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.
It's Liam's inaugural Friday Wire hosting! Woo! Today on the show:
Liam spoke to councillor Shane Henderson about public transport cancellations and a new tool for tsunami evacuation on our regular City Counselling segment.
As well as Giacomo Lichtner from Victoria University of Wellington about the current state of politics in Italy.
They also had a chat with CCS Disability Action’s Debbir Ward about the Abuse in Care inquiry,
And finally spoke with Rochelle Corrigan from Blind Low Vision about the need for volunteers to raise guide-dogs to be.
Italian politics has been in an immense state of chaos over the past week, as Prime Minister Mario Draghi has successfully resigned after having his former attempt rejected.
This has come as tensions across political lines within the coalition government have reached their breaking point.
Despite the PM receiving a vote of confidence, three other major political parties in the cabinet refused to vote.
Liam spoke to Victoria University of Wellington's Giacomo Lichtner about the state of affairs across Italy, first asking about where this divide in the cabinet came from.
Biosecurity New Zealand is implementing tougher border control protections to stop foot and mouth disease from entering the country and infecting our bovine population.
David spoke to the Minister of Agriculture, Hon Damien O'Connor on the matter.
Tuva’a speaks to Labour Party’s Andrew Little about the state of the health workforce.
Joe speaks to Dougal Sutherland a Clinical Psychologist from Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington about the importance of workplaces to have well-being plans. Joe also speaks to Professor Brett Gartrell, a Professor in Wildlife Health at Massey University about traces of lead being found in Wellington kākā nestlings.
David speaks to Hon Damien O’Connor about Foot and Mouth Disease
And for this weeks Green Desk, Frances spoke with Megan Williams, a sustainability advocate from the TIA, about the Sustainability Tourism Commitment.
The Green Desk is back! This week Frances spoke with Megan Williams, a sustainability advocate from the TIA, about the Sustainability Tourism Commitment.
Researchers sampled almost 140 kākā nestlings born in Wellington over two seasons, finding that more than a third had detectable levels of lead in their blood, something that’s usually rare in wild populations.
Joe spoke to co-author of the study Professor Brett Gartrell, a Professor in Wildlife Health at Massey University, on the subject.
A recent survey of New Zealand workplaces revealed more than a third have no workplace well-being plan in place. Yet it is necessary, now more than ever, for organisations to understand what a healthy work environment looks like and to provide it for their employees.
The 2015 Health and Safety at Work Act requires workplaces to look after the physical and mental health and well-being of their staff. This means looking at work through a health and safety lens and understanding the risks that affect people’s well-being at work.
Joe spoke to Dougal Sutherland, a Clinical Psychologist from Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington, on the matter
Research released yesterday showed that there is a big pay gap between Pasifika and non-Pasifika in New Zealand, and most of it can’t be explained even after accounting for things like differences in occupation and educational achievement.
The research, conducted by AUT and published by the Human Rights Commission was the first time the pay gap had been looked at closely in terms of ethnicity, and the findings were dismal.
For every dollar a Pākehā man earns, a Pākehā woman earns 89c; a Pasifika man 81c; and a Pasifika woman earns 75c, according to non-profit organisation MindtheGap.
Emilia Sullivan spoke with MindTheGap founder Jo Cribb about this concerning new data.
Here is Mindthegap's petition to the government to mandate pay gap reporting: https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/close-the-gender-and-ethnic-pay-gaps-make-pay-gap-reporting-mandatory-for-businesses-in-new-zealand
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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