The Wire with Spike

Auckland Council's Economic Development Agency and Regional Facilities arm Tataki Auckland Unlimited has just announced the loss of 200 full time roles after being asked by the Mayor to find budget cuts of between $27.5m and $44.5m. In 2021 the Economic Development agency attracted nearly $440m of attributable direct private sector investment across all sectors. So far this financial year the agency has attracted nearly $305m into the screen sector alone. Alex spoke to Pam Ford, Director Investment and Industry at Tataki Auckland Unlimited about what a well-functioning economic development agency means for Auckland. 

On Dear Science, Dr Alan Blackman discussed wavy wounds healing faster than straight wounds, Saturn regaining its status as the planet with the most moons in the solar system, and more. 

News and Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins covered the weekly interview with National’s Dr Shane Reti. This week they discussed the National Party’s response to the Government’s 2023 Budget.

She also spoke to Tony Sriamporn, a PhD student from the school of population health and medicine at the University of Auckland, who is investigating attitudes and behaviours towards blood donation amongst gay and bisexual men.

Beth Torrance-Hetherington asked Julie Anne Genter about the Greens' stance on public transport in the 2023 budget.  

And Ah-Leen Rayner, CEO of the Breast Cancer Foundation, about women’s health in the budget.

And Jack Cormack-Neto interviewed Dr Paul Heyward, Associate Dean and Head of Initial Teacher Education, at the University of Auckland about what the budget means for the education sector.

In the US, the Food and Drug Administration recently expanded its blood donation eligibility criteria for men who have sex with men (MSM).

The FDA said it will now recommend "individual risk-based questions" be asked to every blood donor, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender, or sex. 

Restrictions on blood donation for MSM have been in place since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. But many now view these restrictions as discriminatory, unnecessarily restrictive, and inconsistent with modern, HIV prevention approaches.

The UK and Canada similarly lifted some restrictions on MSM donating blood. But Aotearoa has not followed. 

The NZ Blood Service would not be interviewed but did provide a statement to 95bFM. 

They said they recognise this is an important issue for many New Zealanders. And as more countries move to a deferral criteria based on individual behaviours it will increase the body of evidence necessary for New Zealand Blood Service to make an informed recommendation to Medsafe about changes to our own donor behaviour deferral criteria.

They said they have been working with the University of Auckland on its Sex and Prevention of Transmission study and hope the results of this study will provide vital evidence-based New Zealand data that will also help inform our future recommendations.

News and Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to Tony Scriamporn, a PhD student from the school of population health and medicine at the University of Auckland, who is investigating attitudes and behaviours towards blood donation amongst gay and bisexual men. Scriamporn is also a part of the SPOTS study. 

She started off the interview by asking Scriamporn what these changes in the US mean for the country's blood supply.

Last week Justice for Palestine handed over a petition to Parliament calling for Aotearoa New Zealand to recognise the state of Palestine. This would bring us in line with over 150 other UN member states. Caeden had a kōrero with Kate Stone, Co-Director of Justice for Palestine, an organisation dedicated to advocating for Palestine, about the petition.

Caeden also spoke to Tameem Shaltoni, Palestinian New Zealander and descendent of Palestinian refugees on his perspective on this petition.