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.
Non-profit charity Child Matters claim that not enough is being done to reduce the prevalence of child abuse in New Zealand. They argue that although policy-makers talk about change a lot, they have failed to properly help vulnerable kids.
Louis talked to Child Matters' Chief Executive Jane Searle about the lack of change, what needs to be done, and the impacts of intergenerational trauma.
Despite New Zealand having 12 native species of mosquitos, little is known about these insects. Te Papa Museum is beginning its third year of the annual mosquito census to gather more information on these native creatures. Anton Hovius, a scholarship student from the University of Wellington, spoke with Charlie about the data, mosquito migration, and how you can turn an itchy bite into a valuable piece of information.
Fast fashion and over-consumption of fashion items has become a prevalent issue in the past few years. With hundreds of kilos of textile waste filling up New Zealand’s landfills each year, sustainable fashion is necessary for fashion to be an ethical product. Charlie spoke with Jacinta Fitzgerald, founder of Make Good regarding clothing wastage. Prasanna Nara, Communications Manager for fair&good, also spoke with Charlie to discuss sustainable fashion strategies.
Louis spoke to Child Matters' Chief Executive Jane Searle about the changes needed to reduce child abuse rates and Federated Mountain Clubs' President Jan Finlayson about their 90th anniversary.
Charlie was joined by Make Good's founder Jacinta Fitzgerald and fair&good's Prasanna Nara about the impacts of fast fashion, as well as University of Victoria's Anton Hovius about a recent mosquito census.
Federated Mountain Clubs celebrated its 90th-anniversary last year. With over 20,000 members across the country, it has been involved in a number of important conservation movements and projects, including the protection of isolated wilderness areas.
Louis spoke to Federated Mountain Clubs' president Jan Finlayson about the club's history, what it means to be a tramper, and her personal involvement.
This summer, Drowning Prevention Auckland are highlighting why waterfalls are dangerous and not recommended for swimming.
I spoke to Chief Executive Nicola Keen-Biggelaar about their water safety initiative at Hūnua Falls that aims to raise awareness of these risks, and the importance of having water safety education from a young age.
Auckland Transport's reduced services affected many returning to work this summer, and there have been calls for public transport schedules to return to normal.
Jessica Hopkins spoke to Auckland Counciller Shane Henderson about plans to increase transport options for West Auckland in 2022. But we started off our interview by catching up with Shane on what he got up to over the New Years break.
This week on the show, host Jessica Hopkins spoke to Drowning Prevention Auckland's Chief Executive Nicola Keen-Biggelaar about the dangers of waterfalls.
She also interviewed Commissioner Mark Campbell of the Salvation Army about their aid work in Tonga.
Our regular City Counselling segment is returning for the New Year. Today Jessica spoke to Auckland Councillor Shane Henderson about Auckland Transport’s reduced services and his plans for increasing transport choices for West Auckland residents
And our new Producer Liam spoke to Otago University Immunologist Dr Dianne Sika-Paotonu about the preparations our Government and schools are making in case of an Omicron outbreak in Aotearoa.
Following the severe Volcanic Eruption and Tsunami on January 15th, The Salvation Army is asking for donations to support its humanitarian and recovery efforts in Tonga and parts of Fiji.
I spoke to Commissioner Mark Campbell about their long-standing relationship with Tonga, and the services and aid they provide through the Pacific Emergency Fund.
We started the interview with Commissioner Campbell providing an update on the wellbeing of their staff affected by the disaster.
Joe speaks to Professor Michael Baker from the University of Otago ahead of Cabinet's announcment today regarding the traffic light system in Northland, as well as whether or not we need to retool the guidelines in order to help protect us from the Omicron variant.
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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