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 COP15 Biodiversity summit in Montreal, Canada is set to begin today.
The conference of parties is set to specifically target issues of biodiversity and how it links to improving our climate.
The conference was initially meant to take place in China a couple years ago, but was delayed and eventually relocated due to covid restrictions.
To learn about the conference's big issues, Liam spoke to Stephen Hartley, from Victoria University of Wellington about the current state of Biodiversity and what this conference should aim to achieve.
SAFE is urgently-renewing calls for a Commissioner for Animals, following the Ministry for Primary Industries’ investigation into heat stress-related deaths of several pigs on a livestock truck earlier this year.
The deaths occurred aboard a livestock truck and trailer operated by Te Awamutu company Osbourne’s Transport
Joe spoke to Will Appelbe, Head of Investigations at SAFE for Animals to get some insight into the issue.
Delicious Revolution has kicked off an ambitious nationwide crowdfunding campaign to plant 20,000 sunflowers in support of Starship children’s hospital.
Director of new Auckland-based start-up, Delicious Revolution, Levi Brinsdon-Hall has teamed up with the Starship Foundation to create an immersive sunflower installation across four different gardens at the Greenlane Clinical Centre, a location where many Starship children receive treatment. His vision is to bring joy to patients, staff and the community.
Joe chats with Levi Brinsdon-Hall about the project.
Tuva’a has his regular chat with health minister Andrew Little.
Liam had a chat with Shaun Greaves from Amnesty International about their Wrie for Rights campaign.
Joe speaks to Will Appelbe, Head of Investigations at SAFE for Animals about their calls for the government to improve oversight following a heat-stress related death.
Liam also spoke to Stephen Hartley from Victoria University f Wellington about the COP15 biodiversity summit
He also speaks to Levi Brinsdon-Hall from Delicious Revolution about a project looking to bring a sunflower garden to Starship hospital.
And Liam toTe Arepa Morehu from Toi o Tamaki Auckland Art Gallery to discuss the value art galleries bring to our city.
A group of students at the University of Auckland have launched a student-led petition in support of Tertiary Education Union strike action.
This comes as University of Auckland staff who are members of the union have extended a ban on entering or releasing student grades until Thursday.
News and Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to two University of Auckland Masters students behind the petition, Izzy Renton and Maria Kopilevich, who are encouraging people to sign their petition before they send it to the University tomorrow.
News and Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins takes you through the Wednesday Wire.
For our regular catch up with ACT’s Brooke Van Velden, Jessica asks Brooke about her thoughts on the Government's multi million dollar package to tackle retail crime and reoffending after concerns about a lack of protection for retail workers.
She also speaks to University of Auckland Masters students Izzy Renton and Maria Kopilevich, who have lauched a student-led petition in support of the Tertiary Education Union's strike action.
She also talks to Kaiārahi at Talent Rise New Zealand, Jessica Te Moananui about their report that suggests for young people in Aotearoa, job search confidence is low and fear of the future relating to gaining employment is high.
And The Green Desk is back, hosted by producer Troy Matich. She talks to University of Auckland PhD Candidate Sam Ladewig about a recent study on the effects of microplastics in the Waitemata Harbor.
A new report from Talent Rise, a recruitment specialist, comprising the experiences of over 200 young people has suggested that job search confidence is low and fear of the future relating to gaining employment is high.
News and Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to Kaiārahi at Talent Rise New Zealand, Jessica Te Moananui about the report, and why young people in Aotearoa are struggling to gain meaningful employment.
Many have brought up concerns around the government’s implementation of the merger of TVNZ and RNZ into a single entity, the details of which are still unclear.
For Casper's regular chat with National party MP Dr Shane Reti, they discussed the merger, what concerns National has about it and what else could be done to bolster New Zealand journalism.
From 9th June, the United Nations Ocean Conference is being held in France, which is co-hosting the event with Costa Rica.
More than 50 world leaders are expected to attend, with 1500 delegates from almost 200 countries.
The conference follows the world’s first deep-sea mining application for the international seabed, which was submitted to the United States government as opposed to the United Nations regulator.
Wire Host Caeden spoke to Juressa Lee (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Rarotonga), seabed mining campaigner at Greenpeace, about the conference.
After years of discussion, Auckland Council’s Planning and Policy Committee have approved zoning changes for the city centre, which will see taller buildings and increased development capacity within the Central Business District.
Plan Change 78 sought to increase density and will see double height limits for most of the city centre, up to twenty storeys, unlimited building height for a small section, and the removal of limitations on floor plans to attract investment into a wider variety of building types.
With notification of this decision made tomorrow, the changes are expected to be included in the Auckland Unitary Plan to become operative in June this year.
As well, consultation is currently open in relation to the Western Springs speedway, of which Auckland Council voted in favour of last year based on financial underperformance.
The decision to keep the speedway, develop a new stadium or explore new opportunities for the space has been a hot topic in public debate, with figures like former All Black Sir Bryan Williams, Rich lister Anna Mowbray and her husband, former All Black Ali Williams chiming into the discussion.
