Francisca and Denise from Look Blue Go Purple phone in to choose a couple of tracks for you lucky bFM listeners for New Zealand Music Month! Whakarongo mai nei!
The Government’s move-on order legislation has given police greater powers to remove people from public spaces, including those begging or rough sleeping. Critics argue the bill risks criminalising homelessness rather than addressing its causes.
Producer Pranuja spoke with Dr Tim Welch about why he believes move-on orders punish poverty and what a more effective response to homelessness could look like.
It's 100% New Zealand music week on 95bFM and today's show had plenty of it. We heard new songs from Jazmine Mary and Ben Chavasse, classics tracks by the likes of Che Fu and Fur Patrol, as well as a listener requests for the late, great Darcy Clay. Speaking of local music, Emma was also joined by two thirds of Womb (Cello Forrester and Georgette Brown) to hear about what they've got planned for their June 3 Strange Universe show with Dry Cleaning at The Hollywood.
For City Counselling this week, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Councillor Julie Fairey about the 7.9% rates increase and bus passenger numbers reaching a record high.
For Politics with Māni Dunlop from Te Ao Māori News, they caught up with her ahead of today’s Budget announcement.
And News Director Castor attended the launch of Auckland Transport’s new hybrid-electric ferry.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Producer Pranuja spoke with Shanan Halbert about the retirement age debate and NZ First’s proposed gender bill.
And she spoke with Dr Tim Welch about New Zealand’s move-on orders and I also spoke with Dr Alison Towns about New Zealand’s new anti-stalking law.
The debate around raising the retirement age has continued this week, with growing discussion around Superannuation. At the same time, NZ First’s proposed “Man and Woman” bill has reignited debate around gender identity, legal definitions, and abortion access.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Producer Pranuja spoke with Shanan Halbert about these topics.
For over two centuries, political leaders in the United States of America have been fixated on the idea of bringing the island nation of Cuba into the American sphere of influence. Now, under the leadership of Donald Trump, direct military intervention in Cuba seems more likely that it has since the early ‘60s.
The former Cuban president Raul Castro has recently been indicted by a grand jury in Miami, leading to speculation that the Trump administration may use the same strategy deployed in the indictment and subsequent abduction of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
To discuss the history of US-Cuba relations and the prospect of military intervention by Trump, producer Toby spoke to US history expert Dr. Paul Taillon.
Fuck-knuckles, cock, and piss, balls. These are words that you may be hearing much more, or much less, on 95bFM after the government announced earlier this month that it will be scrapping the Broadcasting Standards Authority (or, BSA).
The Authority has responsibility over the broadcast of radio and television, but has long called for regulatory changes to be made given the shift toward digital media. The issue reached prominence last year, when the BSA decided to hear a complaint about the digital media company, The Platform.
The move was met with severe criticisms from the government, with the ACT Party and NZ First in particular calling for the abolishing of the authority.
In its place, the government has proposed the Media Council - a voluntary body - will be involved in self-regulation of the media. However, this proposal has been widely criticised as lacking regulatory teeth.
Instead of scrapping the BSA, the Better Public Media Trust has proposed that the government strengthens it with the recommendations from the government’s ‘Safer Online Services' research project, which would see greater regulation of online and digital spaces.
So, for this week’s Get Action, producer Theo spoke with the Better Public Media Trust’s Myles Thomas, to discuss their petition to reinstate and strengthen the BSA.
If you'd like to sign this petition, you can find it here.
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