Listen back to features and interviews from 95bFM's daily news and current affairs show. Joel Armstrong, Castor Chacko, Oto Sequeira, 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 Wire Host Caeden speaks to Labour’s Shanan Halbert about the Treaty Principles Bill submissions, Regulatory Standards Bill, and Labour’s plans for 2025.
For State of the States this week they speak to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about the devastating Los Angeles Fires and president-elect Donald Trump’s threat to annex Greenland and Canada and take back the sovereign Panama Canal for the United States.
For City Counselling this week producer Sofia speaks to Councillor Julie Fairey about Council’s submission on the Local Government New Zealand issues paper exploring electoral reform and Auckland Council’s plans for 2025.
She also speaks to President of PATHA - the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa - Jennifer Shields, about public consultation on puberty blockers closing next week.
The Eaton and Palisades fires, the two major fires making up the Los Angeles fires, are now the two most destructive wildfires in Southern California history.
The fires have sparked significant debate about insurance in high-risk natural disaster areas as thousands of Californians lost their home insurance not long before the fires.
And president-elect Donald Trump has returned to the centre stage of United States foreign policy in the weeks leading up to his inauguration.
Trump has threatened to annex Greenland and Canada as well as reclaim the Panama Canal for the United States.
For States of the States this week Wire Host Caeden spoke to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about both of these topics.
Public consultation on the use of puberty blockers in Aotearoa closes on the 20th January 2025; asking the public if further precautions or restrictions are needed, and what impacts these could have on young people.
Leading transgender health professionals have expressed concern over the government directing the Ministry to consult the public over gender affirming healthcare, questioning the appropriateness of opening consultation on a medical matter that has become highly politicised and subject to misinformation.
Producer Sofia spoke to President of the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA), Jennifer Shields.
If you want to make a submission, you can email pbconsultation@health.govt.nz
The recent social security amendment bill is an extension of the government’s agenda to cut those on benefits by 50,000. While this may seem like a strategic move by the government, it is important to consider that they are not creating any new jobs and unemployment is at 4.8 percent as of September 2024.
The proposed changes aim to make it harder for those struggling to receive the benefit, additionally introducing 'money management' schemes, which splits the MSD payment onto a card which can only be used at specific locations. These changes are unrealistic, because many people already pay more than half of their income for rent.
Anti-Poverty groups have spoken out about this amendment and are aiming to raise awareness around this. These groups want the government to move away from using sanctions against people who need income support.
Sasha spoke to the Child Poverty Action Group’s Executive Officer, Sarita Divis about the social security bill amendment, and potential consequences for those seeking support.
Last week Meta made an announcement that it was going to ditch its third party fact checkers, and replace them with a ‘community notes’ system similar to X.
This means all content would be moderated and fact checked by its own users. The move has received a large amount of backlash amid concerns that it will cause a rise in hate speech, disinformation and fraud. The move has also been slated as catering to Donald Trump’s attitude to online moderation, ahead of him taking office as President next week.
Shortly after this announcement, Meta also announced it was ditching its Diversity, Inclusion and Equity program.
Evie spoke to the University of Waikato’s Joe Ulatowski about these changes, what he thinks it means for the future of misinformation on social media, and what impact it may have in Aotearoa.
For our weekly catch up with the Green Party Evie speaks to Ricardo Menendez March about the Treaty Principles Bill submissions and the Regulatory Standards Bill.
Sasha speaks with Sarita Divis, Executive Officer of the Child Poverty Action Group about the recent social security bill amendment and its implications for New Zealand’s human rights.
And Evie also speaks to the University of Waikato’s Joe Ulatowski about Meta deciding to ditch its third party fact checkers, and the risk of disinformation on social media as a result.
A study published this week in the European Journal of Public Health has revealed 87% of children in Aotearoa have experienced significant trauma before the age of 8, which is much more than previously thought.
The study observed the effects of 8 kinds of traumatic childhood experiences, and found there can be a link between childhood trauma and obesity. It was also revealed that positive experiences can mitigate the effects of trauma.
Producer Athena spoke to Senior Researcher at City University of London and Honorary Researcher at the University of Auckland, Ladan Hashemi, about the effects of childhood trauma, its links to obesity, and ways to prevent and mitigate its effects.
The New Zealand Drug Trend Survey (NZDTS) for 2024 has been released, and results have revealed an increase in participation in the 2020 Medicinal Cannabis Scheme.
The percentage of people with prescriptions for medicinal cannabis increased from just 9% in 2022 and 2023, to 37% last year, while the percentage of users who have never asked for prescriptions decreased from 85% to 60%.
