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.
Later school start times could help teens in Aotearoa get more sleep and improve their health and wellbeing. In an opinion piece in the New Zealand Medical Journal, researchers point out that adolescents' natural sleep-wake biology shifts at puberty to favour later bedtimes, and start times of 9:45am or later would help address sleep issues in senior secondary students.
I spoke to Barbara Galland from the University of Otago about this research.
Daniel spoke with Margaret Stanley, Professor of Ecology at the University of Auckland. She explains the impact humans have on the native birds of NZ and the gives some tips how to help the native birds. We need more messy gardens.
David brings us City Counselling with Shane Henderson, they speak about freedom camping laws.
Daniel looks at The rise of online hate, misogyny and its effects on Jacinda Ardern’s resignation as the Prime Minister. He also speaks with Margaret Stanley about the human impact on wild native bird species in New Zealand and how we can support them.
Joe looks also looks into Jacinda Ardern’s effect on New Zealand’s international brand and progressive reputation. He also speaks to Barbara Galland from the University of Otago about later school starts helping teens with sleeping problems.
Daniel spoke with Neal Curtis, professor in media and screen studies at the University of Auckland about trolls, online hate, misogyny, the rise of extreme right ideologies and its impact on the Prime Minister.
New research from Curtin University over in Perth has recently been released, taking a look at the heat regulation that takes place in west Australian echidnas.
Doctor Christine Cooper and her team utilised thermal vision to discover how echidnas deal with the strong heat present in the region.
Their methods are very unique, often utilising the complex tasks of blowing snot bubbles and doing belly flops to keep cool.
It’s currently uncertain whether or not these methods would work for humans.
Liam had a chat with Dr Cooper to learn more about her research and echidnas in general.
The New Zealand Drug Foundation has reported on a new strain of LSD that is circulating around the country, particularly within music festivals.
The drug, named 25B-NBOH, can form side effects not usually present in normal LSD, despite looking identical.
Drug checking services at new years festival Rhythm and Vines found examples in the drug amongst roughly 750 other drugs checked.
To learn more about the drug, what the signs of it are, and how users could avoid them, Liam had a chat with the New Zealand Drug Foundations executive director Sarah Helm.
It’s been about a month's break since I last spoke to bFM European Correspondent Cameron Adams for Eurovision, but the regions war due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine has not slowed down.
Nations have continued to support the latter country, and Bulgaria has been revealed to have been supporting Ukraine since the beginning of the war despite attempting to keep it under wraps.
Additionally, climate protests have taken place in Germany, and abortion laws have been debated in Spain.
On The Wire with Jessica, the Scottish Green's equalities and human rights issues spokesperson, Maggie Chapman, and Research Associate at the University of Auckland Public Policy Institute, Dr Sarah Bickerton, discuss the UK government blocking a Scottish gender recognition bill.
Marilyn Garson Co-founder of Alternative Jewish Voices and Kate Stone, a Co-covenor of the coordinting group for Justice For Palestine speak on the extent to which activists for Palestinian rights are being falsely accused of antisemitism to silence their voices.
And SAFE For Animals CEO Debra Ashton shares their calls to end Rodeo in Aotearoa.
The UK government has voted in favour of blocking a Scottish gender recognition bill that would make it easier for people to change their legally recognised gender, from going to royal assent.
The passing of this bill made Scotland the first nation in the UK to back a self-identification process for legally changing gender. But the UK government used a Section 35 order, a provision which can block Scottish laws, for the first time ever, to thwart Scotland's efforts to expand transgender rights.
News and Editorial Director, Jessica Hopkins, interviewed the Scottish Green's equalities and human rights issues spokesperson, Maggie Chapman, who is the Vice Convener of the Equalities, Humans Rights, and Civil Justice Committee, that took the gender recognition reform legisation through Scottish parliament last year.
She also spoke to Research Associate at the University of Auckland Public Policy Institute, Dr Sarah Bickerton about harmful rhetoric surrounding transgender and other minority rights in the UK and the potential implications of blocking this legislation on Scottish democracy.
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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