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.
Recently in the news, we've seen an uptick of stories of youths committing crimes such as ram raids, burglaries and more. This has caused concern that New Zealand is facing a once-in-a-lifetime surge of youth offending.
However, statistics show that reported youth crime has dropped by about 65% over the past decade, and the narratives we often see in the media is shaped by reports that fail to contain information about the factors driving youth crime, or context on the overall statistics on youth offending.
Emilia Sullivan spoke to Dr. Ronald Kramer, senior criminology lecturer at the University of Auckland about the media's portrayal of youth crime.
A new study from The Children's Hospital Westmead in Sydney has identified that babies who pass away from SIDS have a significantly lower level of a specific enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) that is imperative in the brain’s arousal pathways.
Stella speaks with Fay Selby-Law, General manager of the National SUDI Prevention Coordination Service about the implications of this research on the picture of SIDS in Aotearoa.
Frances spoke with Cameron Mulgan on Eurovision, where they discuss the situation in Ukriaine and Putin's Victory Day Speech, the EU oil embargo, elections in Northern Ireland, the Swiss referendum on funding Frontex (the EU's border patrol) and EU tech regulations in the Digital Services Act.
A study from Victoria University shows artificial intelligence can be used to design better renewable energy systems and could offer remote communities cheaper options. It’s utilising what’s known as an optimisation algorithm. Stella spoke with Trevor Gee, a research fellow at the university of auckland in computer vision and AI, about the increase of using AI technology in research.
On this Wednesday's Wire, Stella spoke with Elise Whitson, shift supervisor of 0800 What’s Up about the state of our youth’s mental health as we transition out of the pandemic
Stella also spoke with Dr Trevor Gee, PhD researcher at UoA about how AI is being used to bring renewable energy to isolated communities in Aotearoa, and the trends of AI use in research.
Frances spoke with Cameron Mulgan on Eurovision, where they discuss the situation in Ukriaine and Putin's Victory Day Speech, the EU oil embargo, elections in Northern Ireland, the Swiss referendum on funding Frontex (the EU's border patrol) and EU tech regulations in the Digital Services Act.
Finally, Stella spoke with Fay Selby-Law, general manager of the National SUDI prevention coordination service about recent recent uncovering new information about sudden infant death.
Recently, the Commerce Commission released a report with several key recommendations to tackle the sueprmarket duopoly in Aotearoa. However, consumer advocacy group Consumer NZ says more needs to be done to reduce the price of groceries. As of Monday night they launched a petition urging the government to take action and deliver fairer prices to Kiwis. On the Wire, Christina spoke to Gemma Rasmussen, head of campaigns and communications at Consumer NZ.
This week on The Tuesday Wire, Christina and AUT Professor Allan Blackman spoke about magnets being used to treat cancer, Tasmania achieving carbon-negative status, and Canada's attempt to stamp out crime on the Moon.
Christina also spoke to Gemma Rasmussen, head of Campaigns and Communications at Consumer NZ, about New Zealand's supermarket duopoly and the organisation's petition urging the government to lower the price of groceries.
Aneeka had her regular catch up with the National Party's Dr. Shane Reti. This week, they spoke about the emissions budget, truancy in NZ schools, and the unemployment rate.
And Trishil spoke to Dr. Alison Eddy from the New Zealand College of Midwives about the state of post-natal care in New Zealand. This was Trishil's last producing shift for the Tuesday Wire but you can catch him over on the Monday Wire from next week!
With limited beds and staffing issues affecting maternity care, mothers are on average provided with 48 hours of post natal care before being sent home to look after their child.
Trishil spoke to Dr Alison Eddy from the New Zealand College of Midwives about these issues in order to gain a wider perspective on the matter. The story contains mentions of suicide towards the end.
Aneeka caught up with National’s Dr Shane Reti for their regular segment. This week, they spoke about the emissions budget, truancy in NZ schools, and the unemployment rate.
Ghost Dive New Zealand took cleaned up the Wellington waterfront by Clyde Quay on Saturday, removing an astronomical amount of rubbish. Eddie Howard, Ghost Diving New Zealand’s team leader, spoke with Charlie about the dive, what GDNZ do, and where your waste might really be going.
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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