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.
Joe speaks to the Chief Executive of Autism New Zealand, Dane Dougan, about a new online tool called Vaximate. Vaximate supports autistic people navigate the vaccination process.
Producer Joe Wickins talked to Otago University's Professor Michael Baker on New Zealand's next steps on the pandemic and preparing for an Omicron outbreak.
He also talked Dane Dougan from Autism New Zealand about Vaximate, an online tool to help autistic people with the vaccinatioin process.
International reports on embattled British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Justin spoke to Red Cross's Vivienne Euini on the situation in Tonga and the organisation's aid campaign.
He also spoke to Professer Jennifer Curtin of the University of Auckland for some political commentary on the week's biggest stories.
International Desk reports on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson facing severe pressure on his leadership as more Conservative MPs are supporting a no-confidence motion after it was revealed he attended lockdown-breaching parties.
Advertising: it's a huge part of our day-to-day lives, even when we're not actively consuming. Concerningly, it seems many children are now frequently exposed to the oversaturation of brands and marketing in our lives. A new study from the University of Otago has found children are exposed to five hundred and fifty four brands a day, which equals to almost one brand every sixty seconds. This study is the first glimpse into how children are exposed to marketing on a daily basis.
Christina spoke with Associate Professor Leah Watkins, who co-led the study, about what these results mean for consumer culture and our society.
This week on the Wednesday Wire, we start with Dear Science with Allan Blackman who joins us live in the studio for our first show of the year. Today Christina Huang asks Allan about the link between cataracts and dementia, the nutritional value of huhu bugs, and a clue on mars that could hint at past life on the planet.
Jemima Huston interviews ACT Party Deputy Leader Brooke van Velden about her party’s goals for 2022, the inevitable Omicron outbreak in New Zealand and the Tonga volcanic eruption and tsunami disaster.
Christina talks to Dr Xaviour Walker from the University of Otago about the disaster in Tonga and the subsequent health impacts that will affect the Tongan people.
Christina wraps up the show with a conversation with Associate Professor Leah Watkins about a recent study of marketing, where researchers found kids are exposed to one brand almost every minute.
As it's 95bFM's first week back for the year, News and Editorial Director Jemima Huston speaks to Brooke van Velden about her party's goals for 2022. They also discuss the inevitable Omicron outbreak in Aoteroa and the volcanic eruption and tsunami disaster in Tonga.
This morning on RNZ's Morning Report, Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said that Aotearoa’s traffic light system is less suited to the Omicron variant than the Delta variant and will need to be adjusted. News and Editorial Director Jemima Huston speaks to Dr David Welch, a virus mutation expert at the University of Auckland, about what these adjustments may be and why they are necessary. Also, as the government is set to announce any changes to the public health repsonse in the coming weeks Jemima asks Dr Welch whether "weeks" is too long to wait to prepare for a major community outbreak of Omicron in Aotearoa.
The Pūtiki Protectors have been occupying Pūtiki Bay (Kennedy Point) on Waiheke Island since March 9 2021, to protect ancestral moana by stopping the construction of the Kennedy Point Marina. Tomorrow a hikoi has been organised to the Auckland High Court to support the Pūtiki 32 who were served an injunction banning them from protesting peacefully at Pūtiki Bay. The first court hearing regarding the injunction is taking place tomorrow following the hikoi.
News and Editorial Director Jemima Huston speaks to Zane Wedding from Mana Rākau - Save Our Trees, an ally of the Protect Pūtiki Movement, about the hikoi tomorrow, how the injunction came about and how people can support the movement.
The hikoi starts at 10am tomorrow (Wednesday 19 January 2022) at The Cloud in downtown Auckland. Head to the event page or the Protect Pūtiki Facebook and Instagram for more information.
New Zealand's fatal drownings over the summer period has increased, with 15 preventable fatal drownings already occuring in the first two and a half weeks of 2022. Chris Emmett, Surf Life Saving NZ's National Club and Volunteer Development Manager discussed with Charlie why there is an increase in these fatalites this year, and what you can do to stay safe this summer.
Every Summer sharks return inland for feeding and to nurse their young. As shark presence increases, sightings and fear rises, but during these times the public must remain respectful to sharks. Department of Conservation's Clinton Duffy spoke with Charlie about shark activity, and how the public can help preserve the life of sharks on New Zealand's coasts.
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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