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.
Last week, the government revealed statistics showing a drop in crime in Auckland’s CBD, the reduction accredited to increased police presence under this government.
Crime isn’t the only issue facing the CBD, with recent data showing that hospitality spending in Auckland’s CBD is down compared to previous years. Challenges faced by hospitality businesses have been particularly evident since COVID lockdowns, with some heritage businesses permanently closing in recent months.
The government has also been tabling discussions of increasing the parliamentary term from three to four years. While several previous governments have discussed such a change, some issues have prevented it from going ahead.
In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Katie Nimon, Wire host Castor asked her about these issues facing the CBD, and about the potential for a four-year parliamentary term, starting off with crime in the CBD.
Last week, thousands of explosions erupted in Lebanon, both the capital of Beirut and other parts of the country.
This was due to a coordinated attack caused by explosives that were planted in a number of pagers and walkie-talkie devices used by members of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, that Israeli Intelligence is confirmed to be responsible for.
The attack resulted in thousands of people being injured, many of whom were civilian bystanders, and 32 people being killed, with two of the casualties being children.
Oto spoke to John Minto from Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa, to discuss his reaction to the pager attack in Lebanon and how this could lead to a wider conflict in the Middle-East.
They also talked about New Zealand’s vote in favour for the UN resolution demanding an end to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Around mid-August this year, senior management at the University of Auckland made an announcement saying that they were looking to cut a number of small postgraduate and undergraduate courses in the Faculty of Arts with less than 60 and 30 students respectively.
The University said that the cuts were being proposed to “optimise” course offerings and address classroom spacing issues. They also said that the cuts came about as a result of a routine review of courses regularly conducted by the University.
The announcement resulted in widespread outcry and condemnation by the University of Auckland’s senior academics and lecturers, saying that the University gave them a limited timeframe to review and contest the changes, and the decision to cut courses such as Huarahi Māori will have an impact on marginalised communities.
Oto spoke to Nicole Wallace, an organiser at the Tertiary Education Union who works with lecturers at the University of Auckland to discuss the course cut proposal and its implications for senior academics and lecturers.
For their weekly catch up with Te Pāti Māori, Oto spoke to Mariameno Kapa-Kingi about Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori last week, Gang patch legislation passing into law, and New Zealand supporting a UN resolution, calling for an end of Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
He spoke to Nicole Wallace from the Tertiary Education Union to discuss a recent series of proposed cuts to short postgraduate courses at the University of Auckland.
And he spoke to John Minto from Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa to discuss Israel’s exploding pager attack in Lebanon last week, as well as New Zealand voting in favour of the UN General assembly resolution demanding an end to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.
For their weekly catch up, Evie spoke to the ACT Party’s Simon Court about restricting contract workers from challenging their employment status, and the ban on gang patches passing into law.
She also spoke to E Tū National Secretary Rachel Mackintosh about the same planned changes to the contractor employment law, why the Union opposes these, and what negative impact she believes it will have.
Unions say that the government's change to employment law restricting contractors from challenging their status in the employment court, is a step in the wrong direction.
The change comes off the back of the landmark decision by the employment court to grant four contract uber drivers the status of an employee. The government now wants to prevent this from happening again.
E Tū Union National Secretary Rachel Mackintosh says this change will lock in the exploitation which Uber’s current model relies on.
Producer Evie spoke to Mackintosh about why the government is implementing the changes and how it will negatively affect workers.
Vanuatu, Fiji, and Samoa have formally requested an amendment to the principal treaty of the International Criminal Court to add ecocide alongside genocide, war crimes, and aggression to the international community’s list of most serious crimes.
If successful, ecocide would become the fifth recognized international crime.
As one of the founding members of the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, Aotearoa New Zealand has and continues to advocate for the importance of the court’s role as a last resort to try the most serious crimes against humanity.
Sofia spoke to Professor of Law at the University of Waikato and former judge of the Supreme Court in Samoa, Leilani Tuala-Warren, about this proposal, what criminalising ecocide could look like, and how Aotearoa New Zealand should respond.
She began the interview asking her firstly what ecocide is.
Wire Host Caeden speaks to Yale Daily News’ Andre Fa’aoso on the anti-immigrant rhetoric from the Trump campaign towards immigrants in Springfield, Ohio as well as the apparent second assassination attempt against Donald Trump this campaign.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden speaks to Labour’s Ginny Anderson about retail crime in the CBD, banning gang patches, and the Minister for Firearms not ruling out bringing back high-powered semi-automatic firearms.
For States of the States this week they speak to Yale Daily News’ Andre Fa’aoso about the situation in Springfield, Ohio after several weeks of Republican-led anti-immigrant rhetoric and the second assassination attempt against former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump.
And they speak to University of Otago Senior Lecturer Leon Goldsmith about the device explosions in Lebanon that have killed at least twenty-six people and injured thousands more.
