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.
The proposed cuts are set to affect many public services, including the city's libraries. Duane Leo is the National Secretary for The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi. Simon spoke with Duane about the funding of public services and the broad range of people that use them. Simon began by asking Duane why libraries are important to the community.
Community group Stop the Cuts has just released their findings from a survey of over a thousand people in the Auckland arts and culture sector, asking them how they predict they'll be affected by the currently proposed Council budget cuts. Spike speaks to Elyssia Wilson-Heti from the group about the survey.
Public transport has been particularly strained in Auckland recently, with the proposed budget looking to limit services to their current levels, and reducing total bus trips overall. Spike speaks to urban planning researcher Dr. Tim Welch about the current state of public transit, and the cuts proposed by the Council.
Congestion in the city centre last night held up vehicle traffic and delayed buses for up to an hour. This morning a number of organisations paid for a front page wrap around ad in the Herald promoting cycling.
Alex talked to Big Street Bikers' Cleve Cameron about how enabling cycling in the city might unclog the streets so everyone can get around quickly, cheaply and efficiently.
Emilia Sullivan interviewed Green Party co-leader James Shaw about a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shows we only have a small window remaining to avoid the planet warming 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
For their monthly catch-up News & Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to Auckland University Students Association (AUSA) President Alan Shaker about how Auckland Transport disruptions are affecting students and more for their monthly catch-up.
And National Coordinator of Gender Minorities Aotearoa, Ahi Wi-Hongi, discussed anti-trans campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, aka Posie Parker, being allowed to enter Aotearoa to hold a transphobic event in Tāmaki Makaurau this weekend.
Alex Bonham spoke to Cleve Cameron from Big Street Bikers about avoiding congestion by embracing cycling.
Andre Andre Fa'aoso talked to Doug Wilson from the University of Auckland about wireless charging roads.
Arno spoke to doctoral researcher Abdullah Kalantan from the University of Auckland about a new smoking cessation project during the month of Ramadan.
And University of Auckland astrophysicist Richard Easther discussed light pollution from Starlink and other satellites.
The Auckland Council and Immigration NZ are allowing anti-trans campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull aka Posie Parker to enter Aotearoa and hold a transphobic event in Tāmaki Makaurau this weekend.
News & Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to Ahi Wi-Hongi, National Coordinator at Gender Minorities Aotearoa about why Posie Parker entering Aotearoa is a danger to trans people.
Collaborators at several universities are testing a new faith-based smoking cessation method around the tradition of Ramadan and Muslim culture. Studies show Muslim men have high smoking rates, and this study seeks to implement a cessation method for the next Ramadan.
Arno spoke to Abdullah (Dilla) Kalantan, a doctoral researcher at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, to find out more about this project. Arno started by asking what the role of religion was in quitting smoking.
In the pursuit of meeting emissions reduction targets, the transition to electric vehicles is seeming like a bit of a necessity.
With battery range and charging stations a worry for EV owners, the government and research organisations from around the world are banding together to come up with new solutions to instil confidence in EV fleets.
Andre Fa’aoso spoke to Doug Wilson, Director of the Transportation Research Centre at the University of Auckland.
The research facility based in the Faculty of Engineering is designing and testing the possibilities of wireless charging roads in Aotearoa to remedy range anxiety for EV owners.
The partnership between Downer and the University of Auckland has been tasked with testing the resilience and application of this technology on our roads.
Andre started off by asking Doug about what this technology is and how it works.
In a follow up statement, Doug shared the idea of ‘power snacking’.
Doug says that power snacking “is very different to the current need to carry around a tank full of gas or a very large and heavy battery that takes longer to charge. For example, if you can charge your ‘EV on the go’ (at your origin, destination and on the way dynamically) then you can reduce the size of your battery as range anxiety is removed. This also has the significant environmental benefit of requiring less rare earth minerals (eg. cobalt, nickel and lithium) as the batteries are smaller in size and are also reduced weight. This can only be done with wireless charging but the wireless EV infrastructure will need to be in place for this to affect potential users purchasing behaviours.”
For their monthly catch-up News & Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to Auckland University Students Association (AUSA) President Alan Shaker about their Safe Zone’s initiative with the Auckland Council, which ran during University orientation week, how disruptions to the Auckland Transport network since the start of the semester has affected students ability to travel to and from campus, issues with University of Auckland infrastructure, particularly Wi-Fi connection issues, and students waiting up to three hours to access student services.
Scientists have been calling for a ban for light-polluting mass satellite groups like Elon Musk’s Starlink for some time now, and a series of papers and opinion pieces published in the journal Nature Astronomy have echoed these calls. Scientists are concerned that the light pollution from these so-called megaconstellations make it difficult to view objects in space for research, to see the stars at night, and to detect potentially hazardous meteors heading towards Earth.
Arno spoke to University of Auckland astrophysicist Professor Richard Easther to find out more about the call to regulate mass satellite groups.
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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