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.
Joe speaks to Eileen Joy, from the School of Counselling, Human Services and Social Work at the University of Auckland. They chat about recent child development theories having influenced child protection in Aotearoa in ways that have further stigmatised struggling families.
A devastating earthquake in Southern Turkey and Northern Syria earlier this week has left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.
The death toll passed 20 thousand this morning, and is expected to rise even further.
Search and rescue efforts and relief organisations from around the world are pouring into the country to look for survivors, and help displaced peoples.
David spoke to Carlos Calderon from Oxfam Aotearoa about the situation on the ground and what New Zealanders can do to help.
To donate to relief efforts in the region, head to:
www.oxfam.org.nz
www.redcross.org.nz
www.unicef.org.nz
The Student Volunteer Army is doing a wonderful job. Last weekend Around 200 volunteers supported door-knocking at 1200 homes.
SVA CEO Jana Hood said: “The smell of rotting food and rotten carpets in some houses was just horrendous, but they don’t want to leave their homes and their communities,”
Daniel spoke with Auckland Club President of the SVA, Jake Parsons about what their experiences are and what the progress of their work is.
Already in october 2010 Maori health organisations raised concerns about the shocking toll tobacco use has in their communities. They found that overall people were smoking less, but more and more maori and pacific people were smoking.
As response the NZ government developed the Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan. The plan features three radical interventions. One, called the smoke-free generation strategy, will make it illegal to ever sell combustible tobacco products to those born in 2009 or later. The goal is to create an ever-growing generation that never picks up the smoking habit. Together with two other policies, reducing nicotine content in tobacco to below addictive levels and less retail outlets selling tobacco, tobacco use would virtually end.
There are two issues: Vapes and Inequities. Daily smoking rates are in general at an all-time low but remain high for Māori. 34% of Māori teens aged 14 and 15-year vape regularly and The statistics are even higher for Māori girls of this age, with 40% vaping regularly.
Daniel spoke with associate professor Andrew Waa, Public Health researcher at the University of Otagoa, bout these issues.
David brings us City Counselling with Mike Lee about flood recovery and preparing for Cyclone Gabrielle. He also speaks to Oxfam and partners mounting response in Turkiye, and Syria amidst destruction of life and property due to the earthquake.
Joe speaks to Eileen Joy from the School of Counselling, Human Services and Social Work at the University of Auckland about recent child development theories having influenced child protection in Aotearoa in ways that have further stigmatised struggling families.
Daniel chats with Jake Parsons about the work the Student Volunteer Army is doing related to the Auckland floods. He also spoke to Andrew Waa, a Public Health researcher at the University of Otago about Smokefree 2025, vapes and inequities.
Another policy PM Chris Hipkins scrapped on Wednesday took out the government's planned biofuel mandate.
They planned to make a portion of all fuel used in the Aotearoa plant based through the mandate, but decided to get rid of the policy upon the government's current focus on the cost of living.
However, both motor trade groups and environmental groups are celebrating the policy being axed - one for the lower cost of fuel and the other for how it’ll actually improve Aotearoa's environment to not use biofuels.
Liam spoke to Jake Roos from Don't Burn Our Future about how the canning of the policy will actually be better for both the environment and our cost of living.
Almost the end of the week, whānau! A lovely show for you this morning. Rachel speaks to Jennifer Curtin on Political Commentary, debriefing Cabinet's re-prioritisations. Delaney Mes tells us all about fish on Breakfast Food, and Rachel talks to Lucky Boy and Crystal from Phoebe Rings about their recent collaborative track. Whakarongo mai nei!
We have various pieces covering the policy changes announced by prime minister Chris Hipkins on Wednesday. First, Liam spoke to VuW’s Peter Thompson about the RNZ-TVNZ merger being scrapped.
They also spoke to E Tu Unions Amy Newman about the minimum wage increase
And lastly they had a chat with Jake Roos from Don’t burn our Future about the scrapping of Aotearoas biofuel mandate.
For The Green Desk, Troy Matich speaks to Amanda Larson from Greenpeace Aotearoa about how record fuel profits are impacting the climate.
And producer Hanna Thomspon Lisa Woods, Amnesty International campaign director, about the pulling back of hate speech law reform.
After years of campaigning by community groups to table better protection against hate speech, the government has announced that law reform will be postponed and referred to the Law Commission. While some claim this move better recognises the right to freedom of expression, others argue the right should be balanced against other rights, such as the right to freedom from discrimination.
Hanna spoke to Lisa Woods, Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand's Campaigns Director, about Aotearoa's hate speech laws, why reform is urgently needed, and what can be done in the interim.
First up on our series of policies PM Chris Hipkins has pulled back on is the public media merger of Radio New Zealand and Television New Zealand.
Kris Fafoi and Willie Jackson, the former and current broadcasting minister respectively, had initially set out a preferred deadline of March 1st with a final deadline of July 1st this year.
However, Hipkins claimed the merger was too expensive and unnecessary, replacing it with a funding boost for NZ on Air and RNZ.
To learn more about what this means for public media in Aotearoa, Liam spoke to Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington’s Peter Thompson.
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.
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