Listen back to features and interviews from 95bFM's daily news and current affairs show. Joel Armstrong, Sara Mckoy, Max Micheel, and Caeden Tipler focus on the issues of Tāmaki Makaurau and elsewhere in independent-thinking bFM style. Monday-Thursday 12-1pm on 95bFM.
Over the weekend, the highly discussed summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin was held in Anchorage, Alaska to discuss the terms for an end to the war in Ukraine.
The summit, lasting of total of less than three hours, resulted in no ceasefire terms or any formal deals being achieved. Putin’s conditions for an end to the war remained unchanged, with Trump walking away from the summit ruling out Ukraine’s NATO membership or reacquisition of Crimea.
Ukraine, who were excluded from the summit, criticised it’s direction, with many critics describing it as an optics victory for Putin.
Oto spoke with Stephen Hoadely, a retired professor in international relations and politics at the university of Auckland, to discuss the outcome of the summit, as well as the possibility of another summit between Putin and Zelenskyy to be held in the future.
In recent weeks, the central government has pushed through numerous amendments to the Resource Management Act, in an effort to help streamline consent processes for corporations.
However, these changes— in particular ones surrounding freshwater planning and waterway pollution requirements — have been criticised especially by environmental advocates as disregarding the negative impacts to the environment and affording too much power to financial interests in the case of natural resource management.
As well, this past week Education Minister Erica Stanford announced a proposal to ban books with “too much” reo Māori in them from early learning materials in the ‘Ready to Read phonics scheme’.
While she justifies the changes as being of genuine literary necessity for children’s learning, many have contended the changes as an act of racism against te reo Māori which asserts white supremacy in the education system.
University of Auckland’s student magazine Craccum is moving to establish independence from the Auckland University Student Association following recent proposals by the university to further cut the magazine’s funding.
Without consultation, Craccum’s budget was cut in 2025, forcing the magazine to reduce production from weekly issues to fortnightly, and occasionally even less, as well as cull their editorial team from 14 to 6 paid members, and rely on unpaid contributors for 90% of their content.
Ahead of 2026, the university is proposing a further decrease in budget of 22%, or $33,000, which would mean the removal of another six issues throughout the year.
The editorial team at Craccum are calling out to students to support them to revitalise the magazine and restore funding to the magazine which they say has been a ‘taonga’ at the university for just under 100 years
For Dear Science this week, our expert, Dr Cushla McGoverin talks to us about Inca record keeping, snail eyes, and imaging embryo implantation, thanks to MOTAT.
For our weekly catchup with the National Party, Wire Host Sara spoke to MP Carl Bates about the Resources Management act changes, and the removal of te reo Māori from the Ready to Read phonics series.
Sara also spoke to University of Auckland student magazine Craccum’s News Editor Irene Parsaei about proposed cuts to the magazine’s funding.
Producer Faith spoke to Gavin Findlay, CEO of the NZ Food Network about how many kiwis have been choosing to feed their pets over themselves.
With the ongoing cost of living crisis, many kiwis have had to make choices between feeding themselves, and their pets– often skipping meals and putting their pets first.
Producer Faith spoke to NZ Food Network CEO Gavin Findlay about the issue, and what needs to be done to address food insecurity in Aotearoa
A couple of weeks ago in our weekly catch-up with the ACT Party’s Simon Court, we discussed multiple countries moving to formally recognise Palestinian Statehood, and what New Zealand’s plans were in this regard.
Last week, Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, said the country would carefully weigh its position over the next month in recognising the state of Palestine.
During a debate in Parliament, the government’s delay in recognising a Palestinian state, as opposed to other countries such as France, the UK, Canada, and Australia, led Green Party co-leader, Chlöe Swarbrick, to refer to the country as “outlier,” and called for the government MPs “with a spine” to “stand on the right side of history”. This led to her being ordered to leave Parliament by Speaker Gerry Brownlee, after refusing to apologise for her statement.
As well as this, last week, Education Minister, Erica Stanford, announced cancelling the early-reading book At the Marae from its Ready to Read Phonics Plus series.
The government’s reasoning for this is through “mixed” evidence suggesting that learning both English and te reo Māori for young learners could confuse them.
The move has been widely criticised by linguists, academics, and educators, for being “an act of racism” and “white supremacy”.
For our weekly catch-up with the ACT Party’s Simon Court, Producer Castor spoke to Simon about both these topics, starting with recognising a Palestinian state.
Find out more about the Māori words which are a part of the official Oxford English Dictionary here
Following on from our chat with Simon Court, Thursday Wire Host, Caeden, spoke to Margaret Mutu - a Māori Studies Professor at the University of Auckland, who has a PhD in linguistics, about Education Minister, Erica Stanford’s announcement, that the early-reading book At the Marae from the Ready to Read Phonics Plus series, will be canned.
The ministry told RNZ that At the Marae, unlike other books in the series, the book uses six kupu Māori, could result in challenges for young learners.
However, Officials have advised the ministry that there was “limited” research regarding the effect kupu Māori had in early-reading books.
Caeden spoke to Mutu about this, and the positives of raising tamariki with both English and te reo Māori.
Last week, the Greyhound Racing Association requested that the High Court block the Government’s planned ban on the Industry next year until a judicial review of the legislation and industry were undertaken.
