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.
New Zealand and the United States are the only two countries in the world that allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise their products directly to consumers.
The question of banning pharmaceutical advertising in New Zealand isn’t new. In 2019, there were renewed calls for the Therapeutic Medicines Bill to be toughened with these measures being driven by..
At the time, a Consumer New Zealand survey indicated that 57% of kiwis favour an independent health info service that provides advice on treatment options over medicine advertising.
Those stats also reveal that 8% of those surveyed believed that said ads provided unbiased and comprehensive information about treatments.
And 15% of surveyors also said a ban is unnecessary.
This interview with Consumer NZ Research and Test Writer Belinda Castles is part of a larger story on Direct To Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising in New Zealand
New Zealand and the United States are the only two countries in the world that allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise their products directly to consumers.
Government reviews of the Therapeutic Products Bill have previously taken place in 1998, 2000, 2006, and 2019. All of these reviews have kept the status quo. In 2006, Dr Annette King, the Health Minister, called for a ban, but struggled to muster the support at the time.
This interview with Health Minister Andrew Little is part of a larger story on Direct To Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising
Joe speaks to Kurt Krause, a Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Otago, about NZ’s first case of Monkeypox. He also speaks to Max Rashbrooke, a Research Associate for the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington, about political donation regulation and the motivation behind it.
Trishil speaks to Professor David Menkes, Consumer NZ Research and Test Writer Belinda Castles, Health Minister Andrew Little, Royal NZ College of GPs Medical Director Dr Bryan Betty, and National Health Spokesperson Dr Shane Reti about Pharmaceutical Advertising in New Zealand, and whether the practise should be banned.
And for this weeks Tomorrow’s World, Isla and Stella spoke to Dr Emma Sharp from the University of Auckland about her projects with Soilsafe Aotearoa.
What's hiding in your soil? This week Stella and Isla work through a written interview with Dr Emma Sharp about the work of Soilsafe Aoteroa. Chatting metal contaminants and citizen science.
On this Friday's Wire Casper talked to Auckland city councillor Shane Henderson about a recent local board vote on special character areas, as well as Dean Baigent-Mercer from Forest and Bird about recently allocated funding towards Predator free Rakiura Stewart Island.
Liam put together a report on Boris Johnson's resignation as leader of the Conservative Party in the UK, chatting about what’s been happening over the past few days, how we got to this point, and including some expert commentary from the University of Auckland's Stephen Hoadley.
Liam also had a chat for this week's Strangest Things segment with the Waitakere Ranges Local Board deputy chairperson Greg Presland about how chickens have continued to terrorise Titrangi.
On this week's episode of Strangest Things, Liam took a look at the ongoing saga of Chickens terrorizing West Auckland suburb Titirangi.
Chickens loose in the streets are bring cat-sized-rats into the street and are causing sleep deprivation by “boking” incredibly loud early in the mornings,
Although chickens have been affecting the area for years, it came to a head in 2019 when the council invested twenty five thousand dollars into their removal. However, they've returned.
Liam had a chat with Greg Presland, the deputy chairperson of the Waitakere Ranges Local Board, on the issue.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, announced his resignation from leading the Conservative Party.
Liam gave a report on Johnson's resignation, and what he represents as one of the largest figures of UK politics. The report includes a comment given to Casper by Stephen Hoadley from the University of Auckland on whether the move could have been predicted.
Following March’s Commerce Commission inquiry which found that the two big supermarket chains, Woolworths and Foodstuffs, were using their dominant market position to push excess costs and uncertainty onto suppliers, the government has made steps towards increasing competition in the supermarket industry.
One of the steps was announced yesterday - introducing a grocery commissioner and a mandatory code of conduct to ensure suppliers to supermarkets get a fair deal.
Emilia Sullivan spoke to Chief Executive of Consumer NZ, Jon Duffy about the grocery watchdog and code of conduct.
In its first full term with a six-justice conservative majority, the Supreme Court spent the last few days of their sitting issuing far-reaching decisions that will transform American life. Last week we spoke about the court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade, leaving abortion rights up to states to decide.
They also ruled in the case of West Virginia vs. the Environmental Protection Agency, which held that the Obama-era Clean Power Plan exceeded the U.S. EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act.
Kevin Trenberth was involved in the earlier stages of this case prior to it heading to the Supreme Court, and Emilia Sullivan spoke to him about what this ruling told us, and what it means for climate change in the future.
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.
95bFM 
