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.
For our weekly catchup w/ the Green Party Oto spoke with MP Ricardo Menendez-March about the party's support for the five unions taking the Government to the High Court over their pay equity law changes, The final cost of the iRex ferry project’s cancellation and The Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill passing in Parliament.
And he spoke to Stephen Hoadley, a retired professor in Politics and International Relations at the University of Auckland about the outcomes of the Trump-Putin summit that happened over the weekend.
Max spoke to Dr I-Ting Chuang from the University of Auckland, to discuss why people in Auckland and Hamilton aren’t walking as much as they should.
And he spoke to Gordon Nanau from the University of Auckland, to talk about the ongoing situation between the autonomous region of Bougainville and Papua New Guinea.
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
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.
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
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.
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, Green Party co-leader, Chlöe Swarbrick, was kicked out of Parliament for a week for refusing to withdraw her comments calling for MPs to get “a spine”.
Her comments came during a debate on recognising Palestine as a state. She also urged MPs to support her member’s bill, which would sanction Israel for its war crimes in Gaza.
This comes as Australia, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom have indicated their own plans to recognise a Palestinian state.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the media last week that “a two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza.”
Despite stating that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “lost the plot”, our own Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has refused to commit to recognising a Palestinian state.
Caeden spoke to Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa co-chair Maher Nazzal about Swarbrick’s removal from Parliament and the need for Aotearoa to take action for Palestine
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.
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
With the rise of fast fashion outlets like Shein and Temu alongside the wider mainstream options available that contribute substantial amounts of clothing waste to landfill, experts are calling for an urgent response on a governance, business, and individual level.
Wire Host Sara spoke to Mindful Fashion Chief Executive Jacinta Fitzgerald about the problem, and the industry response to sustainability, as well as University of Auckland Marketing Professor Mike Lee about the importance of ethical consumption.for individuals.
First, is the interview with Fitzgerald, where she begins by talking about the organisation Mindful Fashion.
Following this, Sara spoke to Marketing Professor Mike Lee about the research he has undertaken around consumerism.
The biannual Scrutiny Week took place in Parliament last week, with meetings across select committees and government departments focussed on scrutinising the outcomes of government work.
These include hearings on ministries like Health, Housing, Environment and Justice.
Wire Host Sara spoke to National MP Carl Bates about Scrutiny Week, firstly by asking him to talk about the meetings he was involved in
The government has recently rejected all of the Climate Change Commission’s recommendations regarding strengthening the country’s methane targets recommendations.
The commission’s recommendations include strengthening the county’s 2050 methane emission targets, continuing lowering emissions after 2050, and that international shipping and aviation, which represents 9% of the county’s total emissions, should be included within targets.
Despite the commission saying that there would be upfront costs, many of the changes would result in cost savings over time, however, the government rejected this claim.
For our weekly catchup with the ACT Party, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host Joel spoke to MP Simon Court about the government rejecting these recommendations.
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.
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.
On Monday, the government announced that they’d be introducing a rates rises cap, which is expected to be legislated by the end of 2026. The cap would be a minimum of 2% and a maximum of 4% nationwide.
When talking about the reasoning for the introduction of a rates cap, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said that ratepayers in New Zealand were “fed up”.
Along with this, The Labour Party announced that if they were to be elected in next year’s election, they would offer doctors and nurse-practitioners low-interest loans to set up new practices or buy into existing ones. In their policy, Chris Hipkins stated they would hand out up to 50 loans per year, which would be up to 90% of the cost of buying into a practice, capped at $500,000 dollars. They also specified they’d be prioritising areas that had no general practitioners or practices with closed or partially closed books.
And last week, the Government announced a proposed major shake-up of local council. Where Mayors of cities and district councils would take over the duties of regional councils.
For our Weekly Catchup with The Green Party, Wednesday Wire Host Max spoke to MP Ricardo Menendez March about the Government’s regional council’s announcement and Labour’s low-interest loans for family GP practices.
But first, they discussed The National Party’s rates rises cap.
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
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.
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