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.
The crown mineral amendment bill was introduced to parliament last Tuesday. Public submissions on the bill close tomorrow (Tuesday 1st October). This gives the public only four business days to make their submission on the bill, significantly shorter than the average submission time.
The bill is aiming to reverse the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration, something the coalition government campaigned on.
The government has also cut down the normal six month select committee process, wanting the bill to be passed before the end of the year.
Greenpeace says the short public submission time on the bill shows the government has a complete disregard for people in New Zealand who care about climate change.
Producer Evie spoke to Greenpeace Executive Director Russell Norman about his concerns surrounding the four day submission time on the bill, and what impacts the ban reversal will actually have on the environment.
Last week job cuts were confirmed at Whakaata Māori as part of ongoing budget cuts to the organisation.
The national indigenous broadcaster is set to lose $10.3 million provided in the previous government’s budget.
The cuts have resulted in the probable axing of the broadcaster's TV bulletin, with a plan to move to online content by March of next year.
In parliament Former Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson pleaded with the government to invest in Whakaata Māori, calling the move yet another attack on Te Reo.
The cuts come off the back of a tumultuous time for Aotearoa’s media space, following the closure of Newshub and major cuts at TVNZ.
Producer Evie spoke to the University of Auckland’s Gavin Ellis about the cuts at Whakaata Māori, the effect they’ll have on te ao Māori media, public access to news and the direction our media sector is moving in.
For our weekly catch up with the ACT Party's Simon Court, Producer Evie spoke to Simon Court about the government's crackdown on truancy, as well as public submissions on the oil and gas exploration bill.
Evie also spoke to Greenpeace Executive Director, Russell Norman, about concerns surrounding the four day submission time on the same bill.
News and Editorial Director and Wire Host, Joel, spoke to the spokesperson for Peace Action Wellington, Valerie Morse, about Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, addressing the UN General Assembly, and whether his calls are enough to address Israel’s war on Gaza and attacks on Lebanon.
Evie spoke to The University of Auckland’s Gavin Ellis about job cuts at Whakaata Māori, and what this means for our media landscape.
Joel spoke to Senior Lecturer at the School of Management at the Victoria University of Wellington, Stephen Blumenfeld, about a study showing the positives of a hybrid working model, as Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, urges public services workers to go back to the office.
And Producer Sofia from the Thursday Wire last week spoke to Agriculture Campaigner at Greenpeace Aotearoa, Sinéad Deighton-O’Flynn, about Fonterra’s recent yearly profit announcement and Fonterra’s use of palm kernel.
Last week, Fonterra announced it is returning a total dividend of 55 cents a share for the past financial year, off the back of a $1.1 billion net profit.
In response to Fonterra’s profit announcements, Greenpeace Aotearoa has called out Fonterra for ‘profiting from rainforest destruction’.
Since last week, Greenpeace has also announced the organisation are suing Fonterra, over allegations Fonterra are also misconstruing the claim that their dairy product is 100% New Zealand grass-fed, when findings show that a potential 20% of a cow’s diet could come from palm kernels importanted from rainforests in Southeast Asia.
On 26 September, Wire Producer Sofia spoke to Greenpeace Aotearoa Agriculture Campaigner, Sinéad Deighton-O’Flynn, about this topic, asking her firstly about how concerning the profit announcement was to Greenpeace.
Recently, the government has announced a push to get public services working back into working in the office, as opposed to current, alternative methods, such as through working-at-home models, and hybrid working models.
This comes as multiple academics from the Victoria University of Wellington are set to release an article in the New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, discussing the positive findings of a hybrid working model.
Further findings in the past have proven claims that a hybrid working model improves productivity, such as a 2023 study from Human Resources New Zealand, which has shown 40% of HR professionals noted positive productivity gains from a hybrid working model.
I spoke to the Senior Lecturer at the School of Management at the Victoria University of Wellington, and co-author of the article, Stephen Blumenfeld, about the government’s calls to get public services workers back to the office, and the findings from the article.
Wire Host Caeden speaks to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News on the latest United States election polling numbers and the execution of Marcellus Williams for State of the States.
UNICEF and the Global Coalition for Youth Mental Health have launched an open letter calling for greater investment and action on child and youth mental health globally, urging a coordinated multi-sectoral response of at least $200 billion US dollars.
The letter has been signed by over 40 businesses and organisations including Jo Malone London, Les Mills, Pinterest, lululemon, and Spotify.
Sofia spoke with UNICEF Aotearoa’s Communications Director, Tania Sawicki Mead, about the letter and why mental health support needs more funding.
She began the interview asking her what the key demands of the letter were.
For our weekly catch-up the Labour Party Wire Host Caeden speaks to mental health spokesperson Ingrid Leary on Mental Health Awareness Week and broader mental health policy in Aotearoa.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party Wire Host Caeden speaks to Labour’s Mental Health spokesperson, Ingrid Leary, about Mental Health Awareness Week.
For State of the States, they speak to Andre Fa’oso from the Yale Daily News about recent presidential election polling numbers and the execution of Marcellus Williams.
And they speak to Daniel Benson-Guiu, Assistant National Secretary of the Tertiary Education Union about today’s strikes across four universities. I also speak to University of Auckland’s Queer Rights Officer Artie Ho about what the strike means for students.
For City Counselling this week, Sofia speaks to Councillor Julie Fairey about Council’s working from home policies and a rubbish bin graveyard found near Auckland Domain following Council removing public rubbish bins as part of its cost-saving drive
She also speaks to UNICEF Aotearoa Communications Director Tania Sawicki Mead about an open letter launched with the Global Coalition for Youth Mental Health calling for a multi-sectoral approach to tackle the global mental health funding gap.
Discussions on mental health and wellbeing became a focal point during the COVID-19 pandemic, with millions of people around the world being confined to their homes during lockdown and having both their social lives and self-autonomy restricted and changed.
However, for many, the period of time in lockdown was an important period of introspection, and so the time spent at home allowed for key discussions about mental health to be held on social media platforms such as X, formerly twitter.
Forwarding to the present day, a team of researchers from the University of Auckland conducted a study evaluating how social media platforms were used during and how they played a key role in facilitating discussions on mental health.
In line with mental health awareness week, Oto spoke to Shohil Kishore, a researcher in the Business School of the University of Auckland who conducted the study, who I also spoke with about the role social media platforms played in facilitating mental health discussions.
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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