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The Wire

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.

Child Poverty and Education w/ Glenda Philip-Barbara and Liam Rutherford: Dec 06, 2021.

Child Poverty and Education w/ Glenda Philip-Barbara and Liam Rutherford: Dec 06, 2021 Child Poverty and Education w/ Glenda Philip-Barbara and Liam Rutherford: Dec 06, 2021, 30.45 MB
Mon 6 Dec 2021

Released today, the Child Poverty Monitor has found that poverty targets for Maori, Pasifika, and disabled children are not going to be met. It claims that there are still major structural barriers, such as racism and ableism, that have led to differentiated results of poverty alleviation schemes.

Louis spoke to the Maori Children's Commissioner Glenda Philip Barbara and NZEI's Liam Rutherford about the monitor, the challenges that child poverty pose, and what changes need to be made. 

The Wire with Louis: Dec 06, 2021.

The Wire with Louis: Dec 06, 2021 The Wire with Louis: Dec 06, 2021, 118.54 MB
Mon 6 Dec 2021

On the Monday wire this week...

Louis spoke to the Maori Children's Commissioner Glenda Philip Barbara and NZEI's Liam Alexander about child poverty in New Zealand. He also talked to the University of Auckland's Linda Tyler about the legacy and passing of artist Robert Ellis. 

Charlie was joined by ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa member Ella Sheperd to discuss Christopher Luxon’s pro-life stance. She also chatted with SPCA scientific officer Dr Alison Vaughan about responsible pet adoption.

Enjoy.

Orange the World: End Violence Against Women Now w/ UN Women NZ President Tara Singh

Orange the World: End Violence Against Women Now w/ UN Women NZ President Tara Singh Orange the World: End Violence Against Women Now w/ UN Women NZ President Tara Singh, 11.17 MB
Fri 3 Dec 2021

Womens organsations worldwide have reported that domestic violence against women has intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

UN Women has launched their 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence. This year, the theme is Orange the World: End Violence Against Women Now.

The global campaign began on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until December 10, Human Rights Day.

Jessica Hopkins spoke to UN Women Aotearoa NZ President Tara Singh about ending domestic violence here in Aotearoa. 

You can find out more about hosting your own Orange Breakfast or Morning Tea on their website. 

Navigating Socialising During COVID-19 w/ Registered Clinical Psychologist Gaynor Parkin: December 3, 2021

Navigating Socialising During COVID-19 w/ Registered Clinical Psychologist Gaynor Parkin: December 3, 2021 Navigating Socialising During COVID-19 w/ Registered Clinical Psychologist Gaynor Parkin: December 3, 2021, 11.88 MB
Fri 3 Dec 2021

Psychologists have suggested that entering the new traffic light system may cause some uncertainty for people around Aotearoa as we determine our own comfort levels with mingling with others, travelling and using public spaces

Jessica Hopkins spoke to Gaynor Parkin, Registered Clinical Psychologist and CE at Umbrella Wellbeing about navigating the new normal. 

Parkin encourages people to set their own boundaries for social interactions and to have conversations with whanau about what they are comfortable with. 

The Wire With Jessica: December 3, 2021

The Wire With Jessica: December 3, 2021 The Wire With Jessica: December 3, 2021, 105.23 MB
Fri 3 Dec 2021

This week on the show.

Host Jessica Hopkins speaks to registered Clinical Psychologist and Chief Executive at Umbrella Wellbeing Gaynor Parkin about navigating the our traffic light system. 

The Auckland Council's Shane Henderson joins us to discuss the proposed Climate Action Targeted Rate and how Auckland Council facilities will operate under the traffic light system.

Tara Singh from UN Women President speaks to Jessica about their ​​16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence.

And Jemima Huston intevriews the National Party’s Maureen Pugh on the Government’s proposed freedom camping legislation.

Justin's International Desk: December 2, 2021

Justin's International Desk: December 2, 2021 Justin's International Desk: December 2, 2021, 11.33 MB
Thu 2 Dec 2021

International Desk reports on the aftermath of unrest in the Solomon Islands, as New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea deployed peacekeepers.

Justin spoke to Griffith University's Dr Tess Newton Cain about the situation.

The Wire with Justin: December 2, 2021

The Wire with Justin: December 2, 2021 The Wire with Justin: December 2, 2021, 105.28 MB
Thu 2 Dec 2021

On their weekly chat, Justin and Health Minister Andrew Little talked about the traffic light system and the Government's plan for the Omicron variant.

International Desk reports on the unrest in the Solomon Islands.

Justin also talked to Professer Graham Le Gros of the Malaghan Institute on the pediatric Pfizer vaccine.

Producer Joe Wilkins spoke to NZEI's Liam Rutherford on funding for learning support.

He also talked to the New Zealand Initiative's Roger Partridge on changing the way to teach children reading, and the New Zealand Hostel Association chair Brett Duncan on the future of backpacker hostels in New Zealand

Pediatric vaccine: December 2, 2021

Pediatric vaccine: December 2, 2021 Pediatric vaccine: December 2, 2021, 11.06 MB
Thu 2 Dec 2021

The government said children aged five to eleven could soon be eligible for a pediatric version of the Pfizer vaccine before the end of next month, pending Medsafe approval.

