bCasts

Your Bosom Selecta today is none other than Paul Taylor, one of the fabulous hosts from Border Radio! One of bFM's oldest shows, Border Radio explores all things country, folk, and Americana. Catch the show on Sundays 7-9pm, or via the bCasts. Whakarongo mai nei!

Selections: 

Drive-By Truckers - Ray's Automatic Weapon

Amelia Empson - Closer

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

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.

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