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.
Last week, the Christchurch City Council voted to sanction Israel.
This follows calls from the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa to stop purchasing merchandise from companies that have links to funding Israel’s war on Gaza, according to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The staff report on Wednesday shows that council did not have any business with companies identified on this list, with recommendations passed by council members that amended the policy to prevent future business with these companies.
Despite passing, councillors Aaron Keown, and Kelly Baber voted against, with councillors James Gough, Victoria Henstock, and Mark Peters abstaining.
News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to the National Chair of the Palestinian Solidarity Network, John Minto, about the sanctions, and why these sanctions are so important.
On the 29th of October, worker’s unions across the country held rallies over concerns of what they have dubbed this government’s “anti-worker” agenda.
These concerns stem from elements such as the government’s cuts on public services, scrapping fair pay agreements, and re-introducing 90-day trials.
Attendees of the rallies included Labour leader, Chris Hipkins, and several members of Te Pāti Māori, including co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, with the Public Service Association sayingroughly 10,000 individuals showed up to the rallies overall.
News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to the Assistant Secretary for the Public Service Association, Fleur Fitzsimons, about the rallies, and what the atmosphere was like for those attending the hui.
For Dear Science this week, our expert Doctor Allan Blackman chatted to us about the largest known prime number, Carl Djerassi, and recycling e-waste.
In our weekly catchup with the National Party, News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to MP Katie Nimon about Christchurch becoming the first city in the country to sanction Israel, and the rest worker’s rally, which was attended by thousands.
They spoke to the Assistant Secretary for the Public Service Association, Fleur Fitzsimons, about the recent workers' strikes.
They also spoke to the National Chair for the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa, John Minto, about Christchurch sanctioning Israel.
And finally, they spoke to Senior Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Social and Cultural Studies at the Victoria University of Wellington, Lynzi Armstrong, about a study into sex work in New Zealand compared to Scotland and Ireland.
Concerns have been raised about the ethics of cross-breeding animals, due to the negative implications that can arise through these breeding practices, following the popularity of a Sphinx and Munchkin cat hybrid overseas, called the XL Bully Cat.
News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland, Marcelo Rodriguez Ferrere, about the ethics of cross-breeding, and how lax New Zealand's regulations are about the practice.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden speaks to Willie Jackson about an independent commissioner being appointed to Wellington City Council, the government’s review of Ihumātao, and cuts at Whakaata Māori.
For States of the States this week they speak to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about polling numbers less than two weeks out from the election and they speak to Tom Unger, political activist and former political show host at Radioactive, about political violence in the US ahead of the election.
And they speak to Amanda Turnbull, Lecturer in Cyber Law at the University of Waikato, about the negative environmental and social impacts of AI.
News and Editorial Director, Joel, speaks to Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland, Marcelo Rodriguez Ferrere, about the concerns surrounding New Zealand's lax regulations regarding cross-breeding companion animals.
And for City Counselling, Tuesday Wire host Castor speaks to Councillor Julie Fairey about progress on Maungawhau train station and power outages on the Western line.
Wire Host Caeden spoke to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about polling numbers two weeks out from the election and former Radioactive host Tom Unger about the threat of political extremism this election.
Recently, a study was conducted at the university of Auckland analysing the use of A.I in predicting the prevalence of respiratory disease outbreaks during flu seasons in Aotearoa.
Forecasting models are essential for hospitals in predicting admissions and subsequently allocating resources and beds.
However, during peak flu periods, and, most notably the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals across Aotearoa have been largely underprepared for respiratory disease outbreaks, hence why experts have called for improvements to be made to traditional forecasting models.
Oto spoke to Dr Steffen Albrecht, a Research Fellow at the School of Computer Science at the University of Auckland and author of the study, to talk about the study and how A.I could help disease forecasting models in hospitals across Aotearoa.
Social media is blamed for many ill effects that plague modern life, and unsurprisingly a recent research conducted on New Zealand women aged eighteen to twenty-four has found that social media use correlates with poor body image.
At this period of life, it is common for debilitating eating disorders to develop. The research has found there to be a weak link between social media and poor body image, however this still raises questions about future legislations and the complexity of the relationship between young people and social media.
Sasha spoke to Honorary Senior Lecturer in Nutrition Rajshri Roy, from the University of Sydney Australia, about her recent study and other implications.
The coalition government has recently been debating cutting funding entirely for school lunches, but instead have made a significant cut while continuing to keep lunches.
There have been concerns raised by Health Coalition Aotearoa about the new supplier, Compass Group, stating a potential worse quality of food and inadequacy of future supply.
Sasha spoke to policy researcher from The University of Auckland and the spokesperson of Health Coalition Aotearoa, Kelly Garton, about the new supplier of school lunches and the implications this has for schools and children’s nutrition.
Oto reached out to Sinead O’Flynn, the agriculture campaigner at Greenpeace Aotearoa, for the organisation’s take on the government’s recent changes to Freshwater management policy.
This was after a number of ministers announced a new amendment to the Resource Management Amendment Bill covering Freshwater and Other Matters that would prevent local councils from notifying their freshwater plans until the Government replaces the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management.
