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.
Today on The Green Desk, Joel Armstrong speaks to University of Canterbury Master of Urban Resilience and Renewal student Emily Ward about barriers preventing people from cycling, walking, or taking public transport like the bus or the train.
Figures from the hospitality job platform Barcats have shown the industry is short by 30,000 workers.
But John Crocker from Unite Union says the industry's current wages do not reflect this critical need for staff.
"What the industry needs to do to attract workers is lift wages and conditions. The industry has had forever to do this, and it simply hasn't."
The Government's proposed Fair Pay Agreements Bill, currently awaiting its second reading, would provide a framework for collective bargaining for fair pay agreements across industries like hospo.
News & Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to Crocker about the union's campaign for a Fair Pay Agreement for hospo workers, which they say is the best way to resolve ongoing shortages in the sector.
The government has released its consultation document on He Waka Eke Noa, the system of farmgate pricing that has been in the works for almost three years. However, not everyone is pleased with the government’s announcement.
Starting in 2025, farmers will start to pay a price for their methane emissions. Consultation will run until near the end of the year with Cabinet expected to make final decisions in early 2023.
Host Emilia Sullivan first spoke to Christine Rose, lead agriculture campaigner at Greenpeace Aotearoa, and started by asking her what she made of the government’s decision.
News and Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to Federated Farmers Climate Change Spokesperson Andrew Hoggard who says the amendments to He Waka Eke Noa are “unacceptable.”
Casper speaks to Brooke van Velden in our weekly chat with the ACT Party.
Emilia chats to Christine Rose from Greenpeace Aotearoa, and our News and Editorial Director Jess chats to Federated Farmers Climate Change Spokesperson Andrew Hoggard about what they make of the amendments to He Waka Eke Noa.
Emilia also chats about the latest updates on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with Otago Uni’s Robert Patman.
And lastly, Jess speaks to John Crocker from Unite Union about a fair pay agreement for hospitality workers.
That's us for the Wednesday Wire! See you next week.
Ukraine won’t be intimidated by Russia following a wave of missile strikes on urban populations this week, that is according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russian strikes targeted the country’s capital Kyiv, as well as in other civilian centres, in what Russian President Vladimir Putin calls ‘retaliation’ for an explosion over the weekend that damaged the Kerch Strait Bridge between Russia and Crimea.
To discuss these recent escalations, Emilia Sullivan spoke to Professor Robert Patman from the University of Otago.
Almost 500 pilot whales stranded on the beach of the Chatham Islands on Friday and Monday in two separate mass stranding incidents just days apart. Many of the whales could not be refloated due to the active shark risk to the animals and the rescuers in the region.
For more on mass whale strandings, and whether it’s a common occurrence, Christina spoke to Professor Karen Stockin, a marine ecologist at Massey University.
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.
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.
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.
Last week, the government announced that they would begin an official review of the Waitangi Tribunal and the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975.
The government has said that the review is to ensure the Waitangi Tribunal remains effective and relevant, however, a number of Māori and treaty law experts have referred to the review as an attack on Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its principles.
In that same week, the government announced that they would be investing $774 million towards improving the redress process for survivors of abuse in state care in Budget 2025.
However, going against one of the key recommendations of both the Royal Commission and the Redress Design Group, the government will not be looking to set up a new redress scheme for abuse survivors.
And the government recently passed amendments to the Wildlife Act that would permit the “incidental killing” of certain native wildlife species by companies during lawful activities like construction and development.
For our weekly catchup with the Green party, Oto spoke to MP Ricardo Menendez March for the party’s take on all of these issues.
In 2014, Victoria University of Wellington made an official promise to divest $650,000 worth of investments in fossil fuel companies which, at the time, comprised of 2.1% of the University’s total investments.
However, more than 10 years on, a student-led investigation found that the university still held significant investments in companies like Exxon Mobil and SHELL through third-party investment managers.
A year after a successful petition by Students for Justice in Palestine Pōneke calling on the university to divest funding from Israeli companies, a group of students from Climate Action Victoria University of Wellington have made renewed calls to the university to divest from fossil fuel companies.
For this week’s Get Action! Oto spoke to Hugh Acton, a member of Climate Action Victoria of University of Wellington, who’s launched a petition calling on the university to disclose their investments in companies involved in fossil fuel production and to divest from them immediately.
If you'd like to sign this petition, you can find it here:
National Party MP Catherine Wedd recently filed a private members bill that would look at restricting social media use for young people, mainly those under 16. While the bill has received some criticism from the ACT party, other parties such as Labour have agreed that legislation around this issue is important.