For City Counselling this week, Sofia speaks to Councillor Shane Henderson about Mayor Wayne Brown’s proposal for a second harbour bridge from Point Chevalier to the North Shore as well as Council spending over 250K on beach stairs on Milford Beach.
She also speaks to Professor of Law at the University of Waikato, Leilani Tuala-Warren, about a recent proposal by Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa to recognise ecocide as a crime against humanity and whether Aotearoa should support the proposal.
For our regular catch-up, Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menéndez-March about the government’s recently proposed changes to the Employment relations act, the Waitangi Tribunal’s findings regarding the marine and coastal area act and the release of a draft list of 35 minerals considered essential to New Zealand’s economy.
He spoke to Marama Muru-Lanning from the University of Auckland, to discuss the idea of establishing Maori-led hospitals.
And he spoke to Robert G. Patman from the University of Otago to discuss New Zealand’s ambiguous stance on the war in Gaza, and the steps we should take to clarify our position.
Sasha spoke to Associate Professor Mark Thomas of Molecular Medicine and Pathology from the University of Auckland about the emerging MPOX vaccine.
He also spoke to associate professor Laslzo Sajtos at the University of Business School about the recent implementation of facial recognition technology in Woolworths stores.
Facial Recognition Technology is an emergent biometric payment system that intends to simplify the process of paying for groceries, similar to Amazon’s ‘just walk out’ initiative a few years ago.
There are issues to this being actually adopted, mainly with fears of private security being violated in addition with information related to your face being stored within the company’s database. Additionally, with the rise of Artificial Intelligence Deepfakes, scammers could utilise this technology which is inherently linked to your face.
Sasha spoke to Associate Professor Laszlo Sajtos at the University of Auckland Business School about facial technology being at New Zealand’s doorstep.
The Healthcare exec Brian Thompson was shot dead by a masked assailant last week.
The crime has gained significant controversy and attention online, with many using it to restart the debate on the inequities of the United States healthcare system.
And this week Yale University was the latest college to commit to divesting from weapons manufacturing after a student vote.
For State of the States this week Wire Host Caeden speak to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about both of these topics.
The government as announced their plan for the Cook Strait ferry a year after they scrapped Labour’s plan, including cancelling the ferries the Labour government had ordered.
And a new report from the Ministry of Social Development has revealed nearly a quarter of beneficiaries are not receiving their correct entitlements.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden speaks to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about both of these topics.
For City Counselling this week, producer Sofia caught up with Councillor Shane Henderson about proposed time-of-use charging to solve congestion problems in Tāmaki and Council selling their remaining Auckland Airport shares last week.
The Green party recently released He Ara Anamata - the Green party’s emissions reduction plan.
The document covers more than 10 areas of the economy and energy Sector that a Greens-led government would be looking to adapt to minimise carbon emissions and protect the natural landscapes of Aotearoa.
It also comes 5 months after the government released their own draft emissions plan. Numerous experts pointed out that the government is behind on their own plan’s targets to meet the crucial emissions budget for 2031-2035.
For their weekly catchup, Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez-March to discuss the party’s new emissions reduction plan and how they would address climate and the economy in a greens-led government.
Last election, one of the National Party’s main campaign promises was to be ‘tough on crime’, promising to increase police coverage and penalties for crimes. A target was set to increase the number of police officers by 500 by November 2025, however some police leaders today say this goal is unrealistic.
The government also announced this week some shakeups to insulation standards, which they say should make houses more affordable.
In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor spoke to him about police staffing targets and new insulation standards.
This week on Dear Science, our expert Doctor Cushla McGoverin chatted with us about what latrines teach us about people, climate variation affecting Chinese dynasties, and invasive species becoming threatened.
Thanks to MOTAT, the museum inspiring the innovators of tomorrow!
Last week it was revealed that two of the ten participants in the government's pilot bootcamp programme were on the run.
The youth were two months into the community rehabilitation phase of the programme, following the three month youth justice residence phase. Both teens were found in the weekend, but had allegedly reoffended, and are now set to come before the court.
For our weekly catch up with the ACT Party, who have been heavily advocating for this programme, Producer Evie spoke to Simon Court about this incident.
She also talks to him about proposed changes to employment law which would give employers the power to dismiss workers earning over $180,000 without the employee refuting the decision.
And finally, she talks to him about David Seymour’s incumbent run as Deputy Prime Minister, which is set to begin in May of next year.
For City Counselling this week, Producer Sofia spoke to Councillor Julie Fairey about changes to Auckland Transport’s responsibilities, nationwide bus and train fare hikes, and concerns over the opening of the City Rail Link.
For State of the States this week, Wire Host Caeden speaks to Andre Fa'aoso from the Yale Daily News about President Biden's decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden, who was due to be sentenced next week for three felony charges.
They also discuss Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for FBI director, who is the latest in a long list of unorthodox picks for government positions from Trump
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