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.
Happy Samoan Language Week! This week on the Wire for Aso Tofi, Tuva’a speaks to Labour Party’s Andrew Little about the Budget for 2022.
Joe looks at the Ministry of Health’s decision regarding worker pay and why it has been regarded as a major setback for healthcare workers. He speaks to Kirsty McCully, the Director for E tū , Jocelyn Pratt, an organiser for the PSA, and Ruby Sayer, a worker in aged healthcare on the matter.
Emilia is speaks to Bianca Ranson from Protect Putiki on Mayor Phil Goff’s comments about the Kennedy Point Marina. She also talks to Bodo Lang from the University of Auckland on Sugary Drinks in Schools
Work has begun to move rocks from Waiheke Island’s Kennedy Bay where there are plans to build a Marina consisting of 180 berths, a floating car park, and onshore facilities like sewage containment and a cafe. This is despite the immediate area having a large, but declining, population of Korora, or Little Blue Penguins.
Concerns have been raised over the council and the Department of Conservation’s handling of resource consent granting, and failures to consider tikanga and the protection of local species.
On Tuesday, Mayor Phil Goff discussed the issue on the Breakfast show, and Emilia Sullivan spoke to Bianca Ranson from Protect Pūtiki about their response to the mayor’s comments.
The Ministry of Education is seeking feedback for their proposal to ban the selling of sugary drinks in schools, which would mean students in Years one to eight would only be allowed to drink water, milk and plant-based milks.
While banning the sale of sugary drinks in schools is a good start in addressing New Zealand’s rising youth health issues, some believe that it doesn’t go far enough.
Ahead of submissions closing today, Emilia Sullivan spoke to Bodo Lang, Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Auckland about the issue.
Care and support workers are “gutted and disappointed” after a Ministry of Health recommendation that will not see workers get a pay rise of more than 70 cents an hour for at least a year. In May, workers rallied around the country and presented a petition with more than 10,000 signatures calling on the Government for a bigger pay rise as part of the renewal of the Care and Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlement Act to combat worker shortages and financial hardship.
Joe spoke with Kirsty McCully, the Director at E tū, Jocelyn Pratt, an organiser from the PSA, and Ruby Sayer, a healthcare assistant in residential aged care on the matter.
The supermarket duopoly has seen prices for essential items increasing sharply. The government has made a formal response to the commerce commission’s market study showing supermarkets earn $1million a day in extra profits. Today Stella spoke with Ricardo Menéndez March from the Green Party, about the recommendations.
On this week's Wednesday show, Stella starts off chatting to advocate Abbey Trewavas from APEX, allied scientific and technical about the document of crisis delivered to government about lab workers. They also touch on the future of the profession, given a generation of lab work students didn't get comprehensive access to labs during lockdowns.
Alex talks to ACT's Brooke Van Velden in their weekly catch up. This week, they cover China’s new cooperation agreements in the Pacific.
Stella talks to the Green Party's Ricardo Menéndez March about the government's actions on the supermarket duopoly.
Finally, Frances speaks with European correspondent Cameron Mulgan on Eurovision, this week covering the war in Ukraine, the EU's Russian oil embargo passed late last night, Sue Grey's report on the Partygate scandal and nine euro per month public transport in Germany.
Lab technicians carried us through the pandemic, diagnosing thousands of covid cases and working in arduous conditions to do so. Now there’s an exodus of professionals from the field, but the need for them hasn’t gone away. Stella spoke with Abbey Trewavas, an advocate at APEX whose portfolio is lab workers, about the future of the profession, given the experience of science students over the course of the past two years.
This week Frances speaks to European correspondent about the war in Ukraine, the EU's Russian oil embargo passed late last night, Sue Grey's report on the Partygate scandal and nine euro per month public transport in Germany.
Marcus Jones joined the team live in studio for Dear Science. This week, Christina and Marcus discussed gun violence research in the US, monkeypox, and the science behind why yawns are contagious.
Aneeka spoke to the National Party's Dr Shane Reti for their regular segment. This week, they discussed crime prevention measures and New Zealand's relations with the Pacific.
Christina spoke to Lara Greaves, a political scientist from the University of Auckland, about the latest political poll results that put National ahead on 39%.
And Jack did an explainer on the proposed Three Waters reform. He spoke to Whanganui Mayor Hamish McDouall and Waitakere Ward Councillor Shane Henderson.
We’ve all heard about three waters in the news, it’s something that has proven to be a topic of contention for many kiwis with conflict between local councils and the government dominating the headlines.
But there’s one thing that many kiwis still want to know, what is three waters?
The weight of not being fully informed on everything in this country was a heavy burden for The Wire’s Jack Horsnell so he put his investigative journalist pants on and jumped straight into the first page of google.
Jack Spoke Whanganui Mayor, Hamish McDouall and Waitakere Ward councillor, Shane Henderson to try and make sense of it all.
The Budget for 2025 came out last week on Thursday, with news for the nation on how funds will be allocated over the coming year. While some of the budget announcements were new news, the government had staggered others over the previous few weeks. In the new announcements were changes to Kiwisaver and the Jobseeker benefit.
The Kiwisaver changes involved a 50% reduction in the government’s Kiwisaver contribution, from around $500 a year to around $250. To compensate, the government increased the minimum employer and employee contributions from 3% to 4%. While this means people will end up with similar or greater amounts of money in Kiwisaver, it also means people will have access to less money right now.
The Jobseeker changes were also announced in the budget, with further restrictions added for 18-19-year-olds applying for the benefit. 18-19-year-olds applications will now be tested against their parents’ incomes, restricting large groups from accessing the support.
