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.
After two years since Abortion was initially decriminalised in Aotearoa, the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion (Safe Areas) Amendment Bill has passed with a vast majority.
Led by Labour MP Louisa Wall, 108 MP’s voted for the bill with only nine national MP’s and three Labour MP’s voting against.
The bill allows for a hundred and fifty metre safe area around clinics banning protests from taking place within the space area.
To learn more abot the bill and how it’ll affect Aotearoa, Liam Hansen spoke to NZ family planning chief executive Jackie Edmond about the bill.
Earlier in the week the government announced the 2022 Special Ukraine Policy which will open up a fasttracked path for immigration for the family of Ukrainians in New Zealand.
This policy is expected to benefit around four thousand people and will be open for one year from now.
Green party MP and immigration spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March put out a media release following the announcement in which he calls for this response to be a part of a broader equitable framework.
Casper spoke to Ricardo about the policy and how it might be extended as a part of New Zealand’s immigration approach.
It's another Friday Wire! This week on the show, Casper talked to Green party MP Ricardo Menendez March about a media release he put out calling for the Ukraine response to be a part of a broader equitable framework.
Liam had a chat with with Jackie Edmond from Family Planning about the safe areas bill surrounding abortion clinics.
Casper also spoke to Shane Henderson as part of our regular city counselling segment, and today we talked about the government’s recent announcement to temporarily reduce the cost of fuel and public transport as well as the time running out for Auckland city’s annual budget consultation.
Liam also spoke to Alan Renwick from Lincoln University about the implications of Te Pati Maoris New policy to end the GST on Kai.
Finally, Casper interviewed Dr Timothy Welch from the university of Auckland on the hidden costs of cars.
The New Zealand Dental Association is calling on the Government to deliver on its dental promises this World Oral Health Day. Joe spoke to Dr. Katie Ayers, the NZDA Access to Care spokesperson on the matter.
Today on the show, Joe Wickins speaks to Dr. David Welch about New Zealand's border reopening being shifted to April.
In our weekly chat with Andrew Little, Tuva'a Clifton talks to him about mental health and the strike action by healthcare workers that was called off.
Joe also speaks to Lynda Stuart, former President of the NZEI and current principal of May Road School about the most recent OECD report.
Emilia Sullivan speaks to Sarah Salmond, a partner at MinterEllisonRuddWatts about the Russia Sanctions Act and how she is helping her clients navigate new restrictions.
Lastly, Joe also speaks to the Dr. Katie Ayers of the New Zealand Dental Association regarding the upcoming World Oral Health day.
Parliament unanimously passed the Russia Sanctions Act last week in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the sanctions would be able to target those associated with the invasion, including people, services, companies, and assets.
Emilia Sullivan spoke to Sarah Salmond, a Partner at MinterEllisonRuddWatts who is currently helping clients navigate these new restrictions.
Earlier this week, the government announced the date of the border reopening. The country’s border is set to open for tourists and others from Australia without residence visas from midnight 12 April, and travellers from visa waiver countries such as the US and UK will come in May 2, with mandatory vaccination and a negative pre-departure test. Joe spoke to Dr. David Welch, a Senior Lecturer from the Centre for Computational Evolution and School of Computer Science at the University of Auckland
A recent OECD Report has highlighted the need for increased levels of equity funding and better support for teachers and school leaders in disadvantaged schools. Joe spoke to Lynda Stuart, the former President of the NZEI and the current Principal of May Road School about the report.
This week Frances started off speaking to Ron Moorhouse and Project Janszoon Project Director Bruce Vander Lee about their conservation work in the Abel Tasman national park, and the new kaka chicks that are bringing the forest to life there
Alex then spoke with Helen Robinson, Manutaki of the Auckland City Mission on the impacts on the Omicron outbreak and red light setting on the homeless.
Frances then had her regular segment EuroVision where she speaks to Europe Correspondent Cameron Mulgan about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Alex then speaks with the ACT party’s Brooke Van Velden about the new Medium Density Residential Standards (or MDRS) and what they mean for the housing shortage, as well as about yesterdays government announcement of 4000 Special Humanitarian Visas for Ukrainians with family in NZ.
The Abel Tasman National Park is currently coming alive to the sound of young kākā following a successful breeding season for the park’s resident birds. Collaborators on the breeding programme including Project Janszoon, DOC and the Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust are all celebrating the successful fledging of eight chicks from three nests in the Bark Bay and Torrent Bay areas.
In 2015, Kākā were virtually extinct in the park with only a few wild male birds surviving there. Since then a total of 35 captive-bred birds have been released, with the last release happening in 2019. Most of these birds came from captive South Island kaka but about a third were raised from eggs or chicks collected from Nelson Lakes and Kahurangi National Parks. This year’s chicks were all banded and fitted with a transmitter before they left their nests. They are particularly vulnerable in the period between leaving the nest and learning to fly, which can take up to a week, but most are now competent flyers and adding their tunes to the chorus of the park.
This week on the Wire, Frances speaks with ornithologist Ron Moorhouse and Project Janszoon’s Project Director Bruce Vander Lee about the much loved birds and conservation in the area.
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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