This week on Political Commentary, Dr Bryce Edwards phones in from sunny Pōneke to chat about Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau's backtracking on comments on Newstalk ZB about selling her car to pay personal bills.
Just this week, 38 year old pilot New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens was released from captivity after being held hostage for more than a year by milliants the West Papua Liberation Army, also known as TPNPB.
While many in Aotearoa are celebrating the safe release of Mehrtens and return to his family, discussions have also been started about the TPNPB and the struggle of the people in West Papua for independence from Indonesia.
West Papua is a province in Indonesia that was formerly ruled by the Dutch empire before being controlled by Indonesia in 1962. The calls for independence are mainly coming from West Papua’s native Melanesian people, who allege that the Indonesian government have committed human rights abuses against the native population and exploited the region’s natural resources.
Oto spoke to Dr Chris Wilson a senior lecturer in politics and international relations at the University of Auckland, to discuss the implications of Phillip Mehrtens release and the most recent developments of the conflict in West Papua.
Discussions on mental health and wellbeing became a focal point during the COVID-19 pandemic, with millions of people around the world being confined to their homes during lockdown and having both their social lives and self-autonomy restricted and changed.
However, for many, the period of time in lockdown was an important period of introspection, and so the time spent at home allowed for key discussions about mental health to be held on social media platforms such as X, formerly twitter.
Forwarding to the present day, a team of researchers from the University of Auckland conducted a study evaluating how social media platforms were used during and how they played a key role in facilitating discussions on mental health.
In line with mental health awareness week, Oto spoke to Shohil Kishore, a researcher in the Business School of the University of Auckland who conducted the study, who I also spoke with about the role social media platforms played in facilitating mental health discussions.
95bFM journalist, Oto, spoke to Dr Paula O’Kane, a senior lecturer from the University of Otago, regarding Public Service Minister and Minister of Finance Nicola Willis announcing clampdowns on work from home arrangements for public sector employees.
This comes a day after Nicola Willis announced she had instructed Public Service department heads to restrict the number of Work from Home days given to employees, to reduce them from a default entitlement to a special arrangement to be formally agreed upon by employers and requiring agencies to regularly report on the number of Work from Home days given to employees.
On the 17th of October, the Green party will be holding a Special General Meeting to discuss whether or not to use the Waka-Jumping Legislation to oust former MP Darleen Tana from Parliament, after a party-led investigation found that Tana had been involved in incidents of migrant worker exploitation at her husband’s business.
The announcement comes a week after Justice David Johnstone ruled out a high court bid by Tana attempting to call off a previous meeting by the Greens and alleging that her eviction from the party, and investigation into her migrant worker exploitation allegations, were unlawful.
For their weekly catchup, Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez-March about the upcoming Special General Meeting and the party’s current standpoint on using the Waka jumping legislation to evict Darleen Tana from Parliament.
They also had a Kōrero about Minister of Finance Nicola Willis clamping down on work from home arrangements in the public sector, as well as Minister for Social Development Louise Upston rejecting suggestions for a $3 billion investment to fix child poverty.
95bFM 
