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.
Stories by Louis with University of Auckland's Dr Stuart Dalziel about Covid-19's impact on children and NIWA's Dr Emily Lane about the causes and impacts of the Tongan tsunami.
Charlie spoke with DOC's Clinton Duffy about the increase in drownings and Surflifesaving New Zealand's Chris Emmett about shark attacks.
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.
On Sunday, a tsunami devastated the Tongan islands after the eruption of a large underwater volcano. Currently, there is little contact with the islands and specific information as to how the tsunami was caused is unknown.
Louis spoke with NIWA's Dr Emily Lane about the tsunamis causes, how much researchers know at the moment, and what will happen as they try to get more information in the coming weeks.
Recent research claims that the impacts of Covid-19 in children is much more severe than is commonly perceived. The study assessed 3000 children who had tested positive for the virus in ten countries, including information on underlying risk factors and long term effects.
Louis was joined by the report's author, the University of Auckland's Dr Stuart Dalziel to talk about the findings, what this means for New Zealand's Covid-19 response and how it differs from impacts in adults.
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.
Recently, Allergy New Zealand and Pub Charity announced the relaunch of their Free EpiPen Campaign, FundaPen. Joe speaks to Mark Dixon, the Chief Executive of Allergy New Zealand, about the campaign.
Throughout 2021, the National Party has had a regular slot on the Friday Wire and Christopher Luxon has been our contributing politician. Former Friday Wire host Noah Ferguson-Dudding has interviewed Luxon every week since March and spoke to him last on November 12th. Since then, Luxon has become the new Leader of the National Party.
In this interview Noah asks about Luxon’s previous statements made to 95bFM that he did not want to be leader of the National Party, whether the National Party has diverse representation, and the media's focus on Luxon’s faith.
This week on the show, we shared the best of the Friday Wire from 2021.
This year Jessica Hopkins and Ilena Shadbolt spoke about reviewing electoral laws and lowering the voting age with Make it 16, the conversion therapy ban, and the drug harm reduction programme Te Ara Oranga.
We also have a special, new interview with recently appointed National Party leader Christopher Luxon from former Friday Wire host Noah Fergusson Dudding for you.
The Thursday Wire recaps the best of 2021, with coverage of health sector reforms, international news, and interviews on the Pet Refuge and addiction under lockdown.
2021 has been a big year for Covid-related news. And as we emerge from a 107-day lockdown (wow!), now's a good time to look back on some interesting Covid-19 stories from this year.
First, Jemima spoke to Te Pāti Māori co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, on the inequities faced by Māori as the vaccine rollout continues.
Then, Joe spoke to Kate Hannah, lead researcher for The Disinformation Project, about the rise in misinformation in our online spaces and the increasing polarisation in society when it comes to Covid-19.
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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