Today on your bFM Breakfast: Keria's in the drivers seat this cruisy Monday morning; Pennie pops in to talk about Missy Elliot and her iconic outfits; Jenna's got a big book to review this morning; and Justine helps us with all your union questions. Happy Monday!
It's Donny Hathaway's birthday, and it's 50 years since to the day since the release of Billy Cobham "Spectrum" a legendary Jazz Fusion masterpiece. Coopa Blue unloads some precious PVC on us too! Click the button...
Denzel takes over the late morning hours to liven up your Thursdays with an eclectic set of tunes accompanied by some stellar chat and good nostalgic vibrations as he delves into video game soundtrack history to bring everyone’s favorite radio spot ‘video game soundtrack gems.'
New research from the Child Poverty Action Group has shown families with children receiving benefits would require an estimated $110 a week on average to reach 50 per cent of equivalised median after-housing-costs (AHC) income. These are the measures used by the government to measure the amount of children living in poverty, as in, after you pay for rent how much money is left over. Those families would also require an extra $215 to reach 60 per cent of the same measure, meaning income support levels for the 2020/21 year are well below the Government’s official poverty measures, even when recent benefit increases are included. Lillian spoke to Janet McAllister who was part of the research team to find out more:
Staff from all 8 of Aotearoa’s universities have voted to strike tomorrow, demanding a pay rise of 8 per cent to match inflation.
87 per cent of Tertiary Education Union members voted in favour of the strike action, which comes just weeks before students are set to begin exams, citing difficulties keeping up with the cost of living, and "unmanageable workloads" caused by persistent cost cutting and underinvestment in staff.
Emilia spoke to Dr Sean Sturm, a University of Auckland lecturer who is a bargaining team representative at the Tertiary Education Union
Māori health inequity directly costs the health system $39.9 million per year, according to a new Indigenous-led study. When researchers added indirect costs of $823.4 million from lost years of life and lost wages, which were mostly borne directly by Māori whānau, the overall cost skyrocketed to over $863.3 million.
Māori significantly under-utilised primary care, creating an annual saving to the health system of $49.4 million per year. The authors point out that these are conservative estimates, and say that the 'cost of doing nothing' about health inequity is predominantly borne by Indigenous communities and society - less than 5% of the cost is borne by the health system.
Joe spoke to Rhys Jones, Associate Professor in Te Kupenga Hauora Maori, from the University of Auckland on the matter.
Data released this month by StatsNZ has shown that annual inflation is down to six per cent from six-point-seven per cent in the previous twelve-month period until March 2023.
Although despite this period of disinflation, Consumer Price Index data has shown that the price of consumer goods has continued to rise, with stubbornly high food prices fuelling the cost of living crisis. Food prices have risen above general inflation with food inflation on the Consumer Price Index sitting at twelve-point-three percent in the June quarter of this year.
To talk more about the decrease in inflation and what that signals within the New Zealand economy, producer Andre Fa’aoso spoke to James Mitchell, manager of Consumer Price Delivery at StatsNZ.