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.
Last week, the first phase of the royal commission of inquiry into New Zealand’s covid response was released to the public.
The report looked at the lockdowns, the border response and vaccine mandates and made 39 recommendations on how New Zealand could plan for future infectious disease outbreaks more effectively.
The inquiry concluded that New Zealand’s COVID-19 response began successfully, bringing our fatality rates to among the lowest in the world. However, the report also said that many amongst the general public had concerns regarding the lockdowns and vaccine safety, and that recent job cuts at Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand, would reduce New Zealand’s preparedness for future pandemics.
For their weekly catchup, Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez-March about the party's thoughts on the COVID-19 Response Inquiry.
They also talked about a new initiative by the government to get people of the jobseeker benefit and into work, as well as a directive by Waka Kotahi - The New Zealand Transport Agency, to increase public transport fares.
For their regular catch-up, Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menéndez March the recent COVID-19 Response Inquiry report, which was just released to the public, the government’s new initiative to get people on the jobseeker benefit into work and the New Zealand Transport Agency’s plan to increase public transport fares.
And he spoke to Associate Professor Helen Petousis-Harris, also about the COVID-19 Response Inquiry, with a specific focus on the role that misinformation played in shaping the government’s response and the public’s perception of lockdown measures.
Sasha spoke to Sarah Helm, Executive Director of The NZ Drug Foundation about a concerning increase in drug use and availability
And he spoke to Letitia Harding - CEO of the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation about youth vaping rates
Just less than two weeks ago, two new drug use surveys have been released, showing significant increases in drug use and availability, especially cocaine.
In the past five years, drug prices have continued to fall and in turn use for some substances have almost doubled. The nearly fifty-year-old drug law is outdated and has resulted in greater supply and addiction. The government’s current approach of infrequent drug busts and supply restrictions are ineffective at preventing that.
Sasha spoke to The New Zealand Drug Foundations Executive Director, Sarah Helm, about the new survey results and issues surrounding safe use.
A recent Vaping in New Zealand Youth Survey reveals that the vaping rates from school years 9-13 have dropped significantly to 12 percent - down from 27 percent in 2021.
Despite this, vaping has increased amongst older students, pointing to an ineffective and outdated system of education against vaping. The government's gradual implementation of a child-safety mechanism and lowering the nicotine strength indicates a serious problem which needs to be addressed.
Sasha spoke to Letitia Harding, CEO of the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ about the survey findings and strategies to reduce harm.
American singer, Katy Perry, recently had a court win in a long-running trademark dispute with Australian fashion designer, Katie Perry. The singer successfully appealed a 2023 Federal Court decision, resulting in the fashion designer having her trademark cancelled, and being ordered to pay costs.
Producer Athena spoke to Associate Professor at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Law, Rob Batty, about what gave rise to the case, how trademark law was applied, and what the recent decision might mean for smaller names.
The Getting to Smokefree 2025 Plan, launched last week by Associate Minister of Health, Casey Costello, is predicted by academics, and Health Coalition Aotearoa, to fail. Concerns have risen regarding the plan's focus, as many of the previous governments successful population-based strategies appear to be excluded.
Producer Athena spoke to Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, George Laking, about what the Smokefree 2025 plan is, who it is expected to fail, and where the focus should be to make the plan more effective.
For Dear Science this week, our expert Doctor Joel Rindelaub spoke to us about fungi recognising patterns, planting trees to reduce inflammation, and how to give the best gifts.
In our weekly catchup with the National Party, Wire host Castor spoke to MP Tom Rutherford about several controversial National Party policies in light of the Labour Party’s annual conference and claims that the current government is ‘taking us backwards’.
Producer Athena spoke to The University of Auckland Law Faculty’s Rob Batty, about a trademark dispute between Australian fashion designer, Katie Perry, and US pop-star, Katy Perry.
And they spoke to Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, George Laking, about concerns regarding the Getting to Smokefree 2025 Plan.
Last week the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 was released.
The report delved into the lessons learnt during the pandemic, featuring 39 primary recommendations within the 713 page report.
These recommendations explored a number of social, economic and health impacts of the pandemic, how the government responded and how the country could be better prepared for future pandemics.
