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.
Alex speaks to Brooke van Velden in his weekly chat with the ACT Party deputy leader.
Emilia chats with Teanau Tuiono from the Green Party about yesterday’s counter protest at Parliament.
She also chats with our European correspondent Cameron Adams about Ukraine, Monkeypox, and more.
Trishil chats about police advertising data and research analyst jobs exclusively for those on the spectrum with Detective Inspector Christiaan Barnard who’s heading the program, and Dane Dougan from Autism NZ.
That's us for the Wednesday Wire! See you next week.
The New Zealand Police are opening the recruitment door to people who have valuable skills but cannot navigate traditional employment processes.
The police have opened up roles in their financial crimes department specifically to applicants with Autism as a part of their Neurodivergence Programme pilot.
To discuss the programme, Trishil spoke to Detective Inspector Christiaan Barnard & Autism NZ's Dane Dougan.
People from across the country converged upon Parliament once again yesterday for a comparatively subdued protest by the Freedom and Rights Coalition led by Brian Tamaki.
However, Parliament grounds were not only full of people claiming high crimes against the government, it also attracted a significant turnout of counter-protestors. One of them was Teanau Tuiono from the Green Party, and Emilia chatted with him this morning.
Ahead of World Iron Awareness Week, a survey from an online quiz titled "Could you be low on iron?" has produced some worrying results. It shows a large number of New Zealanders are suffering from iron deficiency symptoms.
Emily spoke to the Head of Nutrition at Beef + Lamb New Zealand, Regina Wypych about the implications of the survey and how we can check our iron deficiency levels.
This week on Dear Science, Casper, Emily and AUT Professor Allan Blackman discussed the resurrection of the extict Tasmanian Tiger, a study clamining all water is unsafe to drink, as well as a simple formula with potential to destroy solvent chemicals.
The National Party has been claiming that the workforce shortages New Zealand is seeing is a result of mismanaged immigration policy.
This week, to address the workforce shortages, the government announced that skilled migrant workers will be able to be payed under the median wage, as well as a doubling of the working holiday scheme cap and an extension to currently held working holiday visas.
For Casper's weekly catchup with National MP Dr. Shane Reti, he asked him to explain what he thinks needs to happen regarding immigration policy, as well as how he views this latest announcement.
New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union members are taking industrial action in response to unsuccessful long-term negotiation with Fire and Emergency NZ.
The Union is concerned about ongoing staff shortages, low pay and a lack of early identification of those who experience trauma on the job, and staged a strike on Friday with more planned for this week.
To get a better sense of what’s driving these concerns, and how they might be addressed, Casper spoke to the President of the Auckland Branch of the Professional Firefighters Union, Terry Bird.
Allegations of unethical practices in private radiology are heightening tensions within the clinical community and prompting wider concerns about money being prioritised over patient care.
Doctors are going to the High Court to block surgeons from owning medical imaging services, arguing the practice is dangerous because they have a financial incentive to refer more patients.
Emily spoke with Chief Executive of the New Zealand Orthopaedics Association Andrea Pettett about the claims and how the High Court ruling might affect patients and clinicians.
This week on the Tuesday Wire, Dr Allan Blackman joined Casper and Emily in studio to talk science news for our Dear Science segment. Casper spoke to Dr Shane Reti from the National party, as he does each week, this time discussing immigration policy. He also had a chat with the President of the Auckland branch of the Professional Firefighters Union about the industrial action they’re taking
Emily spoke with the Chief Executive of the New Zealand Orthopaedics Association Andrea Pettett to discuss the contentious ethics of private medical scanning. She also spoke to the Head of Nutrition at Beef + Lamb New Zealand, Regina Wypych about a recent study revealing an alarming increase in iron deficiency symptoms
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 
