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.
Tyler Baikie and Corey Fuimaono from bFM Drive spoke with Mark Adams, Senior Vice President of VICE Media, on where the innovation in technology and marketing is going where young people ought to be cautious and keep a level head.
Consumer Care Guidelines aim to protect vulnerable and medically dependent customers’ access to electricity. The Electricity Authority recently released their report ascertaining company compliance with Consumer Care Guidelines. This week on the Tuesday Wire, Beth speaks to Kimberly O'Sullivan Senior Researcher at the University of Otago Wellington all about this.
Thursday this week the budget will be announced, with many pre-budget announcements already made, Milly from the Tuesday Wire speaks to Dr Shane Reti for their weekly catch up on what this all means.
Welcome to the Tuesday Wire! This week on the show:
The comedy special of Dear Science with Joel Rindelaub
Beth Speaks to Kimberly O'Sullivan on the Consumer Care Guidelines
Milly has her weekly catch up with Dr Shane Reti where they talk about the upcoming budget announcement
Tyler Baikie and Corey Fuimaono from bFM Drive spoke with Mark Adams, Senior Vice President of VICE Media, on where the innovation in technology and marketing is going where young people ought to be cautious and keep a level head.
This week News and Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to ACT’s Karen Chhour about the extreme weather event in Tāmaki Makaurau last week and if they would also rule out working with Te Pāti Māori in a potential coalition government.
She started off their interview by asking Chhour about the response from the Auckland Council and Auckland Emergency Management.
The 2013 Rana Plaza collapse forced fashion companies to answer questions about the conditions in which their clothes are made.
The spotlight may have landed on global fashion giants, but those same questions were still applicable to our own fashion brands.
Launched last year, Oxfam’s “What She Makes Campaign” aimed to get answers about the conditions in which New Zealand’s biggest clothing brand’s merchandise is produced.
Most recently the campaign released scores in relation to the transparency of the brands, with Hallensteins and Glassons recieving scores of two out of five. Nicholas spoke to spokesperson Shalomi Daniel about the results of their transparency report and the future steps In the "What She Makes Campaign"
This week Caeden filled in for Hanna for her regular catch-up with Takutai Kemp. They discussed National ruling out working with Te Paati Māori, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer’s members bill to ban seabed mining, as well as her new bill to ban commercial water bottling.
Caeden Tipler spoke to Te Pati Māori’s Takutai Kemp about National ruling out a coalition with them and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer’s bills that would ban seabed mining and commercial water bottling.
News and Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to ACT’s Karen Chhour about last week’s extreme weather event in Tāmaki Makaurau and whether they would also rule out working with Te Pati Māori.
Caeden spoke to the Disinformation Project’s Kate Hannah on their recent report on Transphobia.
Nicholas Lindstrom spoke to Shalomi Daniel from Oxfam about their findings from their “What She Makes” campaign that looks into labour conditions and pay in the factories that produce clothes for New Zealand clothing brands.
And Caeden spoke to Māori Studies Professor and Te Rūnanga-Ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu chair Margaret Mutu on National’s false statement that Māori get more votes than Pākehā.
Last week Caeden spoke to Waipapa Taumata Rau academic John Fenaughty and InsideOUT Board Member Awhi Marshall on the Disinformation Project’s latest report on rising Transphobia in far-right circles.
They confirmed that the Disinformation Project report lines up with data previously collected in other surveys, including the Identify survey, as well as the experiences of trans and takatāpui people like Awhi.
Today Caeden also got the chance to speak to Kate Hannah, Director of the Disinformation Project, on what she’s found writing and sharing the report.
Last Wednesday National ruled out working with Te Paati Māori in any kind of coalition agreement.
National leader Christopher Luxon cited broad ideological differences, but some have raised concerns about his tweet where he implied Māori get more than one vote under MMP.
The final line of this tweet was “We believe New Zealand is one country with one standard of citizenship, meaning one person, one vote.”
In actual fact Māori do not get more votes than anyone else, Caeden looked into why this myth exists, where it came from, and the impacts it has on Māori.
They spoke to Māori Studies Professor and Te Rūnanga-ā-iwi o Ngāti Kahu chair Margaret Mutu.
Numerous political figures including Ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour have spoken out in the media this week with allegations that Auckland Council is trying to usher in ‘co-governance’ on a local level, with their proposal on the management of the Waitākere Ranges.
