches.
Hope to see you there!
