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.
Streaming, or putting students into high, middle, or low ability groups, is a common practice in schools across Aotearoa.
In theory, streaming matches students’ needs to the appropriate resources and attention from teachers, but in reality, it can be discriminatory and lead to low self esteem.
Christina spoke to Dr David Pomeroy, a University of Canterbury education lecturer, and Caitlin Soulsby, the head of Maths at Mana College, about what streaming actually means for rangatahi in Aotearoa.
This week on the Tuesday Wire, Allan Blackman joined Casper and Christina in the studio to talk science news for our Dear Science segment.
Casper spoke to Dr Shane Reti from the National party for our weekly segment about National’s proposed tax cuts as well as his proposal to extend free breast cancer screening
Christina spoke with David Pomeroy and Caitlin Soulsby about the practice of streaming in New Zealand schools, as well as Professor Karen Stockin from Massey University about the mass pilot whale strandings in the Chatham Islands in the past few days.
And Casper also talked to Climate Minister and Greens co-leader James Shaw about the government’s new proposal to reduce agricultural emissions.
The government announced a ‘pragmatic proposal to reduce agricultural emissions’, a scheme formulated in consultation with the agricultural sector which will see it be brought into a kind of parallel to the emissions trading scheme, putting a price on farming emissions.
Casper had a chat with green party co-leader and climate change minister James Shaw about the proposal and what his role was in creating it.
The National party is proposing a set of tax cuts should it get into government next year. These cuts would index tax brackets to inflation but also reduce the overall tax burden of top earners in particular, raising many concerns about a similar scheme which was recently walked back in the UK after causing economic damage and drawing warnings from the IMF.
For Casper's weekly catchup with National MP Dr Shane Reti he asked him about the tax cuts, as well as a call he’s put forward as the party’s health spokesperson to increase free breast cancer screening up to the age of 74.
US President Biden announced last Friday he would be pardoning thousands of cannabis possession charges, signalling a change of course in drug policy from the home of the War on Drugs, and a path towards decriminalisation of cannabis in the States.
Cannabis has been completely banned in Aotearoa since 1961 after the signing of the UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs, a treaty pushed heavily by the US. Between 1980 and 2022, over 120,000 people have been convicted of cannabis use or possession. In the wake of Biden’s announcement, the New Zealand Drug Foundation has renewed calls for reform and launched a petition calling on the government to decriminalise cannabis and pardon possession charges.
Spike Keith spoke to New Zealand Drug Foundation Executive Director Sarah Helm about the effects of cannabis criminalisation here, and what decriminalisation would look like.
Joe looks at Local Government New Zealand’s call for a review of local government elections. He speaks Bonita Bigham, Chair of Te Maruata at LGNZ on the matter.
Spike will dive into cannabis decriminalisation here in Aotearoa, following Joe Biden’s pardoning of thousands of Americans who were convicted due to cannabis possession.
Joe also look at the current state of our water infrastructures in Aotearoa New Zealand, he speaks to Dr Lokesh P. Padhye, Senior Lecturer in Civil and Environmental Engineering at The University of Auckland.
Finally, Joe speaks to Dr Nic Rawlence from the Paleogenetics Lab at the University of Otago about the recent discovery of Pterosaur-like creatures in Scotland.
We’ll be looking at what's happening behind the scenes when drinking water gets to our taps or our wastewater is discharged – and how might climate change get in the way.
Joe spoke to Dr Lokesh P. Padhye, Senior Lecturer in Civil and Environmental Engineering at The University of Auckland about his thoughts on what needs to be done to address the issues within our water infrastructure.
Local Government New Zealand ran a multi-faceted campaign to increase the diversity of candidates as well as voter turnout this year, but preliminary results still indicate there is a massive gap to bridge between turnout for local elections compared with central government elections.
LGNZ says “To make a real difference, however, it will require a deliberate effort by councils and communities to better engage with each other in the decisions councils are making, so voters feel more connected to local government, as well as making the process of voting easier."
Joe is joined by Bonita Bigham, Chair of Te Maruata at LGNZ, to speak on the matter.
Researchers have settled the mystery of a tiny, enigmatic reptile that left an impression on Scottish sandstone nearly a quarter of a billion years ago after more than a century of debate.
The Scleromochlus taylori, was discovered near Elgin in Moray in the early 1900s, however due to a lack of remaining evidence, paleontologists were unsure of its features. In hopes of solving this mystery, researchers led by Davide Foffa at National Museums Scotland turned to computed tomography (CT) scans to reveal the creatures features in detail.
Joe spoke to Dr Nic Rawlence from the Paleogenetics Lab at the University of Otago, to get some insight into this fascinating discovery!
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
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:
Last week the Green Party’s Tamatha Paul made comments about police presence in Wellington, particularly how increased police activity made some feel unsafe. She also noted some discriminatory and harmful behaviour from police officers towards Wellington’s homeless population. These comments, presented at a panel hosted by the University of Canterbury’s Greens and Peace Action Ōtautahi, were Paul restating feedback she had received from her constituents in Wellington central.
The response to Tamatha Paul’s comments was extremely critical from all sides of the political spectrum, involving feedback such as “insane” from prime minister Christopher Luxon, “unwise” and “stupid” from Labour leader Chris Hipkins, and “just weird” from ACT leader David Seymour. The comments and their responses lead to a series of articles across all major New Zealand news networks.
In our weekly catchup with the National Party, Wire host Castor spoke to MP Tom Rutherford about the substance of Tamatha Paul’s comments and whether the seemingly disproportionate reaction is appropriate.
This week on Dear Science our expert Dr. Cushla McGoverin chatted with us about various April Fools pranks in the world of science, including the 'Sheep Albedo Hypothesis' from here in Aotearoa.
Thanks to MOTAT, the museum inspiring the innovators of tomorrow!
On Sunday, Finance Minister, Nicola Willis, announced plans to combat the supermarket duopoly between Foodstuffs and Woolworths. This could include breaking-up or restructuring the current chains, with Cabinet also announcing a formal request for information, or RFI, into the matter.
For our weekly catch up, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp about this announcement, and whether she, and the party, thinks this will be enough to address food accessibility in Aotearoa.
We also discussed the comments made by Green MP, Tamatha Paul, about the police, and whether she believes these comments have become sensationalised.
Finally, we discussed the party’s calls for mandatory police body cameras.
But first, they started off by asking Kemp about how the party are feeling about Nicola Willis’ most recent announcements into the supermarket duopoly.
Last week, the government announced its plans for reforming the Resource Management Act, or the RMA, introducing two acts to replace the current RMA. The plan is to bring the two acts before the select committee next year, passing them just before the next election.
For our weekly catch up News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to the ACT Party’s Simon Court about this reform, working with the opposition, and the lack of a Treaty clause.
We also talked about concerns that the health and police system in Aotearoa are failing, following an 11-year old being misidentified as a 20-year old by police and being administered antipsychotic drugs.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters gave a “State of the Nation” speech last weekend where he strongly criticised Labour and announced his party was declaring a “war on woke.”
The government has announced a new replacement for the Resource Management Act, looking to pass it before the next election.
And Labour Foreign Affairs spokesperson David Parker has criticised the government for not condemning Israel in the context of recent military action and the blocking of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about all of these topics.
Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to a Signal group chat with top United States security officials who were discussing military plans for strikes on Yemen.
The group chat discussed operational details, and officials, including the Vice President JD Vance, seemed unaware of Goldberg’s presence.
Jeffrey Goldberg initially left out some of these sensitive details in his article on the group chat but has released more specific information after the Trump administration downplayed the situation and said no classified information was shared.
For International Desk, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about this issue.
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