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.
On Saturday 15 April, nationwide rallies were held to raise awareness about the nursing shortage and urge politicians to help secure better working conditions.
It was the first time the New Zealand Nurses Organisation had called on all of its 57,000 members to rally at once.
Nicholas spoke to Organization spokesperson Kerri Nuku about the rallies, their five fixes for the nursing crisis, and how the public can support Nurses.
The Intergenerational Climate Ambassadors have published an open letter on Action Station calling on MPs to implement a climate resilient Cyclone Gabrielle recovery.
The letter highlights the need for participatory democracy, listening to indigenous voices, and land use planning as key ways to address the climate crisis.
For Get Action! this week, Caeden Tipler interviewed Sophie Handford, councillor, activist, and ambassador for the Intergenerational Climate Ambassadors, on why she helped write the open letter.
Chris Hipkins has today announced an overhaul of Three Waters. It has been a contentious piece of legislation due to certain aspects of what it entails. What is not contentious is how bad water infrastructure in Aotearoa New Zealand is. Simon spoke with research fellow at Otago University Marnie Prickett about Three Waters and the need for better water infrastructure. I also spoke with Marnie about the recent report from the ministry of environment that stated just 2% of large lakes in Aotearoa New Zealand were in “good or very good” health. Marnie began by highlighting why our waters are so polluted.
Growing up in New Zealand recently released their latest findings in their longitudinal study on material hardship in Aotearoa New Zealand. Simon spoke with researcher Molly Grant about the findings and also about what needs to be done to alleviate material hardship for young people in Aotearoa New Zealand. Molly began by explaining what the research looked into.
Since Covid there has been a bus driver shortage leading to around 1000 buses being cancelled every day. Alex talked to Dennis Maga, the General Secretary of First Union about the challenge to recruit drivers. Pay is part of the problem but so are working conditions. Maga describes the realities of doing split shifts, the impact on health and family life, and how bus drivers feel a duty of care for their passengers even when they are subjected to verbal and, occasionally, physical abuse.
Recent advice to the government suggested that the cost of international carbon credits to meet New Zealand's climate obligations might be as high as $23.7 billion dollars by 2030. Alex talked to climate scientist Kevin Trenberth about how carbon credits work (do they work?) and how else one might spend the money to mitigate and prepare New Zealand for the climate impacts ahead.
Arno Cronje spoke to University of Auckland Researcher Dr Emily Harvey and University of Otago Professor Michael Baker on Cabinet's decision to retain self-isolation requirements for COVID-19.
And communications meteorologist at MetService, Andrew James, on the recent tornado in Auckland
Alex Bonham interviewed Dennis Maga, the General Secretary of First Union, about the challenges of recruiting bus drivers.
And climate scientist Kevin Trenberth how carbon credits work.
And on The Green Desk, Jack Marshall talked to Department of Conservation Ranger Jamie McAulay about their research into Aotearoa’s weasel pest control problem.
On Monday, Cabinet announced it would not be removing the COVID-19 self-isolation requirement of seven days.
This is hoped to continue to contribute to New Zealand having one of the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates in the developed world.
Arno spoke to Dr Emily Harvey, a researcher from the University of Auckland who created scientific models to see what would happen if the requirement was removed or not closely followed by most people.
Arno started off by asking what the scope of the research conducted was.
Next, Arno spoke about COVID-19 self-isolation requirements with epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker.
Arno started by asking what his opinion was on the potential removal of self-isolation requirements from law.
Nicola Willis recently took over responsibility for grocery regulation after recently appointed consumer affairs minister Scott Simpson identified a conflict of interest. Willis says she is interested in introducing a competitor to the New Zealand supermarket duopoly, though whether this competitor will come from overseas or internally remains to be seen.
Also in politics this past week are US president Donald Trump’s tariffs, which have had massive economic impact in the US and internationally. While New Zealand is minimally affected by the tariffs, our economy only recently exited a recession, so we may be in a position of vulnerability to further economic instability.
In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor asked about each of these issues, beginning with plans to address the supermarket duopoly.
You can find the press conference referenced by Tom Rutherford here.
Three Te Pāti Māori MPs, Hana Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, and Rawiri Waititi, did not attend the Privileges Committee over their contempt of the House, following their haka in Parliament protesting the Treaty Principles Bill.
The party instead are planning on holding their own hearing regarding the matter.
Privileges Committee chairwoman Judith Collins, called the no-show “unprecedented” and has given the MPs “one final chance” to attend the hearing.
For our weekly catch up, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp about the party’s action, and why they are going about the hearing in their own manner.
We also spoke about the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act passing its final reading.
But first, we discussed the party not attending the Privileges Committee.
After months of hearings, submissions and debate, the Justice Select Committee has released its report into the Treaty Principles Bill, recommending that the bill not proceed.
The report found that of all submissions, nearly 90% were opposed, around 8% in support and just over 3% were unstated.
Despite this final damning backlash against the bill, David Seymour and the ACT party maintain that there is a place for the bill in Aotearoa, saying submissions often don’t reflect the majority view of the country.
For our weekly catch up, Producer Evie spoke to ACT’s Simon Court about the report, and what the ACT party intend to do next.
They also spoke about the tariffs imposed on trade by Donald Trump last week, and how the government expects them to impact New Zealand.
Finally, they spoke about an unfolding situation concerning ACT MP and Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard. An RNZ investigation late last week found a potential conflict of interest between the minister and his sister who is the executive director of a dairy company. The investigation found that her company had lobbied against the minister's office introducing tougher regulations on baby formula.
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
Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has been arrested by the International Criminal Court and will be tried in the Hague for crimes against humanity.
This comes as the ICC faces criticism for other, more controversial current arrest warrants, including those against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Wire Host Caeden spoke to Dr Yvonne Breitwieser-Faria from Curtin University in Perth about Duterte’s arrest and broader issues facing the ICC.
Last week, Green Party MP Tamatha Paul made comments about the police and the expansion of beat patrols in Wellington, saying they make a lot of people feel “less safe.”
The comments have been criticised by MPs across National, Act, New Zealand First, as well as Labour.
And Finance Minister Nicola Willis is seeking specialist external advice on what ways the supermarket duopoly could be restructured.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about these issues.
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:
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