Advocates and local government spokespeople have criticised the move, saying that it will strip power away from local councils and that the current freshwater management policy statement isn’t sufficient enough to protect Aotearoa’s water resources.
Since its inception in 2008, the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (or ETS) has been, according to the government, its primary tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle the climate crisis. As part of the scheme, the government sets a price for carbon units, which companies must pay to offset their emissions. The Climate Change Commission has recently highlighted that the scheme was not stable and susceptible to changes in the market, and did not have sufficient carbon units to last until 2030, requiring urgent reform.
For Green World, Wire producer Liam spoke with Scott Burnett, the Regional Conservation Manager for the top of the South Island and Forest and Bird’s climate spokesperson about why Forest and Bird has called the system broken, what impact this has on Aotearoa and what reforms should be implemented.
Last week, NZ First MP and Government Minister Shane Jones was criticised over using derogatory language towards Indian Immigrants. These comments were condemned by the National Party and Christopher Luxon, who labelled NZ First’s belief system as ‘anti-immigrant’, and saidd Jones was ‘scaremongering’.
That was not the extent of criticism between NZ First and National, however, with tensions between the two sparking after NZ First Leader Winston Peters calling out Luxon for not giving coalition partners prior notice of his confidence vote during a national party caucus meeting last week. In turn, these comments have been dismissed, and Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Luxon accused NZ First and Peters of putting Labour Governments, like Arderns, into power. Despite all of this, however, Peters has insisted the coalition is as stable as a ‘three-legged stool’.
Last week also saw the Treasury announce that they would revisit their forecasts for the economy ahead of the impending government budget. The Government also announced some changes to the way Infrastructure is run by the government, giving more power to the Independent Infrastructure Commission, increasing their oversight and changing the way that Ministers receive advice and information.
This week, Host Alex spoke with National MP Ryan Hamilton about these developments, beginning with Shane Jones’ comments.
Despite a tenuous ceasefire, the fuel crisis - resulting from the US and Israel bombing of Iran, and subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz - drags on. Prices have remained high, hitting low-income households hard, and while fuel stocks in or on-the-way to the country sit comfortably above a month’s cover, approaches to conserving fuel remain front-of-mind for many.
One strategy that New Zealanders have been urged to adopt is switching to public transport, which would put fewer cars on the road. However, access is often dependent on location and affordability.
Over the past few years, the Ministry of Education has reviewed numerous rural school bus routes, cancelling some, cutting off students from ready access to their education.
For this week’s Get Action, producer Theo spoke to Alicia Hall from Parents for Climate Aotearoa, on their petition to restore rural school bus routes and make public transport free for children, and students under 25.
If you'd like to sign this petition, you can find it here.
Last week, the Green Party leaders, Marama Davidson and Chloe Swarbrick, hosted their state of the planet address, where they launched their call to electrify the nation.
On top of that, events this week have led the party to criticise the government. The first critique, instigated by the floods that swept the nation, hitting the Coromandel and causing a state of emergency in the Wellington Region, led the Greens to question the government's decreased funding of flood responses as harsh weather increases.
The second critique came with a cabinet paper this week that shows the government is planning on moving ahead with reforms to legislation that will see references to the Treaty of Waitangi and Te Tiriti o Waitangi redefined, in what the government sez is about ‘standardisation’ but what the Green Party sees as dishonouring Te Tiriti.
So for our weekly catch-up with the Green Party’s Ricardo Menéndez March, we discuss their criticisms of the government but start with a discussion of their electrification policy.
Last week, fuel stocks in the country went down by three or four days across each fuel type. The government recognised this as not enough to change to phase two in the national fuel plan, drawing some concerned comments from the political opposition around the state of our stocks, and when the government plans to actually move up phases.
Following a week that saw both Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon comment on the state of the Strait of Hormuz, and the way the United States has handled the ongoing conflict, Willis also travelled to the US to meet with White House advisors.
This week, Host Alex spoke with National MP Ryan Hamilton about these fuel crisis developments, and what the government’s approach going forward may look like.
To start our discussion, however, we spoke briefly about the confidence in Christopher Luxon’s Leadership.
Earlier this week, Councillor Julie Fairey moved a resolution to investigate Auckland Council’s involvement with companies that are complicit in Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory.
And this week, Auckland Council launched an AI virtual assistant to report issues such as graffiti, roaming dogs, and noise complaints.
For City Counselling, Wire Host Caeden spoke with Councillor Julie Fairey about both of these topics.
Last Friday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown announced the signing of a new ‘City Deal’.
The deal will see closer partnership between the central government and Auckland Council, coordinating planning in areas such as infrastructure and transportation.
The deal will see a long-term partnership between the government and council, with regular meetings and cooperation on strategies for innovation and transportation, with reviews of sporting venues such as Eden Park and the Auckland Tennis Centre.
However, the deal has been critiqued by some as being a collection of promises without any new funding.
So for our weekly catch-up with the Green Party’s Ricardo Menéndez March, he and producer Theo discussed the signing of the Auckland City Deal, and how the Green Party would work with Auckland Council on issues such as transportation and infrastructure.
95bFM 