The report explores the good and not so good moves by the government, and how they could have been more efficient in their response.
However, research fellow at the University of Auckland’s Liggins Institute, Dr Anna Brooks says that the report fails to consider the long term impacts of Covid-19 that continue to affect many New Zealanders today.
Producer Evie spoke to Dr Brooks about these concerns, and how realistic it is that the recommendations will actually be implemented.
The government plans to axe 1500 roles within public health care that would affect Data & Digital media groups responsible for managing outdated IT systems.
Producer Yesenia spoke to the PSA’s National Health Sector lead, Ashok Shankar regarding the upcoming fears that come with these roles no longer being available, how this massive cut will affect nurses and health care workers and the impact of this axing of 1500 roles will affect the general public.
With his return to the oval office in the United States, Donald Trump's second presidential term has begun to flesh out fears of an authoritarianism like countries such as China and Russia.
Producer Yesenia spoke to University of Auckland Associate Professor of Global Studies, Chris Ogden about the 45th President of the United States Donald Trump returning to the oval office, the upcoming concerns people should be aware of and the reduction of freedom of speech happening as a result.
As part of its submission on a Local Government New Zealand issues paper exploring electoral reform, Auckland Council has expressed its support for a four-year electoral term.
In exploring local government reform, the LGNZ paper also looks at public understanding of local government, public awareness of candidates and policies, and voting methods for local elections, raising questions about who’s responsible for improving these areas and what the future of local government voting might look like.
For the first interview of 2025, producer Sofia spoke to Councillor Julie Fairey about Council’s LGNZ submission as well as Council’s general plans for 2025.
Submissions on the controversial Treaty Principles Bill were set to close last week, when on the final few days of submissions the portal to submit suffered technical difficulties.
Due to this, many people were unable to send in their submissions on time. Parliament made the decision to extend the submission period to make up for the issue. With thousands also handing their submissions in person.
The bill is estimated to have had more than 300,000 submissions prior to the original deadline, making it the most highly submitted on bill in history.
For the weekly catchup with the Green Party Evie spoke to Ricardo Menendez March about the submission process.
They also talked about the contested Regulatory Standards Bill which has also recently come into the spotlight.
The submission period for the Treaty Principles Bill was due to close last week, however, due to mass amounts of last minute submissions leading to software issues, the deadline was extended to 1 pm on Tuesday, 14th January.
Similarly, the submissions for the consultation period on the regulatory standards bill ended yesterday, another bill primarily pushed by David Seymour and the ACT party that would change how the government processes legislation.
In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor spoke to him about these bills and how the party plans to operate in 2025.
The government as announced their plan for the Cook Strait ferry a year after they scrapped Labour’s plan, including cancelling the ferries the Labour government had ordered.
And a new report from the Ministry of Social Development has revealed nearly a quarter of beneficiaries are not receiving their correct entitlements.
For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party, Wire Host Caeden speaks to Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni about both of these topics.
The Healthcare exec Brian Thompson was shot dead by a masked assailant last week.
The crime has gained significant controversy and attention online, with many using it to restart the debate on the inequities of the United States healthcare system.
And this week Yale University was the latest college to commit to divesting from weapons manufacturing after a student vote.
For State of the States this week Wire Host Caeden speak to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about both of these topics.
For City Counselling this week, producer Sofia caught up with Councillor Shane Henderson about proposed time-of-use charging to solve congestion problems in Tāmaki and Council selling their remaining Auckland Airport shares last week.
The Green party recently released He Ara Anamata - the Green party’s emissions reduction plan.
The document covers more than 10 areas of the economy and energy Sector that a Greens-led government would be looking to adapt to minimise carbon emissions and protect the natural landscapes of Aotearoa.
It also comes 5 months after the government released their own draft emissions plan. Numerous experts pointed out that the government is behind on their own plan’s targets to meet the crucial emissions budget for 2031-2035.
For their weekly catchup, Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez-March to discuss the party’s new emissions reduction plan and how they would address climate and the economy in a greens-led government.
This week on Dear Science, our expert Doctor Cushla McGoverin chatted with us about what latrines teach us about people, climate variation affecting Chinese dynasties, and invasive species becoming threatened.
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