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.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, News and Editorial Director Joel spoke to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni on the spike in homelessness in Auckland, yesterday’s nurses strike, and the end to same-day voter enrollment.
For City Counselling this week, Producer Sanat spoke with Councillor Julie Fairey about reports earlier this week of Auckland Council staff taking tents and sleeping bags from rough sleepers in the CBD and more broadly what Auckland Council’s response to homelessness looks like.
For International Desk, Joel spoke to Justin Sobion, Senior Tutor in Law at the University of Auckland and counsel for Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’, on the recent International Court of Justice ruling on states' climate change obligations.
And Sanat spoke to Associate Dean Pacific of the University of Auckland Sir Colin Tukuitonga about the growing drug crisis in the Pacific.
On Monday, Auckland Council staff were sighted taking belongings such as tents and sleeping bags from rough sleepers at the Grafton United Cricket Club ground.
This is happening at a time where the amount of rough sleepers on Auckland’s streets has increased 90 percent since last September and 15 percent of those leaving emergency housing are going straight to homelessness.
On Tuesday, Auckland Council’s Community Committee received updates on the state of homelessness in the city and discussed what the Council’s response will be.
For City Counselling this week Producer Sanat spoke to Councillor Julie Fairey about the worsening homelessness in the city.
Sanat started by asking about the incident on Monday and whether Auckland Council is doing enough to respond to homelessness.
Through a mixture of seasonal migration, deportations and cost of living pressures, Pacific Island nations are facing an unprecedented influx of meth into their communities.
Producer Sanat spoke to Sir Colin Tukuitonga, Associate Dean Pacific and Professor of Public Health at the University of Auckland about this crisis in health.
He says that “Meth poses a dire health threat in the Pacific. It’s extremely addictive, devastates people’s mental health, and is driving the spread of HIV in Fiji at an alarming rate, through needle and blood sharing. “
According to Sir Colin more needs to be done by international health organisations and law enforcement to help fund better rehabilitation services and stop the inflow of meth into Pacific Island nations.
According to outreach providers, Auckland has had a 90% increase in homelessness since September last year.
Auckland Council’s Community Committee Chair Angela Dalton says government policy changes have “made it harder for people to access emergency housing.”
The committee has called for the government to work with frontline agencies to address the issue.
Yesterday, nearly 36,000 nurses, midwives, and healthcare workers went on strike for 24 hours.
This followed the breakdown of mediation talks between the nurses' union and Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand.
The union says they are striking because of the ‘dire’ staffing situation.
And the government has announced a series of electoral law changes, including the end to same-day voter enrollment.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, News and Editorial Director Joel spoke to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about all of these issues.
They started by asking about the increase in homelessness in Auckland.
The International Court of Justice has issued an advisory opinion that nations can be held legally accountable for greenhouse-gas emissions.
The Court found that those who are harmed by human-caused climate change could be entitled to reparations.
The case was spearheaded by Pacific island students and the government of Vanuatu, and then backed by 105 sponsor countries.
For International Desk, News and Editorial Director Joel spoke to Justin Sobion, a University of Auckland Senior Tutor in Law who also acted as counsel for Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
About 70,000 people are currently affected by dementia in New Zealand. Because of this, the healthcare cost of the neurological condition is around $274 million per year and is expected to double by 2050. But what if we could predict who was most at risk, years before obvious symptoms appear?
At the moment, health professionals can struggle to assess whether a person is likely to get dementia, based on reports of their memory loss and ability to function from patients and families. As a result, a $4 million project, which includes a team of experts from the University of Auckland and Singapore, has begun to create an AI tool that can identify a person’s dementia risk.
To talk about how this new AI tool would work, as well as how it might impact the future of prevention and treatment of the neurological condition, Producer Max to Dr Catherine Morgan, a senior research fellow from the University of Auckland.
For our weekly catchup w/ the Green Party Oto spoke with MP Ricardo Menendez-March about the government’s move to scrap same-day election enrolments, the Climate Change Commission’s recent annual monitoring report on emissions reductions and the Greens petition to reinstate passenger rail services across the country.
