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.
Welcome to the Thursday Wire with Stella! Today, Frances continues Greendesk, speaking with Jamie Hoare of Nocar Cargo. David speaks to the Honourable Jan Logie from the Green Party about the second reading of the Oranga Tamariki oversight bill. Stella speaks to Dr Wendy Choo about the execution of four prominent democracy activists in Myanmar, and Dr Mike Reid from Local Government New Zealand about the rules of a local election campaign.
Is "one man's terrorist another man's freedom fighter"? Scholars debate the phrase, but it has played out in real time, as democracy activists have been executed by the state in Myanmar, accused of conspiring to commit terror acts. Stella spoke to Dr Wendy Choo, (a teaching fellow at the University of Auckland in the school of education) on the events in Myanmar. She holds a masters in international relations and her research interests include Myanmar.
Tāmaki Makaurau's local elections are drawing closer! Stella spoke to Principal Policy Advisor Dr Mike Reid from Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) about the rules and regulations of campaigning, as well as how to ensure the needs of a community are appropriately translated into policy.
On this week's installation of Eurovision, Aneeka chats with our European Correspondent Cameron Adams about Ukraine, as well as the upcoming Italian and British elections.
New Zealand is ‘grossly underprepared’ if we were to find ourselves facing a fentanyl crisis as life-saving overdose reversal medication continues to be out of reach.
Naloxone is one of the best tools available to treat opioid overdoses, and is available in New Zealand in two forms: via a nasal spray, or in an injectable form. However, only the nasal spray is available over the counter, and is $92 for a pack of two.
Experts say opioid overdoses already claim at least 40 lives a year in this country, and there is a risk Aotearoa could face an opioid crisis like the ones being experienced in North America and Europe if adulterated drugs continue to circulate in the New Zealand drug market.
Emilia Sullivan spoke to Sarah Helm, Chief Executive of the NZ Drug Foundation.
New research shows providing vegetables as an infant’s first food is an effective strategy for improving intake and may help children to develop a preference for vegetables.
The study by Massey University Human Nutrition PhD student Dr Jeanette Rapson suggests providing vegetables as first foods increased a baby’s intake of vegetables at nine months of age.
The results of this trial suggest that the start of complementary feeding is an ideal time to introduce vegetables as a first food since infants are willing to try new foods, even those with more bitter tastes such as green vegetables.
Aneeka chats with our European correspondent Cameron Adams about Ukraine, as well as the upcoming elections in Italy and England.
Alex speaks to ACT Party deputy leader Brooke van Velden about the new Smokefree Amendment Bill and petition on Multiple Sclerosis handed to Parliament this week
Emilia speaks to Dr Jeanette Rapson from Massey University about her research to get infants to eat more vegetables
And Emilia will also be speaking to Sarah Helm from the Drug Foundation about their calls to the government to make Naloxone more widely available to reduce fentanyl overdoses.
The proposed government Data and Statistics bill has been criticised for its potential to threaten the political independence of the role of the government statistician.
The reforms would allow the government statistician to defer powers at will to other agencies, allowing for wider data collection.
To get a sense of why experts are wary of such changes, Casper spoke to one of the most prominent critics of the bill, former government statistician Len Cook.
The waiting list for elective surgeries has skyrocketed in the last year, with many experts pointing towards ongoing workforce shortages as the cause.
Thousands of people on the waiting list are in intense, ongoing pain, requiring essential operations such as hip or knee replacements.
For Casper's weekly catchup with the National party’s Dr. Shane Reti, they discussed the causes of the growing waiting list and the National party’s proposed solutions to the problem.
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
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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