CEO of Te Kawerau ā Maki Edward Ashby called out the political lashback as “fear-mongering” and ‘misinformation’, affirming that the proposal is not actually a co-governance structure.
The proposal is for a decision-making committee of 50% representation from the Crown and tangata whenua to manage the land under a deed of acknowledgement.
The council says the deed of acknowledgement is in line with the Waitākere Ranges Heritage Act 2008, and follows on from the existing management structures in place.
Producer Sara spoke with Councillor Shane Henderson during his bus commute about this topic and the political commentary that’s been witnessed this week. Here is that interview
The Canadian election has been won by Mark Carney’s Liberal Party.
Despite losing the election, the Conservatives made significant gains in their levels of support, particularly with young people.
United States President Donald Trump also loomed large in the election, following his comments earlier this year that he would make Canada the “51st state” and the trade war he has started with Canada.
For International Desk, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Aleksi Toiviainen, co-organiser for Vote16 Canada and democracy advocate, about the results of the election.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has announced a total ban on prisoners voting will be reinstated.
The move has been criticised by the opposition parties, as well as those working in criminal justice.
Today is May Day, also known as International Workers Day and unions across Aotearoa are taking action against what they say is an “anti-worker agenda” from this government.
Workers across a wide range of industries are stopping work and taking strike action.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about all of these issues.
Last week Transport minister Chris Bishop announced steps towards improvements to public transport from the Northwest of Auckland. The plan involves three stages, each promoting faster and more consistent public transport from the region. While early stages are planned for the next few years, later stages will be coming over the next ten or more years.
The government has also announced $53 million towards subsidising teachers registration fees. This announcement follows extensive campaigning from teachers on this issue, eliminating a barrier for new and long-time teachers in Aotearoa.
In our weekly catchup with National’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor asked about each of these issues, starting with the transport upgrades in Northwest Auckland.
In March this year, the government made the decision to reduce the benefit for hospital patients who remain hospitalised after 13 weeks.
After 13 weeks, those experiencing long-term hospitalisation would see their benefit reduced to their "hospital rate" which was $55.35 a week (after tax), unless the person has a partner and a child or is a veteran.
For this week’s Get Action! I spoke to Fiona Charlton, volunteer president of New Zealand ME Society, who’s started a petition calling on the government to roll back benefit cuts to people experiencing long-term hospitalisation.
If you’d like to sign this petition, you can find it here:
Just yesterday, Finance Minister Nicola Willis made her Pre-Budget speech, in the leadup to Budget 2025 which will be delivered next month.
During her speech, Willis said that the government would be halving the operating allowance from $2.4 Billion to $1.3 Billion, going to a select number of government departments that Willis has described as “the most important priorities.”
The week before, it came to light that Climate Minister Simon Watts had rejected advice to review the carbon subsidies given to polluting companies like NZ steel and Methanex.
And the Greens recently made a call to the government to ban the use of engineered stone products.
For our weekly catchup with the Green Party, Wednesday Wire host Oto spoke to MP Ricardo Menendez-March about all of these issues.
In his role as regulation Minister, David Seymour is moving to simplify regulations for Early Childhood Education Centres by the end of this year.
This involves a review containing 15 recommendations, which cabinet has accepted. These recommendations concern a vast number of things, from simplifying licensing criteria for pre-schools to lowering qualification requirements for early childhood educators.
Both of these areas have sparked concern within the sector, with some educators concerned the review is simply a cost cutting exercise that will result in tamariki being put at risk.
For our weekly catch up Producer Evie spoke to ACT’s Simon Court about the review.
They also spoke about New Zealand First’s Members Bill aiming to have the biological definition of a woman and man defined in law.
And finally they discussed a clash between the party and National’s Scott Simpson over an ACC plan to reduce injury for Māori and Pasifika workers.
A cross-party delegation of MPs recently visited Tonga, Hawai’i and Vanuatu as part of a Pacific trip organised by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters.
Earlier this week, New Zealand First proposed new legislation that would exclude trans communities from the definition of “woman” and “man” in law.
Winston Peters defended the bill on RNZ’s Morning Report, where he called interviewer Corin Dann a “disgrace” for raising the criticism against the bill that was brought forward by opposition parties.
During this interview, Peters threatened to cut RNZ’s government funding.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about all of these topics.