Listen back to features and interviews from 95bFM's daily news and current affairs show. Castor Chacko, Alex Fox, Emmanuel Orange, and Caeden Tipler focus on the issues of Tāmaki Makaurau and elsewhere in independent-thinking bFM style. Monday-Thursday 12-1pm on 95bFM.
As it is Fraud Awareness Week, the government has announced its plan to tackle the issue of scamming in Aotearoa by collaborating with the public and banking sectors.
Producer Athena spoke to Professor of Law at the University of Auckland, Alexandra Andhov, about why this step is welcome, while also indicating a broader issue of Big Tech companies having unregulated influence over social media users.
Starting off our weekly chats with Global Innovator, Matt Hart, News and Editorial Director, and Monday Wire Host, Joel, speaks to Matt about moving back home, after previously flatting for a while.
News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, speaks to Global Innovator, Matt Hart, about grappling with moving back home, in a new segment beginning on the show.
For our weekly catch up with the ACT Party, Joel also speaks to Simon Court about the hīkoi mō te tiriti, the Treaty Principles Bill passing its first reading, and the haka protesting this.
Producer Yesenia speaks to Professor in the Department of Commercial Law at the University of Auckland, Alex Sims, about the concerns regarding facial recognition.
Joel speaks to Senior Lecturer in the School of Physical and Chemical Sciences at the University of Canterbury, Sally Gaw, about a study published in Science discussing global plastic waste.
And Yesenia speaks to Child Poverty Action group Researcher Harry Yu Shi about newly released statistics showing there is currently 99,000 New Zealand children in persistent poverty.
Currently there's 99,000 children in persistent poverty according to newly released official statistics NZ definition which was released on Friday.
Producer Yesenia spoke to Child Poverty Action Group researcher Harry Yu Shi about the new statistics regarding persistent poverty being prominent in children lives and how new-long term approaches have been proposed to combat the 99,000 in poverty.
Facial recognition has been on the rise within technology, and so has our dependency on said technology. However, concerns have been raised with such risks regarding this.
Producer Yesenia spoke to Professor in the Department of Commercial Law at the University of Auckland, Alex Sims, on the concerns facial recognition has posed for today's technology, and the various alternatives people can use with dealing with sensitive information online.
The Australian government has announced plans to implement legislation that would ban under 16 year olds from social media, with Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, saying the bill will be introduced to Parliament within the next few weeks.
This move has been criticised, including by the The Australian Child Rights Taskforce; an organisation made up of 100 academics and 20 civil society organisations, which have written to the Australian government opposing the bill, rather calling for the government to impose “safety standards” on social media.
However, Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland, Dr Samantha Marsh, supports Australia’s move, and is calling for New Zealand to implement similar restrictions.
News and Editorial Director, and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to her about Australia’s move, and why she supports it.
Producer Sofia spoke to Distinguished Scholar at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the United States and honorary academic at the Faculty of Science at the University of Auckland, Dr Kevin Trenberth, about the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) and the possible impact on climate action progress following the re-election of Republican Donald Trump in the United States.
Last week Donald Trump and the Republican Party won a decisive victory in the United States election, taking both the presidency and the senate. Over the past week the Republicans have also taken the house of representatives, and president-elect Donald Trump has announced some key cabinet appointments. Wire Host Caeden speaks to Andre Fa’aoso about these developments.
They also speak to political commentator, Tom Unger, about the mood on the ground in Washington D.C. as well as how Kamala Harris and the Democrats have responded to the election over the past week.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party Wire Host Caeden speaks to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about the joint press release from Labour, the Greens, and Te Paati Maaori against the Treaty Principles Bill and the formal apology to survivors of abuse in state care.
For State of the States this week they speak to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about the republicans winning the house of representatives and Donald Trump’s cabinet appointments.
For State of the States they also speak to political commentator and former Radioactive political host Tom Unger about the mood on the ground in Washington D.C. and the Democrat’s response to losing the election.
For City Counselling this week, Sofia speaks to Councillor Shane Henderson about Hīkoi mō te Tiriti passing through Tāmaki Makaurau yesterday and Auckland Council’s Christmas tree spending.
She also speaks to Distinguished Scholar at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the United States and honorary academic at the Faculty of Science at the University of Auckland, Dr Kevin Trenberth, about the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly known as COP29, which started this week.
On the 11th of November, the Fonterra company announced that they will be selling customer-facing brands, which include Anchor, Mainland and others. Following this announcement, Greenpeace are calling for potential buyers to go palm-kernel free.
This comes after an expose of Fonterra’s dishonest marketing strategies, and claims that its milk is produced with ‘regenerative farming’, a blatant example of greenwashing.
Sasha spoke to Sinéad Deighton-O'Flynn, Agriculture Campaigner at Greenpeace Aotearoa about the new sale of companies associated with Fonterra, including potential implications for consumers and Greenpeace’s expectations for companies looking to purchase.