The association’s lawyers claim that the move by the government ignores improvements to the industry and the standard of welfare for Greyhounds, and that the industry should have been consulted before the decision to ban Greyhound Racing.
Producer Alex spoke to the University of Auckland’s Marcelo Rodriguez Ferrere about whether or not the government was required to consult the Association and Industry, and whether or not the Association’s claims about welfare improvements are valid.
For our weekly catch-up with the ACT Party, Producer Castor spoke to MP Simon Court about Green Party co-leader, Chlöe Swarbrick, being kicked out of Parliament for her speech on Palestine, and te reo Māori being discontinued in the ‘Ready to Read: Phonic Plus series’.
Thursday Wire Host Caeden spoke to Margaret Mutu - a professor in Māori Studies at the University of Auckland, about the discontinuation of the ‘Ready to Read: Phonic Plus’ series, and the positives of tamariki being raised with both te reo Māori and English knowledge.
And Caeden spoke to the co-chair of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa, Maher Nazzel, on Chlöe Swarbrick being kicked out of Parliament for her speech on Palestine, and the need for Aotearoa to take action for Palestine.
Alex spoke to the University of Auckland’s Marcelo Rodriquez Ferrere about the Greyhound Racing Association’s turn to the High Court to halt the Government’s ban on the industry until a Judicial review of the legislation, and whether the Association’s objections to the ban hold weight.
He also spoke to Co-Chair of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa John Minto about a recent Survey poll published by the PSNA that showed a majority of the public support the government applying sanctions on Israel, and how the Government should react
Tāmaki Makaurau’s council budget is among those impacted by the proposal of a rates cap, considering Tāmaki’s average 5.8% annual rates increase across the 25/26 financial year.
Youth homelessness is a growing concern as discussions continue around “move on” orders for those without housing in Auckland’s CBD.
And the Skycity Convention Centre is set to open in 2026, with high hopes for what it may bring for Tāmaki Makaurau after its prolonged development.
Producer Jasmine Gray spoke to Counsellor Fairey about these topics.
The Trump administration has caused issues of significant food waste due to a range of its policies, including immigration raids, tariffs, cuts to food assistance programmes, and the destruction of food for programmes like USAID.
This has had huge consequences, including environmental impacts, as well as impacts on the estimated more than 47 million people in the US who don’t have enough food to eat, and those who have relied on US foreign aid that has been cut.
For International Desk, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Garrett Graddy-Lovelace, Provost Associate Professor in Environment, Development & Health at American University, about these issues.
Thanks to MOTAT, the museum inspiring the innovators of tomorrow!
Christmas Lights at MOTAT - experience Auckland’s most magical Christmas lights - heritage trams, festive music, Santa visits, and thousands of sparkling lights Tickets at motat.nz
Recently, the government has announced some major reforms to how regional councils operate, with regional councillors proposed to be replaced by boards made up of city and regional mayors, and potentially even Crown-appointed representatives, called combined territories boards, or CTBs.
As well as this, Health Minister, Simeon Brown, has called for the decentralisation of Health New Zealand, with the expectation that the entity focuses on deliveries closer to the front-line, additionally expecting a plan to do so by the end of the year.
For our weekly catch up with the National Party, News and Editorial Director Joel spoke to MP Stuart Smith about these topics, starting with the regional council.
From today until the 4th of December, a conference will be held in Queenstown that will look into pest management and how best to protect native species.
The event not only brings experts in the sector from Aotearoa, but will also involve Australian experts as well.
Tuesday Wire Host Sara spoke to Dr Sze-Wing Yiu, a Wildlife Ecologist at the Bioeconomy Science Institute, about this week’s conference, and what to expect.
The government has recently announced some major reforms to how regional councils operate, with regional councillors proposed to be replaced by boards made up of city and regional mayors, and potentially even Crown-appointed representatives, called combined territories boards, or CTBs.
The ‘shake-up’ of regional councils has left concerns that the move would water down environmental regulations at a local level, reduce Māori and iwi voices in decision making, and would result in central government overreaching into local politics.
As well as this, Parliament’s Justice Committee has recommended passing the Electoral Amendment Bill, albeit with some amendments
For our weekly catch up with the ACT Party, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host Joel spoke to MP Simon Court about both of these topics, starting with the changes to regional councils.
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka announced the government’s release of the new social housing investment plan which aims to shift to a “needs-based, data driven approach”.
The new flexible fund includes $41 million dollars in operating funding over the next four years, and the government have stated they expect to support up to 770 social homes and affordable rentals in the initial phase.
As well, Health Minister Simeon Brown last week announced a Cabinet decision to stop new prescriptions for puberty blockers for young people identifying as trans or experiencing gender dysphoria.
The rule, in effect from 19th of December, is based on recommendations from a UK National Health Service review which determined that the evidence to the benefits or risks of the treatment was “remarkably weak”.
The government is expected to pause new prescriptions until the outcome of a clinical trial being conducted in the UK, expected to be completed in 2031.
Wire Host Sara spoke with MP Carl Bates about all of these topics, firstly by asking about the flexible fund which will replace the so-called ‘patchwork of programmes’ in place for social housing.
Christmas Lights at MOTAT - experience Auckland’s most magical Christmas lights - heritage trams, festive music, Santa visits, and thousands of sparkling lights Tickets at MOTAT.NZ.
Thanks to MOTAT, the museum inspiring the innovators of tomorrow!
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