Listen back to features and interviews from 95bFM's daily news & current affairs show, The Wire. Your hosts Sherry Zhang, Justin Wong Mary-Margaret Slack, Lillian Hanly, and Laura Kvigstad focus on the issues of Tāmaki Makaurau and elsewhere, in independent-thinking bFM style. Weekdays 12-1pm on 95bFM.
The New Zealand Council of Education Research has released survey results that say 24% of teachers surveyed feel occasionally unsafe in the classroom due to extreme behaviour exhibited by students. Jemima talks to NZEI Te Riu Roa president Liam Rutherford about the findings.
Justin talked to Justice Minister Andrew Little on COvid-19 quarantine and testing, Sexual Violence Legislation, cybersecurity, and the prisoner voting rights bill's third reading in Parliament.
Justin Wong talked to Justice Minister Andrew Little about the prisoner voting rights bill being passed third reading in Parliament, Covid-19 quarantine and testing, cybersecurity, and the Sex Offences legislation.
Ollie Joblin spoke to Forest and Bird's Geoff Keey on a Threat Mangement Plan to protect Hector's and Maui dolphins.
On Neighbourhood Watch, Zoe Kounandis from Radio Adelaide reports on state border restrictions, community TV closures and university course fee changes.
Today we have Dear Science where Marcus Jones takes us through developments about Dark Matter, an LHC upgrade and the saddest two weeks on Twitter.
Felix Walton gives us an overview of National Party leader Todd Muller's first month in the role.
NZ First's Tracey Martin joins us again this week discussing Covid-19 quarantine mishaps and a delay to the Sexual Violence Legislation Bill.
Lillian looks further into this Bill, speaking to Paulette Benton-Greig of the University of Waikato's Faculty of Law about rape myths and 'fair trials'.
Minister Tracey Martin joins us again this week and we spoke for a long time again, touching on new entrenched support for the teaching of the health and sexuality curriculum in schools, which basically secures funding for a number of people to go in and do this, to ensure consistency across the curriculum and throughout all schools. We didn’t have the time to play that today, but there are more announcements in the wings so we can try cover that again later perhaps. Today though, we talk about Covid-19 quarantine mishaps and also the delay in the Sexual Violence Legislation Bill. Lillian started by Asking the Minister if the quarantine mishaps could have been avoided.
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Lillian also asked the Minister when she does think she is going to get this done so it can go ahead, and she’s saying she’s trying to do it as quickly as possible.
Following from the discussion with NZ First's Tracey Martin, Lillian looks further into what defines a 'fair trial' and why the changes proposed in this Bill are necessary to create a safer environment for survivors to testify. Speaking to Paulette Benton-Greig from the University of Waikato's Faculty of Law, they discuss rape myths and the concerns raised about the Bill from the Defence Lawyers Association.
This week on City Counselling, Oscar Perress spoke to Councillor Richard Hills about where Tāmaki Makaurau is at with its water crisis and the return to regular programming in Auckland Council.
Last month the government proposed a set of new freshwater reforms with the aim of restoring Aotearoa’s waterways within a generation. However, the reforms have come without a set limit on freshwater nitrogen levels. Forest and Bird is calling for a nitrogen limit to be introduced as part of the government’s waterways reforms to hold regional council’s accountable for the nitrogen pollution in their drinking water supplies. 95bFM News Director Jemima Huston spoke to Forest and Bird Freshwater Spokesperson, Tom Kay, about why it is important to limit the nitrogen in our water and why some regions in New Zealand are experiencing higher levels of pollution than others. Here is Jemima speaking to Tom.
This week on The Green Desk, 95bFM reporter Bronwyn Wilde spoke to Kepa Morgan about a Māori approach to understanding and restoring the vitality of ecosystems in Aotearoa.
One of the most fundamental features of the Trump Administration is a policy of limiting immigration and reversing previous US policy on work visas, asylum, and deportation. Will Trump continue to limit immigration in light of recent US Supreme Court decisions and the Covid-19 Pandemic? Doug Becker speaks with Peter J. Spiro and Hiroshi Motomura.
For more stories like this head to www.thebigq.org
On today's Southern Cross, Pacific Media Centre director David Robie, reflecting on his experience as a journalist on Rainbow Warrior, we follow up on domestic violence in PNG, and journalism in West Papua.
This week Sherry Zhang talks to Green Party co-leader James Shaw, on the Electoral Integrity Amendment Act. This means members of parliament can’t change political parties once they enter parliament, and party leader are able to kick out MP's if they reasonably believe they disproportionately affect the proportion of parliament.
The first part of a longer conversation with NZ First MP Tracey Martin regarding this government term and whether the MMP government has been a success. They discuss major issues that the coalition government has had to respond to and what lessons she will take into a possible next term.
In this week's Neighbourhood Watch, Zoe explains a second wave of COVID-19 happening in Victoria and New South Wales, and we find out where funding for the arts is going at the moment.
Mary-Margaret speaks to the Justice Minister about yesterday’s opening of the New Zealand Criminal Cases Review Commission, and the restoration of the right to legal representation in the family court. They also have a more holistic discussion about making the justice system less 'homogenous', as Andrew describes it.
This morning Lillian spoke with Minister Tracey Martin of NZ First. Originally the proposed discussion was around policy and MMP given Martin has pushed back recently on what she says is a narrative in the media that NZ First is blocking certain policy - she’s asked why there’s less discussion on the policy NZ First tries to get through that also gets blocked. This ended up being a useful discussion about how MMP works and Lillian also asked whether the Minister believed this past government term has been successful.
However, this morning Lillian came across a Newsroom article which follows up on their ongoing investigation into Oranga Tamariki, so I put this to the Minister as well. Today we are going to hear that discussion and either tomorrow or Friday you can hear the rest of the MMP discussion and both will be available on podcast through the bFM website. The article by Newsroom addresses a range of claims made by people currently working for Oranga Tamariki as well as former employees. It addresses claims that describe the agency as ‘plagued with bad practice, bullying and incompetence’, the bullying described is often toward people who don’t toe the company line it says.
For full transparency, the article blurb is copied here:
“Last week Newsroom revealed details around Oranga Tamariki CEO Grainne Moss’ sudden exit from her previous role at Bupa and asked how, within months of receiving a payout, she had managed to secure a top job in the public service. Influential Māori leaders have been calling for her resignation for more than a year, with the heat turned up again this month after the release of the Children’s Commissioner report into the agency’s uplift practices. In the second part of this investigation we talk to current and former staff from Oranga Tamariki who share serious concerns over a culture in the government agency that they say can put tamariki at risk."
Furthermore, in the article it stated, 'in nearly all the conversations they had, the same issues were brought up no matter where in the country the OT staff were from'. Those issues are:
- Qualified social workers being replaced with unqualified youth or care workers
- Social workers being targeted if they complained
- Doubt over the way caseloads are calculated
- Children being misrepresented in documents going before courts
- Only paying lip service to Te Ao Māori
- Major issues with staffing at youth justice facilities
This is outlined here because there is not much discussion during the interview of the detail of the allegations.
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