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.
In light of RFK Jr, a notorious, prominent anti-vaxxer, being appointed as the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, many are concerned about what direct consequences we could see as a result of this move.
News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to vaccinologist and Professor in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland, Dr Helen Petousis-Harris, about the appointment of RFK Jr, and what consequences we could see not only in the US, but internationally, due to this decision.
They started off by asking who RFK Jr is, and how he was able to take up this role.
The US government is cutting or limiting rafts of funding for science and health research.
Some of the executive actions from President Donald Trump include freezing federal loans and grants, capping maintenance costs for labs (a move that has been temporarily blocked in court), and specific cuts targeting health and climate agencies.
Sofia spoke with co-President of the New Zealand Association of Scientists and Principal Investigator in Te Pūnaha Matatini Centre of Research Excellence, Troy Baisden, about this decision, and the potential implications it could have in the United States as well as globally and in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Last week's Waitangi Day had a notable absence, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. Instead, he chose to spend the day with Kāi Tahu. The move drew some criticism, particularly as all other political leaders were present at Waitangi.
It comes after National Minister Tama Potaka overhauled the Waitangi Tribunal earlier this year. Eight members of the tribunal were replaced with controversial new appointments.
And the Salvation Army has released their latest State of the Nation report. The report showed an increase in families struggling with the cost of living, forcing them onto the benefit in record numbers.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party Wire Host Caeden spoke to Labour Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about both of these topics.
The recent wildfires in Los Angeles drew attention to the hundreds of firefighters who came from California’s prison system.
The California Department of Corrections has claimed their “Fire Camp Program” is voluntary but this has come into question by prison reform advocates and ex-incarcerated individuals.
Advocates have called for stronger protections for incarcerated workers, especially as climate change creates a need for an expanded labour force to respond to natural disasters.
For our inaugural International Desk, 95bFM’s segment focused on breaking and under-reported news from around the globe, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Brock University’s Dr Jordan House about this programme and its potential in other jurisdictions such as Canada.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden speaks to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about Waitangi Day and the new ‘State of the Nation’ report from the Salvation Army.
And for the inaugural International Desk, 95bFM’s new segment focused on breaking and under-reported news from around the globe, they speak to Brock University’s Dr. Jordan House about California’s use of incarcerated individuals as firefighters.
For City Counselling this week, Producer Sofia catches up with Councillor Fairey about further criticism regarding Auckland Council’s proposed restrictions on dog walking, as well as further criticism on the decision process to move the Western Springs speedway to Waikaraka Park.
And she speaks to co-President of the New Zealand Association of Scientists and Principal Investigator in Te Pūnaha Matatini Centre of Research Excellence, Troy Baisden, about US President Donald Trump cutting and limiting rafts of funding for science and health research and its implications.
On the ninth of February, the government announced its plans to incentivise migrants to invest in New Zealand. Foreign investment refers to when an individual, company or government invests money in businesses in another country. Foreign investment can bring economic benefits such as job creation, increased capital flow and access to new markets, which New Zealand is severely lacking.
The government aims to welcome more people to contribute to Aoteroa and make it easier to do so. The new “Invest NZ” agency is modelled off the success of Ireland’s Industrial Development Agency and Singapore’s Economic Development Board.
Sasha spoke to the University of Auckland’s Burt Burmester about the government’s foreign investment strategy. He claims that incentivising foreign investment from sovereign wealth funds does not grant New Zealand access to highly sought-after industrial knowledge. We also spoke about alternatives to foreign investment strategies and how to increase New Zealand’s capital. Here is that interview.
For their weekly catch up with the Green Party, Oto spoke to Ricardo Menendez March about US President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Palestinians in Gaza. We also spoke about the Overhaul of the Public Works Act and The government's plan to change climate reporting laws for companies.
And, for this week’s Get Action! He spoke to Brenda Leeuwenberg, a resident of Ruakākā who started a petition to stop a sand mining proposal in the Bream Bay Area by the McCallum Brothers.
Sasha spoke to Burt Burmester, from University of Auckland Business School, speaking to us about the government’s foreign investment strategy.
And Amani spoke to Dr Joel Rindelaub, Senior Lecturer of Chemical Sciences at the University of Auckland, about the prevalence of microplastics in the human body, especially in brain tissue.
A recent study at the University of New Mexico has found that there could be a spoon’s worth of microplastics in the human brain.
The study found that the extent of the harm to human health is unclear, although an increased inflammation and risk of future adverse cardiovascular events is likely.
Producer Amani spoke to Senior Lecturer of Chemical Sciences at the University of Auckland, Dr Joel Rindelaub, about the prevalence of microplastics in the human body, and what its impacts might be.
Sex-bias in healthcare and research has long been a prevalent issue for women, as clinical trials occurring as recently as 2023 have excluded women, in favour of testing men as “the average person”.
This has had consequences such as women being more likely to experience negative side effects to certain drugs, due to important differences in female bodies being unaccounted for in research.
As today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, producer Athena spoke to Associate Professor, Dr Kelly Burrowes, at the University of Auckland Bioengineering Institute, about the historic and current gender inequities in healthcare and clinical research, as well as The FemTech Revolution.
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation are urgently calling for more Māori nurses in the workforce, and that the health system could do a better job at incorporating tikanga into practices.
This comes as a new report was released by Nuku on Waitangi Day, emphasising “culturally safe” staffing levels, which should be developed by Māori nurses, and defined by hapū and iwi.
Despite making up 17% of the population, the organisation says Māori nurses only make up 7% of the workforce.
News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to the Kaiwhakahaere of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, Kerri Nuku (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki) yesterday, about these calls from the organisation.
They started off by asking her why the number of Māori nurses working in the country is such a concern.
Auckland Transport has announced another parking fare increase, pushing up parking across AT-managed lots 50 cents per hour.
