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.
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
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Shanan Halbert about former Prime Minister Helen Clark’s comments on Israel obstructing aid to Gaza, the recent Taxpayers Union-Curia poll and changes to electorate boundaries and names for the next election.
For International Desk, they spoke to Assistant Professor in Journalism at Mount Royal University, Gabriela Perdomo Páez, about Israel’s targeted attacks on Palestinian journalists.
For City Counselling this week, Producer Sanat spoke with Councillor Julie Fairey about the CRL and building infrastructure in Auckland.
He also talked to Dental For All campaigner Hana about their new national roadshow.
And he had a conversation with Dr Gabriell McDonald from the University of Otago about the new GP funding formula and how it neglects ethnicity data.
Last week, several politicians including the Prime Minister and the Mayor of Auckland attended Auckland's City Rail Link test run. As the project nears completion, the CRL team is busy running tests to ensure this new upgraded rail system is ready for use on the day it launches on an unspecified date in 2026.
Several political leaders were invited to a test last week where they went through the three new stations that are a part of New Zealand’s first underground rail system.
This comes at a time where Central Government is becoming increasingly stand-off ish with Local Governments across the country with rhetoric aimed at focusing councils on “Roads, Rubbish and Rates”
This has come to a head with a recent move to introduce a rates cap which threatens to put a hard ceiling on what Local Councils can spend on in their communities.
The CRL has been under construction for nearly a decade and costs more than $5.5 billion dollars with the project going over budget and over schedule on multiple occasions, drawing criticism from those who believe we are spending too much money on ineffective infrastructure projects.
Producer Sanat talked to Councilor Julie Fairey today about the value that CRL will give to the city and why we have such a hard time nationally building ambitious infrastructure projects.
This week the Dental for All campaign set out on a national roadshow to build public support over communities across the country.
The campaign team stands for universal, free and te-tiriti consistent dental healthcare that is delivered through our public health care system.
Under the current system individuals above the age of 18 have to access dental healthcare privately and those in need can apply for a WINZ grant of $1000, which is strictly means tested. This often means that those who do not qualify for the grant simply do not access dental health care.
According to public polling carried out in 2022, 74% of the public supports the idea of universal dental health care.
The campaign is trying to make the case to communities across the country so that they can get buy-in necessary from political leaders, going into the 2026 election next year.
Producer Sanat wanted to get more insight into what the campaign team sees as its road to victory on this issue and whether this is a feasible proposal, so he talked to Dental for All campaigner Hana Pilkinton-Ching about her work.
The government has recently announced changes to the national GP funding formula which aims to better resource GP offices across the country with funding that is more reflective of the communities they serve.
This formula had previously not been changed for the last 20 years and has faced calls for substantial reform. A recent report found that the introduction of morbidity, social deprivation and ethnicity data into this formula would lead to more equitable health outcomes.
The government has included most of these recommendations, but has specifically excluded ethnicity data from this formula, even though the government has previously acknowledged that ethnicity does play a role in determining health outcomes if evidence exists.
Producer Sanat talked to the University of Otago’s Dr Gabrielle McDonald on these changes to the formula and why it is so important to include ethnicity data.
Earlier this week, Israel killed four Al Jazeera journalists, as well as two freelance journalists, in a targeted strike.
In total, nearly 270 journalists in Gaza have been killed by Israel since the war began in October 2023. This makes Israel’s war on Gaza the deadliest conflict ever for journalists.
More journalists have been killed in Gaza than in both world wars, the Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia, and the United States' war in Afghanistan combined, according to a report published by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
For International Desk, I spoke to Assistant Professor in Journalism at Mount Royal University, Gabriela Perdomo Páez, about the danger facing Palestinian journalists on the ground, including from before the current war.
In the lead up to the US Presidential elections, one of Donald Trump’s key campaign promises was to broker a truce between Russia and Ukraine within 24 hours, dubbing himself the “President of Peace.”
Almost 7 months into Trump’s presidency and more than 3 years since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, the war has only continued to escalate and no peace or ceasefire deals have been achieved yet.
However, hopes for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine have been reignited for some following the announcement of Talks between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that will take place this Friday.
Albeit, there have also been concerns surrounding those same talks, noting that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other EU leaders haven’t been invited, with Russia insisting on holding on to it’s territorial gains as part of ceasefire conditions.
Oto spoke to Stephen Hoadely, a retired Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Auckland, about the upcoming talks between Trump and Putin to negotiate a ceasefire in Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Many questions have come up in recent weeks due to the government’s proposal to ditch the NCEA curriculum by 2030. Most people are wondering what the future of education will look like in Aotearoa, given that NCEA has been used throughout most of New Zealand since the start of the millennium.
Professor John Morgan is the head of the School of Critical Studies in Education at the University of Auckland. Morgan published an article earlier this week to look at what caused NCEA to be introduced in the first place and what the larger context of this new educational reform is.
Producer Max spoke to Morgan to discuss how recent global events have impacted education and what the future of schools might look like in Aotearoa.
Last Sunday, Israeli Defence Forces fired an airstrike on a media tent outside the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza city.
The Israeli airstrike killed 7 of Al-Jazeera’s Gaza correspondents, who were: Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, Momen Aliwa, Mohammed al-Khalidi.
This airstrike would bring the total number of journalists in Gaza killed by Israel to 238.
E tū union’s National Journalist Committee recently put out a statement condemning the killing of those Al Jazeera journalists, and called for urgent international action to ensure journalists are protected.
Oto spoke to Tom Hunt, a delegate from E Tu union’s national delegate’s committee about the killing of 7 Al Jazeera journalists by Israel in Gaza and the E Tu’s stance on the issue
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!
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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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