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.
On the show today we have a budget special, chatting about several different aspects of the spending and what different people think.
Casper talked to Auckland City Councillor Pippa Coom about the extension of the fares subsidy scheme.
Liam spoke to ACT Party leader and Finance spokesperson David Seymour, as well as The Green Parties Julie Anne Genter about the cost of living package and what their parties think of the budget as a whole.
Casper also spoke to Bronwyn Hayward from the University of Canterbury on how the budget is addressing climate.
He also chatted to Cherie Taylor-Patel, the President of the NZ Principals’ Federation, on changes to the school funding system.
$300 million was allocated in the new budget under education spending towards replacing the school decile system with a new Equity Index The decile system currently governs how much government funding is given to each school based on a socio-economic evaluation of the area the school resides in.
Casper spoke to the President of the New Zealand Principals’ Association, Cherie Taylor-Patel, about the issues with the decile system, how it will be replaced, and the effect of the education budget overall.
One of the most highlighted aspects of the 2022 budget is the Cost Of Living Package, allowing those making less than seventy grand per year to receive three hundred and fifty dollars over the span of three months.
The check will not go ahead for those under eighteen, nor anyone who is already receiving the Winter Energy Payment.
As well as speaking to ACT Party Leader David Seymour, Liam spoke with the Green Parties Finance spokesperson Julie Anne Genter about their thoughts on the budget, and how they think some of it could’ve been spent differently.
He first asked her how much she thinks the payment will alleviate the cost of living crisis.
Last week, the govt announced that its family and sexual violence prevention strategy would be getting a $115m boost as part of this years budget. Joe spoke to Carrie Leonetti from the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland and got her thoughts on the matter.
Our regular chat with Andrew Little is back. The audio corrupted on Tuva’a’s interview, so he will be reporting on his chat with Andrew Little about pre-budget announcements on mental health, as well as the funding towards the Mana Ake programme.
Joe will be speaking to Professor Carrie Leonetti from the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland, about the Government’s family violence prevention plan and how it may be inadequate. He’ll also be speaking to Nick Bowden, a Research Fellow from the University of Otago, about how kids with autism are getting suspended from school at higher rates. He also speaks to Seton Butler from the Veterinary Council of New Zealand about Canine Cough symptoms being present in Aotearoa.
Emilia will be speaking to Dr. Tim Welch about whether today’s budget will get people out of their cars and into more sustainable transport options, and she’ll also be chatting with Professor Jennifer Curtin about this weekend’s Australian federal election.
Today is Budget Day, which means many sectors are eagerly awaiting what share of the pie they’ll get for the upcoming year. One issue in particular at the forefront at the moment is accessibility to sustainable transport such as electric vehicles, public transport, cycling, and walking.
To get his thoughts on how sustainable transport should be funded, Emilia Sullivan spoke to Dr. Tim Welch from the University of Auckland.
This weekend, Australians will be heading to the polls to have their say as to who should be their prime minister. The two big players are the Liberal-National Coalition with Scott Morrison at the helm and Anthony Albanese with the Australian Labor Party.
Emilia Sullivan spoke to Professor Jennifer Curtin from the University of Auckland about what we should expect from this year's election.
Canine cough is a common, contagious, infectious upper respiratory disease, seen in dogs, and symptoms of it are now being seen in dogs in Aotearoa. It is also known as kennel cough or canine infectious tracheobronchitis. Joe spoke to Seton Butler from the Veterinary Council of New Zealand about Canine Cough.
Autistic students are nearly three times more likely to be suspended from school than their nonautistic peers, finds a New Zealand study that linked data from more than 730,000 students. However, the researchers also revealed that autistic students who received high-need Ongoing Resourcing Scheme funding had significantly lower odds of being suspended compared to autistic children without these funds.
Joe spoke to Nick Bowden, a research fellow from the university of Otago, who was a part of the study.
As international conflicts continue, the likelihood of nuclear war looms. Matthew Boyd, director of adapt research, speaks to Stella on the topic, specifically centred around his recently published paper Sustained Resilience: the Impact of Nuclear War on NZ and how to Mitigate Catastrophe.
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
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.
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.
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:
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.
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!
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.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters gave a “State of the Nation” speech last weekend where he strongly criticised Labour and announced his party was declaring a “war on woke.”
The government has announced a new replacement for the Resource Management Act, looking to pass it before the next election.
And Labour Foreign Affairs spokesperson David Parker has criticised the government for not condemning Israel in the context of recent military action and the blocking of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about all of these topics.
Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to a Signal group chat with top United States security officials who were discussing military plans for strikes on Yemen.
The group chat discussed operational details, and officials, including the Vice President JD Vance, seemed unaware of Goldberg’s presence.
Jeffrey Goldberg initially left out some of these sensitive details in his article on the group chat but has released more specific information after the Trump administration downplayed the situation and said no classified information was shared.
For International Desk, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about this issue.
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