They justified the increase as necessary to cover ‘rising operational costs’ and to cover the Auckland Council’s increased resource commitment to supporting Aucklanders with “issues like blocked driveways, footpaths, and clearways”.
As well, Auckland Council have voted to endorse the redevelopment of Eden Park, in favour of a new waterfront stadium — bringing the latest development in a long-standing discussion about the best approach to attract tourism and financial productivity to Auckland.
All they need now is the government to pitch in $100 million dollars to fund the project.
Producer Sara started her interview with Shane Henderson by asking why raising parking prices was the preferred option for covering council operational costs
Just recently, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister, Brooke Van Velden, announced sweeping changes to health and safety regulations for businesses that she described as “low-risk”.
Some of the changes involved: narrowing the focus of the Health and Safety at Work Act to risks only causing death, serious injury or illness, creating a hotline for the public to report “overzealous” road cone placement and reducing "tick-box and safety activities" such as psychosocial harm policies for small businesses.
Around this same period of time, Greens MPs Tamatha Paul and Benjamin Doyle received intense media and political scrutiny for comments they made at a university panel and on social media respectively, with the backlash towards Doyle forcing them to abstain from parliament this week.
The Greens recently issued a call to the government to scrap their proposed changes to Early Childhood Care, which involve recognising qualifications other than early childhood teaching qualifications, removing up to 74% of ECE licensing criteria and removing requirements for regular updates and family.
In their weekly catchup with the Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez-March, Oto spoke to him about the party’s take on all of these issues.
BirdCare Aotearoa is a wild, native bird hospital that works to rehabilitate sick and injured birds back into the wild.
For their upcoming event: ‘Bird Heros,’ a part of EcoFest 2025 on the 6th of April, the workshop will look at the best practices on rescuing wild native birds, and will include a tour of their bird hospital, which is not usually open to the public.
For this week's Green Desk, Producer Leilani spoke to the Hospital Manager at BirdCare Aotearoa, Pooja Dorle, about the rehabilitation processes of birds within their hospital ahead of their next workshop.
Fellow Green Desk Producer Liam, and News and Editorial Director Joel, went to the previous workshop over the weekend, and spoke to the Chair of the organisation, Kevin Furgeson, and volunteer Marina, and had a tour of their facilities. Thanks EcoFest!
BirdCare Aotearoa also has a fundraiser running to shed light on seabirds affected by street lights and brightly lit buildings across the city, affecting their migration patterns and causing birds, such as the protected Petrels, Shearwaters, and Prions, to fall and injure themselves. To support their clinical rehabilitation practices, you can support their campaign on givealittle.
For a number of years, Aotearoa has been dealing with a shortage of psychologists and similar professionals to deal with the growing mental health needs of the wider population, with estimates suggesting that an additional 1,000 more psychologists are needed to fill gaps in the profession.
In response to the country’s growing mental health needs, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey announced a new Associate Psychologist role, consisting of recent post-graduates, to work alongside fully trained Psychologists.
However, a number of Psychologists and experts have criticised the introduction of this new role, saying that these associate Psychologists may be expected to take on the responsibilities of clinical Psychologists despite being underqualified.
For this week’s Get Action! Oto spoke to Dr Kumari Valentine, a clinical psychologist based in Dunedin, who’s launched a petition calling on the government to roll back the introduction of the new Associate psychology role and look to other methods of filling gaps in the Psychology profession.
If you're interested in signing this petition, you can find it here:
Last week the Green Party’s Tamatha Paul made comments about police presence in Wellington, particularly how increased police activity made some feel unsafe. She also noted some discriminatory and harmful behaviour from police officers towards Wellington’s homeless population. These comments, presented at a panel hosted by the University of Canterbury’s Greens and Peace Action Ōtautahi, were Paul restating feedback she had received from her constituents in Wellington central.
The response to Tamatha Paul’s comments was extremely critical from all sides of the political spectrum, involving feedback such as “insane” from prime minister Christopher Luxon, “unwise” and “stupid” from Labour leader Chris Hipkins, and “just weird” from ACT leader David Seymour. The comments and their responses lead to a series of articles across all major New Zealand news networks.
In our weekly catchup with the National Party, Wire host Castor spoke to MP Tom Rutherford about the substance of Tamatha Paul’s comments and whether the seemingly disproportionate reaction is appropriate.
This week on Dear Science our expert Dr. Cushla McGoverin chatted with us about various April Fools pranks in the world of science, including the 'Sheep Albedo Hypothesis' from here in Aotearoa.
Thanks to MOTAT, the museum inspiring the innovators of tomorrow!
On Sunday, Finance Minister, Nicola Willis, announced plans to combat the supermarket duopoly between Foodstuffs and Woolworths. This could include breaking-up or restructuring the current chains, with Cabinet also announcing a formal request for information, or RFI, into the matter.
For our weekly catch up, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp about this announcement, and whether she, and the party, thinks this will be enough to address food accessibility in Aotearoa.
We also discussed the comments made by Green MP, Tamatha Paul, about the police, and whether she believes these comments have become sensationalised.
Finally, we discussed the party’s calls for mandatory police body cameras.
But first, they started off by asking Kemp about how the party are feeling about Nicola Willis’ most recent announcements into the supermarket duopoly.
Last week, the government announced its plans for reforming the Resource Management Act, or the RMA, introducing two acts to replace the current RMA. The plan is to bring the two acts before the select committee next year, passing them just before the next election.
For our weekly catch up News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to the ACT Party’s Simon Court about this reform, working with the opposition, and the lack of a Treaty clause.
We also talked about concerns that the health and police system in Aotearoa are failing, following an 11-year old being misidentified as a 20-year old by police and being administered antipsychotic drugs.
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.
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.
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