And for this week’s Get Action! He spoke with Brandon Johnstone, a BDS coordinator at Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa about a petition calling on retailers and stockists to swap out SodaStream for more ethical alternatives.
Max spoke with Dr Catherine Morgan from the University of Auckland, to talk about the new project to develop an AI tool that can predict dementia risk.
Tuesday Wire Host Sara spoke with Sadie Mills the invertebrate collection manager at Earth Sciences New Zealand about a study looking into deep sea species in Aotearoa’s waters
Last week, the government announced that they’d be scrapping same-day election enrolments, alongside a number of other changes to electoral laws.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said that current electoral laws were “placing too much strain on the system” and increased the time needed for the vote count.
Earlier this week, the Climate Change Commission released its annual monitoring report on emissions reductions, which showed that Aotearoa New Zealand was on track to meeting its first emissions budget for the period of 2022-2025, but not towards meeting future budgets around the 2050 period.
And the Greens recently launched a petition calling on Rail Minister Winston Peters to reinstate passenger rail services across the country.
For our weekly catchup with the Green party, Oto spoke with MP Ricardo Menendez-March to get the party’s take on all of these issues.
Recently, a study was published by Australia’s Museums Victoria Research Institute, examining deep sea ecosystems around Aotearoa’s waters.
The study mapped the global distribution of brittle stars, which are closely related to starfish, the links between deep-sea ecosystems from Iceland to Tasmania and the impacts of climate change and deep sea mining on said ecosystems.
95bFM Tuesday Wire Host Sara spoke with Sadie Mills, invertebrate collection manager at Earth Sciences New Zealand, to discuss what this research means for understanding biodiversity beneath the waves especially within the context of climate change and deep-sea mining
The Israeli founded and based company SodaStream is the most popular sparkling water maker in New Zealand, supplying sparkling water machines to over 400,000 households in Aotearoa, with around 30% of families using one to make beverages at home.
The company has also had involvement in the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, previously having a factory in the Ma'ale Adumim settlement in the internationally recognised Palestinian west bank.
For this week’s Get Action! Oto spoke with Brandon Johnstone, a BDS coordinator at Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa about a petition calling on retailers and stockists to swap out SodaStream for more ethical alternatives.
If you'd like to sign this petition, you can find it here:
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.
The Government has confirmed plans to disestablish the Broadcasting Standards Authority and move toward a self-regulation model for media complaints, raising questions about accountability, misinformation, and audience protection.
It has also been confirmed that the Fees Free tertiary scheme will be scrapped in the upcoming Budget, while the new citizenship test has sparked debate over whether it strengthens civic knowledge or creates another barrier for migrants.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Producer Pranuja spoke with Shanan Halbert about these topics.
The Wire is starting a new segment - Politics with Māni Dunlop for Te Ao Māori News.
We’ll be catching up on the big political issues of the week and goings on in the House from a Māori perspective.
Wire Host Caeden caught up with Māni Dunlop about the new Te Tai Tokerau Party, the Conservation Amendment Bill passing first reading, and the submissions made as part of the Mana Wāhine inquiry this week.
Last week the government announced plans to scrap the Broadcasting Standards Authority, the entity that serves to ensure television, radio, and internet broadcasters remain accountable to members of the public.
While the government saysit trusts broadcasters to self regulate, it’s unclear what this regulation could look like, especially without the all encompassing BSA to ensure that a universal standard is met.
In addition, ACT Party Leader David Seymour has expressed dismay at some of the recent publications by state funded broadcasters TVNZ and RNZ. Since Seymour is one of the ministers responsible for appointing the board for each organisation, his comments and criticisms are being compared to threats of censorship.
Lastly, the government has announced a new test for prospective immigrants to New Zealand, which would see them quizzed over topics relating to New Zealand values, our Bill of Rights, and our system of government. While the government is proposing this standard of knowledge for immigrants, many New Zealand citizens could be unable to answer the questions.
For this weeks catchup with the National Party's Ryan Hamilton, News Director Castor asked about these topics, beginning with the BSA.
This week on Dear Science our expert Professor Allan Blackman chatted with us about the science behind football players choking, the chemistry behind the taste of beer, and the woman behind determining the structure of insulin.
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