Last week, NZ First MP Jenny Marcroft put forward a bill that would seek to define the terms “man” and “woman” in law. The bill has been supported by coalition parties through its first reading. Its primary supporters in parliament, ACT and NZ First, say the bill is about prioritising biology over ideology, or about maintaining common sense.
Its opponents, however, say the bill is unnecessary, and that the ideology pushed by its supporters does not align with evidence. Te Kāhui Tika Tangata, the human rights commission, says that the bill is “not necessary”, and “risks harm to communities who continue to experience discrimination on the basis of their gender identity”.
Disability Rights Commissioner and Rainbow rights spokesperson at the Human Rights Commission, Prudence Walker, sez the bill will not only “trample on the mana of trans and intersex people”, but it also “attempts to completely erase non-binary people”.
Despite the strong opposition, the government is pushing for the bill to be considered in select committee.
For our weekly catchup with the ACT Party’s Simon Court, News Director Castor asked about the bill and why the government is bringing it about.
DISCLAIMER: this interview covers multiple anti-trans talking points, and briefly discusses sexual violence.
A survey of Automobile Association members' views on time-of-use charging has been presented to the Auckland Council’s Transport and Infrastructure Delivery Committee.
The survey found that members were open to congestion charging if it worked, even if they thought it was unfair.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins gave a ‘State of Auckland’ speech last week, focusing on the need for cross-party collaboration on infrastructure projects.
Wire Host Caeden spoke with Councillor Shane Henderson about both of these topics.
Crypto investment schemes are spreading across the Pacific, often through trusted family, church, and community networks. While they are promoted as offering financial freedom and fast returns, regulators have warned that some schemes carry serious risks and limited protections for investors.
Producer Pranuja spoke with Associate Dean Pacific Sione Taufa about how trust can be exploited in Pacific communities, why endorsement matters, and what people should know before investing.
The Government is heading into Budget week with plans to cut the core public service, and RNZ reports public servants' fears that their jobs are once again on the line. At the same time, questions have been raised over MFAT being spared from cuts, and the Government has unveiled major changes to secondary education through its proposed NCEA replacement.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Producer Pranuja spoke with Shanan Halbert about public service cuts, Budget priorities, and what the education overhaul could mean for students and teachers.
This week has seen discussions on New Zealand Firsts announcement that if they win the election they plan to buy BNZ and nationalise it into kiwibank, a plan some estimate to cost $30,000,000,000 and has been completely ruled out by their coalition partner in the National Party. Despite this, it’s sparked conversations around how we should be engaging with our banking sector, the vast majority of it dominated by Australian owned banks.
And critics fear that National party changes to the accommodation supplement is going to hit poor working families at a time they’re already doing it rough, nullifying other support that they are offering the rest of the country more broadly, repeating a pattern of policies that hurt poorer communities worse than the rich.
So for our weekly catchup w/ the Green Party, Host Manny spoke with MP Ricardo Menéndez March on what impact he thinks will come from restrictions to the accommodation supplement, particularly for the poor, they then discussed New Zealand Firsts policy to buy BNZ bank, and whether minor parties tend to over promise if they are constrained by the major parties who they will inevitably have to work with if they make into parliament.
Last week, National MP Catherine Wedd’s members bill for an Under-16s social media ban was paused. Instead, Education Minister Erica Stanford has pledged to, before this years election, bring a wider and more robust proposal for a ban in a larger bill.
Last week also saw Prime Minister Christopher Luxon make comments about the National Party’s stance on immigration, amidst criticised changes to compliance officer powers, and previous spats and comments over immigration policy between government coalition partners.
And with the budget expected next week, promises have begun to be made by the government for where funding can be expected, particularly within education.
Host Alex spoke with National MP Ryan Hamilton about these topics, starting with the Social Media ban.
Since 1986, the Ministry for the Environment has been the central policy advising entity in New Zealand for environmental issues. The government has recently proposed the Environment Amendment Bill, which seeks to disestablish the Ministry for the Environment, which would be amalgamated into a larger Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport.
For Green World this week, Wire producer Liam spoke with Professor Nicolas Lewis, of the University of Auckland’s School of Environment, about these proposed changes, how they fit in with the government's current priorities around the environment, and the impact this may have on New Zealand in the short-term and long-term.
Recent weeks have seen the government adopting a series of policies targeted at immigration. Some of these policies are set to be introduced immediately, while others are proposals for the upcoming election. What all of these policies have in common is that they aim to respond to an idea that there is a subset of immigrants who are making society in New Zealand worse.
This is a narrative that we’ve seen dominate conversations about immigration overseas, particularly in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. It often leads to gross displays of racism, with mass riots and crackdowns on people who have done nothing wrong. With these recent policies and media attention towards the anti-immigrant rhetoric in Aotearoa this month, concerns have been raised over whether those overseas developments could be seen here.
For this week’s catchup with the ACT Party’s Simon Court, News Director Castor planned to ask about both immigration and the move-on orders for rough sleepers, though we ran out of time to discuss both. They began by asking Simon about the government’s recent stance on immigration.
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