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.
Recently, Green MP, Tamatha Paul’s comments have made headlines across mainstream New Zealand political coverage.
At a panel with the University of Canterbury Greens and Peace Action Ōtautahi, Paul said Pōneke did not want to see police officers everywhere, as “for a lot of people it makes them feel unsafe,” as well as accusing police of “waiting for homeless people to leave their spot and throwing out their belongings” which she sez is a comment she received from a local MP from the Downtown Community Ministry and Salvation Army.
Paul has received backlash from some politicians, including Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, and Opposition Leader, Chris Hipkins.
However, many believe that what Paul said has been sensationalised.
On Friday, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to the Press Spokesperson for People Against Prisons Aotearoa and Criminology Lecturer at the University of Auckland, Dr Emmy Rākete, about Paul’s comments, and how she is viewing this whole situation.
They started off by asking her how she is feeling about the reception of Paul's comments.
For our weekly catch up with Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, speaks to her about Finance Minister, Nicola Willis’ plans to combat Aotearoa’s supermarket duopoly, Green MP, Tamatha Paul’s comments about police, and Te Pāti Māori’s recent calls for mandatory police body cameras.
For our weekly catch up with The ACT Party’s Simon Court, Joel speaks to him about the Resource Management Act, or RMA reforms and concerns about the country’s health and police system, following an 11-year old being misidentified as a 20-year old by police, and administered antipsychotic drugs.
On Friday, they spoke to the spokesperson for People Against Prisons Aotearoa and Criminology Lecturer at the University of Auckland, Dr Emmy Rākete, about Tamatha Paul’s comments about police practices in the country, the reaction they have received, and whether the reaction has been justified.
They speak to the Chief Executive Officer of Consumer NZ, Jon Duffy, about Nicola Willis’ plans to combat the supermarket duopoly and how the organisation are feeling about these developments.
On Friday, they also spoke to a Senior Politics and International Relations Lecturer at the University of Auckland, Tim Fadgen, about US President Donald Trump’s ‘overreach’ in American universities, and if we should expect similar occurrences at New Zealand universities.
And Global Innovator, Matt Hart, joins Joel in studio to continue our discussion around the Netflix series ‘Adolescence,’ fandoms, and exploring the role of soft power.
National MP Joseph Mooney has introduced a members bill that would remove people’s right to take legal action against companies for their impact on the climate.
The most prominent case this would impact is Mike Smith’s (Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Kahu) Smith v Fonterra.
Wire Host Caeden spoke to Smith about this proposed legislation and the potential impact on his case, which remains ongoing.
New findings have shown that vaping has not lowered smoking habits in young people in Aotearoa.
The study, published in The Lancet, looked at the daily smoking rates of 14 to 15 year olds, from 1999 to 2023, and shows that the introduction of vaping and subsequent popularity of the smoking device has not helped in lower daily smoking rates in Aotearoa.
News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to the Chief Executive of the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation New Zealand, Letitia Harding, about this study, and how the organisation hopes the government will react to these findings.
They started off by asking if the findings in the study were surprising to her.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden speaks to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about New Zealand First’s declared “war on woke”, proposed Resource Management Act reform, and Labour’s calls for the government to condemn Israel for their recent military assault on Gaza.
For International Desk, they spoke to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg accidentally being added to a group chat top US officials were using to make war plans.
And they spoke to Mike Smith (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) about National MP Joseph Mooney’s members bill that would abolish people’s right to take legal action against companies over damage to the climate.
News and Editorial Director Joel spoke to Councillor Julie Fairey on submissions for Auckland Council’s long-term plan, ‘bed tax,’ and discussions around equity in the upcoming election.
And they spoke to Chief Executive of the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation New Zealand, Letitia Harding, about a recently released study showing vaping has not lowered smoking habits in young people in Aotearoa.
Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to a Signal group chat with top United States security officials who were discussing military plans for strikes on Yemen.
The group chat discussed operational details, and officials, including the Vice President JD Vance, seemed unaware of Goldberg’s presence.
Jeffrey Goldberg initially left out some of these sensitive details in his article on the group chat but has released more specific information after the Trump administration downplayed the situation and said no classified information was shared.
For International Desk, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about this issue.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters gave a “State of the Nation” speech last weekend where he strongly criticised Labour and announced his party was declaring a “war on woke.”
The government has announced a new replacement for the Resource Management Act, looking to pass it before the next election.
And Labour Foreign Affairs spokesperson David Parker has criticised the government for not condemning Israel in the context of recent military action and the blocking of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about all of these topics.
The free school lunch program has been in the headlines here in Aotearoa for several weeks after facing significant impacts to their quality and delivery following a complete restructure of the program led by associate education minister David Seymour.
Many schools have reported late deliveries of meals beyond the lunch period, plastic packaging melting into the food and one student even experiencing burns from the packaging that required medical attention.
This, of course, has the greatest impact on the more than 150,000 Tamariki living in severe poverty, who relied on programs like Ka Ora Ka Ako to receive daily meals.
In response, the Child poverty action group has made a call to senior government ministers and Finance Minister Nicola Willis to restore the funding that was cut from the school lunches program so that schools across the motu could receive meals from local community suppliers.
Oto spoke to Rich Greissman - Deputy Chair of the Child Poverty Action Group's Governing Committee, to discuss the group’s call and why it’s important for the government to ensure the provision of healthy school lunches to Tamariki.
For their weekly catchup with the Green Party, Oto spoke to Ricardo Menendez-March about the government's new replacement to the Resource Management Act, The Green's call for the compassionate release of Dean Wickliffe, and renewed calls for executive MP support of Chloe Swarbrick's members' bill to Sanction Israel
For this week’s Green Desk, producer Liam speaks to Brent Bielby, manager of EcoMatters’ Bike Hubs, a community project aimed at encouraging more people to take up cycling.
Oto spoke to Rich Greissman - Deputy Chair of the Child Poverty Action Group about their call to senior Government Ministers and finance Minister Nicola Willis to restore funding to Ka ora Ka Ako, the healthy school lunches programme.
And, for this week’s Get Action! Oto spoke to founding chair of Te Taiao o Kāwhia Moana - John Forbes about his group’s petition to remove vehicle access from vulnerable areas of the Kāwhia harbour.
For Dear Science this week, our expert, Professor Allan Blackman, chatted with us about seal blood oxygen levels, phrases boosting citations, and an Australian man importing plutonium.
In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Tom Rutherford, I ask about Sam Uffindell’s new private members bill and Winston Peters’ war on woke.
They also speak to Senior lecturer at the University of Auckland, Dr. Charlotte Oyston, about a proposal to increase the maternity hospital stay period.
And producer Amani spoke with former NZ Herald editor Dr Gavin Ellis on why he believes a digital-only strategy could shatter the future of the NZ Herald, and how he feels about the recent board-overhaul
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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