Producer Sara spoke with Councillor Shane Henderson this week about both of these topics, starting with the future of development in Auckland’s central city.
Last week, the government’s annual budget announcement for 2025 was made, detailing how government spending would be allocated over the course of the year and the programs that would receive additional funding.
While an array of programs are set to receive funding increases, critics have alluded to funding gaps in a number of areas, such as: Environmental Conservation, Māori development and Housing, all of which have received some funding boosts while simultaneously seeing cuts in a number of key initiatives.
For our Weekly Catchup with the Green Party, I spoke to MP Ricardo Menendez March about the party’s take on the Budget 2025 announcement.
The Budget for 2025 came out last week on Thursday, with news for the nation on how funds will be allocated over the coming year. While some of the budget announcements were new news, the government had staggered others over the previous few weeks. In the new announcements were changes to Kiwisaver and the Jobseeker benefit.
The Kiwisaver changes involved a 50% reduction in the government’s Kiwisaver contribution, from around $500 a year to around $250. To compensate, the government increased the minimum employer and employee contributions from 3% to 4%. While this means people will end up with similar or greater amounts of money in Kiwisaver, it also means people will have access to less money right now.
The Jobseeker changes were also announced in the budget, with further restrictions added for 18-19-year-olds applying for the benefit. 18-19-year-olds applications will now be tested against their parents’ incomes, restricting large groups from accessing the support.
These changes both appear to primarily affect young people. While the government claims to care so much about education and schools, they seem comfortable with taking support away from Aotearoa’s young adults as soon as they finish high school. In our weekly catchup with National’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor asked about the Kiwisaver and Jobseeker changes in this year’s budget.
In Budget 2025, private schools will receive subsidies increasing the annual spend by $4.6 million a year, to $46.2 million. As well as this, the annual spend on charter schools will double to $57 million.
ACT Party Leader, David Seymour, says that independent schools are an important part of New Zealand’s education landscape that offers diversity of choice for parents.
For our weekly catchup, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to the ACT Party’s Simon Court about the additional support independent schools will receive, and how this will benefit the average taxpayer.
They also discussed changes to Jobseeker and emergency benefits for 18-to-19 year olds, as those receiving this benefit will now have their benefit tested against their parents income.
The move, which is set to come into effect in 2027, is estimated to impact almost 9000 young people.
They also discussed changes to Kiwisaver, where the government will halve subsidies and increase employer contributions to a minimum of 4% from 3%.
But first, they discussed the additional support for independent schools.
Last week, Finance Minister, Nicola Willis, announced her ‘growth’ Budget for 2025.
In the Budget, multiple initiatives received a boost in funding.
Operational funding and capital funding for Māori education received a $54 million boost and $50 million boost respectively for Māori learner success, with a $14 million injection for Māori wardens, Pacific wardens, and the Māori women’s welfare league.
However, a variety of Māori initiatives have faced substantial cuts.
The Māori Development Fund has had $20 million cut over four years, $32.5 million has been cut from Māori housing initiatives, and $375.5 million cut to the Kāhui Ako programme.
Labour’s Māori Development spokesperson, Willie Jackson, claims that overall, in Budget 2025, Māori initiatives are seeing cuts of roughly $750 million.
For our weekly catchup, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp about Budget 2025 and it’s impacts on Māori initiatives.
They also spoke about the debate on the potential suspension of Te Pāti Māori co-leaders, Rawiri Waititi, and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, and MP Hana Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, being pushed back prior to the Budget debate.
As well as this, notably, during the Budget debate itself, both Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer were absent.
However, they first discussed the 2025 Budget and Māori initiatives
Last year, Auckland Council removed 30% of bins from public places with the hopes of saving about $9.5 million over an eight year period. While the council didn’t foresee an increase in littering, last week Stuff published an article sharing the frustrations of residents who observed a growing litter problem in council parks.
Illegal dumping has also been on the rise across Auckland.
With more than 1300 reports per month, the cost of retrieving illegally dumped items is about $2.7 million every year and rising.
Also Mayor Wayne Brown has announced that he wants to see Auckland become the “premier tech city” of New Zealand to boost our global influence and reputation—-- calling on the government to establish the new Advanced Technology Institute here, which he says could play a key role in guiding new start-ups, so ideas don’t ‘die on the vine’.
Beginning with the problem of rubbish in Auckland, Producer Sara started by asking Julie Fairey if she believed the removal of bins was to blame for increased littering
International pressure is mounting against Israel for the 11-week-long and ongoing blockade of aid into Gaza.
The few aid trucks that have been let into Gaza have not been distributed, according to the United Nations.
It comes as cases against Israel in the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court (ICC) for existing violations of international law remain ongoing.
Wire Host Caeden spoke to Professor Donald Rothwell from the Australian National University Law School about the aid blockade and response in international law.
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