At the end of April New Zealand First MP Jenny Marcroft put forward a private members bill forward that would seek to define the word ‘woman’ in New Zealand law. The bill was received with criticism from opposition parties and the general public, who say the bill is drawing on transphobic sentiments to distract from more important issues.
In our weekly catchup with National’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor asked about each of these issues, starting with the potential social media restrictions.
Last week, the controversial Pay Equity Amendment Bill passed under urgency.
The bill makes drastic changes to the Equal Pay Act 1972, making the criteria for equity claims stricter, and could can the 33 existing claims, affecting 150,000 female workers.
The passing of the bill has faced significant opposition from the Labour Party, Green Party, and Te Pāti Māori, over concerns this bill would set women back, and resulted in nationwide protests.
News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host Joel spoke to Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp about the passing of the Pay Equity Amendment Bill, and how this would impact marginalised communities.
They also spoke about the Ministry of Education releasing the draft relationships and sexuality education, or RSE, framework, for students years 0 to 13, and the party’s concerns regarding this.
But first, they discussed the Pay Equity Amendment Bill
The ACT Party has defended the Government’s controversial move to pass changes to pay equity law under urgency — a move that immediately halted all current claims and raised the bar for future ones. The Government argues the new rules will provide more “clarity” and prevent costly legal disputes, while unions and advocates say the bill is a rollback of hard-won gains for women in low-paid sectors.
Critics also slammed the lack of consultation and the speed of the legislative process, while questions are raised over whether the move was made to plug a hole in the upcoming budget. For our weekly catch up with the ACT Party, Producer Evie spoke to Simon Court about why ACT supports the Pay Equity Amendment Bill, and whether it risks undermining efforts to close the gender pay gap.
They also discussed a National Party member’s bill that would ban under-16s from using social media — a proposal ACT has declined to back for now. National says the ban would protect young people’s mental health, while ACT argues it raises serious questions about freedom of speech and parental responsibility.
International relations experts are fearing a major conflict between India and Pakistan after sharp, escalating tensions, following a deadly terrorist attack in militarised Kashmir that killed 26 people.
Kashmiris have a long history of oppression. In modern times, this has been as India and Pakistan fight over the region while Kashmiris fight for independence.
Human Rights Watch reports on Kashmir reveal examples of forced displacement, sexual violence, disappearances and allegations of torture and death in custody.
Wire Host Caeden spoke to Rohan Davis about the recent terrorist attack and ongoing military escalation, as well as the historical and political context of the Kashmir crisis.
Davis is a video essayist on YouTube from Kerala, India, who covers Indian history and politics.
The government has changed pay equality laws, halting all existing claims and reducing the number of workers who can argue for better pay based on gender discrimination.
New figures show the unemployment rate has remained unchanged from last quarter at 5.1%.
And National has put forward a member's bill proposal that would ban social media for under-16s.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke with Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about all of these topics.
Earlier this week, defence Minister Judith Collins announced that $2 billion would be set aside in this year’s budget to replace the Defence Force’s maritime helicopters.
This would be outside the additional $12 billion dollars that the government will be investing in the Defence Capability plan and would include another separate $1 Billion investment in the defence force over the next four years.
In that same week, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith recently announced that Cabinet had reinstated a total ban on prisoners voting in general elections, overturning laws under the previous Labour government allowing prisoners serving less than three years to vote.
And Green Party MP Steve Abel recently added The Animal Products (Closing the Welfare Gap) Amendment Bill to the biscuit tin, which would ensure that imported products in New Zealand met our animal welfare standards.
For our weekly catchup with the Green Party, Oto spoke to Greens MP Ricardo Menendez-March to discuss all of these issues.
Winter is coming, and so is a projected increase in respiratory illnesses and COVID cases. Schools are particularly notorious breeding grounds for such diseases with children being more susceptible to respiratory illnesses.
Ultimately, this results in teachers also being subject to COVID and respiratory illnesses at a higher rate than other professions, and an increased number of teachers leaving the profession due to long COVID symptoms is worsening Aotearoa’s already severe teacher shortage.
For this week’s Get Action! Oto spoke to Tara Forde from Aotearoa Covid Action, to discuss a petition of hers calling for the government to prevent the spread of COVID in our schools by making improvements to school air quality and improving accessibility to Booster Vaccines and Rapid Antigen Tests.
If you'd like to sign this petition, you can find it here:
95bFM 