These changes both appear to primarily affect young people. While the government claims to care so much about education and schools, they seem comfortable with taking support away from Aotearoa’s young adults as soon as they finish high school. In our weekly catchup with National’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor asked about the Kiwisaver and Jobseeker changes in this year’s budget.
Last week, Finance Minister, Nicola Willis, announced her ‘growth’ Budget for 2025.
In the Budget, multiple initiatives received a boost in funding.
Operational funding and capital funding for Māori education received a $54 million boost and $50 million boost respectively for Māori learner success, with a $14 million injection for Māori wardens, Pacific wardens, and the Māori women’s welfare league.
However, a variety of Māori initiatives have faced substantial cuts.
The Māori Development Fund has had $20 million cut over four years, $32.5 million has been cut from Māori housing initiatives, and $375.5 million cut to the Kāhui Ako programme.
Labour’s Māori Development spokesperson, Willie Jackson, claims that overall, in Budget 2025, Māori initiatives are seeing cuts of roughly $750 million.
For our weekly catchup, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp about Budget 2025 and it’s impacts on Māori initiatives.
They also spoke about the debate on the potential suspension of Te Pāti Māori co-leaders, Rawiri Waititi, and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, and MP Hana Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, being pushed back prior to the Budget debate.
As well as this, notably, during the Budget debate itself, both Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer were absent.
However, they first discussed the 2025 Budget and Māori initiatives
In Budget 2025, private schools will receive subsidies increasing the annual spend by $4.6 million a year, to $46.2 million. As well as this, the annual spend on charter schools will double to $57 million.
ACT Party Leader, David Seymour, says that independent schools are an important part of New Zealand’s education landscape that offers diversity of choice for parents.
For our weekly catchup, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to the ACT Party’s Simon Court about the additional support independent schools will receive, and how this will benefit the average taxpayer.
They also discussed changes to Jobseeker and emergency benefits for 18-to-19 year olds, as those receiving this benefit will now have their benefit tested against their parents income.
The move, which is set to come into effect in 2027, is estimated to impact almost 9000 young people.
They also discussed changes to Kiwisaver, where the government will halve subsidies and increase employer contributions to a minimum of 4% from 3%.
But first, they discussed the additional support for independent schools.
International pressure is mounting against Israel for the 11-week-long and ongoing blockade of aid into Gaza.
The few aid trucks that have been let into Gaza have not been distributed, according to the United Nations.
It comes as cases against Israel in the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court (ICC) for existing violations of international law remain ongoing.
Wire Host Caeden spoke to Professor Donald Rothwell from the Australian National University Law School about the aid blockade and response in international law.
Last year, Auckland Council removed 30% of bins from public places with the hopes of saving about $9.5 million over an eight year period. While the council didn’t foresee an increase in littering, last week Stuff published an article sharing the frustrations of residents who observed a growing litter problem in council parks.
Illegal dumping has also been on the rise across Auckland.
With more than 1300 reports per month, the cost of retrieving illegally dumped items is about $2.7 million every year and rising.
Also Mayor Wayne Brown has announced that he wants to see Auckland become the “premier tech city” of New Zealand to boost our global influence and reputation—-- calling on the government to establish the new Advanced Technology Institute here, which he says could play a key role in guiding new start-ups, so ideas don’t ‘die on the vine’.
Beginning with the problem of rubbish in Auckland, Producer Sara started by asking Julie Fairey if she believed the removal of bins was to blame for increased littering
Today is Budget Day, the day the government releases their spending plans for the next year.
The embargo on the budget lifts at 2pm, however, there have already been several pre-budget spending announcements.
Earlier this week, the debate on the Privileges Committee report into the Treaty Principles Bill haka, led by Te Paati Māori, was deferred.
Opposition MPs have raised concerns that because the debate has been deferred, the Te Paati Māori co-leaders may not be back in time to vote on the budget.
For our weekly catch-up with Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni, Wire Host Caeden asked about all of these topics.
Yesterday the debate in the privileges committee regarding the suspension of Te Pāti Māori MPs Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi was adjourned until after the upcoming budget announcement.
The Privileges Committee Report and recommended punishments for the three Te Pāti Māori MPs were issued last week for the Haka they performed during a parliamentary session in November 2024 in opposition to the ACT party’s Treaty Principles Bill.
In that same week, the Green party recently issued a call to the government to scrap the Regulatory Standards Bill after the Waitangi Tribunal found that the Bill breaches the Crown’s Tiriti o Waitangi obligations.
And the government recently passed the Social Security Amendment Bill, which the government says would support people into employment and off benefits, however, opponents of the bill have said it could harm beneficiaries and lower income New Zealanders.
For our weekly catch up with the Green Party, Oto spoke to MP Ricardo Menendez-March about all of these issues.
Just under two weeks ago the government passed the pay equity amendment bill under urgency. This bill would change existing pay equity legislation to make it more restrictive, which the government says will save billions of dollars.
The process was originally introduced to address issues of pay inequity between sectors. While the Equal Pay Act mandates that people working the same job are paid the same regardless of gender, Pay Equity is meant to ensure industries dominated by women are not paid less than similar industries dominated by men. The process has worked by allowing applicants to compare their positions with positions in other sectors with similar workloads, skills, or experience.
The government’s changes will limit the criteria for comparators, allow only industries with over 70% women in the workforce as opposed to the previous 60%, and removing the ability for the authority to award back pay, among other changes.
These changes have been met with criticism from rights organisations, advocacy groups, and opposition parties. In our weekly catchup with National’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor asked about the government’s reasoning behind the Pay Equity Amendment Bill.
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