Producer Athena spoke to Associate Professor at the Massey University College of Health, Marta Rychert, about the medicinal benefits of cannabis, and what the survey results suggest about the current culture surrounding cannabis.
For Dear Science this week, our expert Professor Allan Blackman chatted with us about analysing massive ice chunks, air pollution in ancient Rome, and a mystery volcano from 1831.
In our first weekly catchup with the National Party of the year, Wire host Castor spoke to MP Tom Rutherford about the Treaty Principles Bill, Regulatory Standards Bill, and the party’s plans for the rest of the year.
Producer Athena spoke to associate professor at Massey University’s College of Health, Marta Rychert, about the results of the latest New Zealand Drug Trends Survey
They also spoke to senior researcher at City University of London and Honorary researcher at the University of Auckland, Ladan Hashemi, about the effects of childhood trauma
Submissions on the government’s highly contested Regulatory Standards Bill close tonight.
The legislation, which has largely flown under the radar, is now being slammed for being dangerous, with worries it will entrench the ACT Party’s ideology into New Zealand’s constitutional framework.
The bill, which is not yet before parliament, focuses heavily on property regulation - catering towards developers and corporations.
Producer Evie spoke to Climate Justice Taranaki’s Catherine Cheung about the increasing concerns that activist and environmental groups have surrounding the legislation.
As part of its submission on a Local Government New Zealand issues paper exploring electoral reform, Auckland Council has expressed its support for a four-year electoral term.
In exploring local government reform, the LGNZ paper also looks at public understanding of local government, public awareness of candidates and policies, and voting methods for local elections, raising questions about who’s responsible for improving these areas and what the future of local government voting might look like.
For the first interview of 2025, producer Sofia spoke to Councillor Julie Fairey about Council’s LGNZ submission as well as Council’s general plans for 2025.
The Eaton and Palisades fires, the two major fires making up the Los Angeles fires, are now the two most destructive wildfires in Southern California history.
The fires have sparked significant debate about insurance in high-risk natural disaster areas as thousands of Californians lost their home insurance not long before the fires.
And president-elect Donald Trump has returned to the centre stage of United States foreign policy in the weeks leading up to his inauguration.
Trump has threatened to annex Greenland and Canada as well as reclaim the Panama Canal for the United States.
For States of the States this week Wire Host Caeden spoke to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about both of these topics.
Submissions on the controversial Treaty Principles Bill were set to close last week, when on the final few days of submissions the portal to submit suffered technical difficulties.
Due to this, many people were unable to send in their submissions on time. Parliament made the decision to extend the submission period to make up for the issue. With thousands also handing their submissions in person.
The bill is estimated to have had more than 300,000 submissions prior to the original deadline, making it the most highly submitted on bill in history.
For the weekly catchup with the Green Party Evie spoke to Ricardo Menendez March about the submission process.
They also talked about the contested Regulatory Standards Bill which has also recently come into the spotlight.
The submission period for the Treaty Principles Bill was due to close last week, however, due to mass amounts of last minute submissions leading to software issues, the deadline was extended to 1 pm on Tuesday, 14th January.
Similarly, the submissions for the consultation period on the regulatory standards bill ended yesterday, another bill primarily pushed by David Seymour and the ACT party that would change how the government processes legislation.
In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor spoke to him about these bills and how the party plans to operate in 2025.
The government as announced their plan for the Cook Strait ferry a year after they scrapped Labour’s plan, including cancelling the ferries the Labour government had ordered.
And a new report from the Ministry of Social Development has revealed nearly a quarter of beneficiaries are not receiving their correct entitlements.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden speaks to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about both of these topics.
For City Counselling this week, producer Sofia caught up with Councillor Shane Henderson about proposed time-of-use charging to solve congestion problems in Tāmaki and Council selling their remaining Auckland Airport shares last week.
The Healthcare exec Brian Thompson was shot dead by a masked assailant last week.
The crime has gained significant controversy and attention online, with many using it to restart the debate on the inequities of the United States healthcare system.
And this week Yale University was the latest college to commit to divesting from weapons manufacturing after a student vote.
For State of the States this week Wire Host Caeden speak to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about both of these topics.
The Green party recently released He Ara Anamata - the Green party’s emissions reduction plan.
The document covers more than 10 areas of the economy and energy Sector that a Greens-led government would be looking to adapt to minimise carbon emissions and protect the natural landscapes of Aotearoa.
It also comes 5 months after the government released their own draft emissions plan. Numerous experts pointed out that the government is behind on their own plan’s targets to meet the crucial emissions budget for 2031-2035.
For their weekly catchup, Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez-March to discuss the party’s new emissions reduction plan and how they would address climate and the economy in a greens-led government.
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