Professor Graham Le Gros is an immunologist and the Programme Director of Vaccine Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand and he told Justin it is important for vulnerable young children to get the jab.

 

Labour's Andrew Little: December 2, 2021

Labour's Andrew Little: December 2, 2021 Labour's Andrew Little: December 2, 2021, 21.35 MB
Thu 2 Dec 2021

Justin spoke to Health Minister Andrew Little about the traffic light system and the government's plan for the Omicron variant.

Changing the way we teach Reading w/ Roger Partridge: December 2, 2021

Changing the way we teach Reading w/ Roger Partridge: December 2, 2021 Changing the way we teach Reading w/ Roger Partridge: December 2, 2021, 9.49 MB
Thu 2 Dec 2021

A report has said the way reading is taught in New Zealand needs to fundamentally change. The report from the New Zealand Initiative found that one in five of New Zealand’s 15-year-olds do not have the reading competency to enter the workforce, further their education, or productively participate in society according to the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Joe speaks to Roger Partridge from NZ Initiative on the matter.

 

AT parking price increase & the Eden Park redevelopment project w/ Councillor Shane Henderson

AT parking price increase & the Eden Park redevelopment project w/ Councillor Shane Henderson: 3rd April, 2025 AT parking price increase & the Eden Park redevelopment project w/ Councillor Shane Henderson: 3rd April, 2025, 19.24 MB
Thu 3 Apr 2025

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

Weekly Catchup w/ The Green Party's Ricardo Menendez-March: 2 April, 2025

Weekly Catchup w/ The Green Party's Ricardo Menendez-March: 2 April, 2025 Weekly Catchup w/ The Green Party's Ricardo Menendez-March: 2 April, 2025, 25.71 MB
Wed 2 Apr 2025

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.

The Green Desk: Bird Heros w/ BirdCare Aotearoa’s Pooja Dorle: 2 April, 2025

The Green Desk: Bird Heros w/ BirdCare Aotearoa’s Pooja Dorle: 2 April, 2025 The Green Desk: Bird Heros w/ BirdCare Aotearoa’s Pooja Dorle: 2 April, 2025, 11.36 MB
Wed 2 Apr 2025

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.

Get Action! Protect Public Safety and Psychology in New Zealand w/ Dr Kumari Valentine: 2 April, 2025

Get Action! Protect Public Safety and Psychology in New Zealand w/ Dr Kumari Valentine: 2 April, 2025 Get Action! Protect Public Safety and Psychology in New Zealand w/ Dr Kumari Valentine: 2 April, 2025, 28.55 MB
Wed 2 Apr 2025

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:

Police and Public Safety w/ the National Party’s Tom Rutherford: 1st April, 2025

Police and Public Safety w/ the National Party’s Tom Rutherford: 1st April, 2025 Police and Public Safety w/ the National Party’s Tom Rutherford: 1st April, 2025, 18.03 MB
Tue 1 Apr 2025

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.

Dear Science w/ Doctor Cushla McGoverin: 1st April, 2025

Dear Science w/ Doctor Cushla McGoverin: 1st April, 2025 Dear Science w/ Doctor Cushla McGoverin: 1st April, 2025, 32.04 MB
Tue 1 Apr 2025

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!

Supermarket duopoly developments, Green MP, Tamatha Paul’s comments about the police, and Te Pāti Māori’s calls for mandatory police body cameras w/ Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp: 31 March, 2025

Supermarket duopoly developments, Green MP, Tamatha Paul’s comments about the police, and Te Pāti Māori’s calls for mandatory police body cameras w/ Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp: 31 March, 2025 Supermarket duopoly developments, Green MP, Tamatha Paul’s comments about the police, and Te Pāti Māori’s calls for mandatory police body cameras w/ Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp: 31 March, 2025, 6.86 MB
Mon 31 Mar 2025

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.

RMA Reforms and Concerns about Health and Police System w/ The ACT Party’s Simon Court: 31 March, 2025

RMA Reforms and Concerns about Health and Police System w/ The ACT Party’s Simon Court: 31 March, 2025 RMA Reforms and Concerns about Health and Police System w/ The ACT Party’s Simon Court: 31 March, 2025, 7.25 MB
Mon 31 Mar 2025

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.

But first, we touched on the RMA reform.

NZ First’s “war on woke”, proposed RMA reforms, and New Zealand’s support for Palestine w/ Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni: 27 March, 2025

NZ First’s “war on woke”, proposed RMA reforms, and New Zealand’s support for Palestine w/ Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni: 27 March, 2025 NZ First’s “war on woke”, proposed RMA reforms, and New Zealand’s support for Palestine w/ Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni: 27 March, 2025, 8.99 MB
Thu 27 Mar 2025

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. 

International Desk: The Atlantic editor-in-chief was accidentally texted war plans by top US security officials w/ Yale Daily News’ Andre Fa’aoso: 27 March, 2025

International Desk: The Atlantic editor-in-chief was accidentally texted war plans by top US security officials w/ Yale Daily News’ Andre Fa’aoso: 27 March, 2025 International Desk: The Atlantic editor-in-chief was accidentally texted war plans by top US security officials w/ Yale Daily News’ Andre Fa’aoso: 27 March, 2025, 11.23 MB
Thu 27 Mar 2025

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.