Featuring From The Crate thanks to Southbound Records!

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. 

💚 Gentle beginnings lead to less-gentle endings. 

Eccentric Track of the Week: Fairuz - Ma Kedert Neseet

Playlist is also available here for streaming on spotify and updates weekly. (But if you listen and like, please consider supporting on bandcamp / otherwise <3)

See you beautiful creatures next week, thank you always for supporting bFM 💚

Public consultation on the use of puberty blockers in Aotearoa closes on the 20th January 2025; asking the public if further precautions or restrictions are needed, and what impacts these could have on young people.

Leading transgender health professionals have expressed concern over the government directing the Ministry to consult the public over gender affirming healthcare, questioning the appropriateness of opening consultation on a medical matter that has become highly politicised and subject to misinformation. 

Producer Sofia spoke to President of the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA), Jennifer Shields.

If you want to make a submission, you can email [email protected]

Second show of the year! 😎 Whakarongo mai!

Featuring Political Commentary with David Slack. Whakarongo mai nei!

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party Wire Host Caeden speaks to Labour’s Shanan Halbert about the Treaty Principles Bill submissions, Regulatory Standards Bill, and Labour’s plans for 2025.

For State of the States this week they speak to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about the devastating Los Angeles Fires and president-elect Donald Trump’s threat to annex Greenland and Canada and take back the sovereign Panama Canal for the United States.

For City Counselling this week producer Sofia speaks to Councillor Julie Fairey about Council’s submission on the Local Government New Zealand issues paper exploring electoral reform and Auckland Council’s plans for 2025. 

She also speaks to President of PATHA - the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa - Jennifer Shields, about public consultation on puberty blockers closing next week.

Last week Meta made an announcement that it was going to ditch its third party fact checkers, and replace them with a ‘community notes’ system similar to X. 

This means all content would be moderated and fact checked by its own users. The move has received a large amount of backlash amid concerns that it will cause a rise in hate speech, disinformation and fraud. The move has also been slated as catering to Donald Trump’s attitude to online moderation, ahead of him taking office as President next week. 

Shortly after this announcement, Meta also announced it was ditching its Diversity, Inclusion and Equity program.  

Evie spoke to the University of Waikato’s Joe Ulatowski about these changes, what he thinks it means for the future of misinformation on social media, and what impact it may have in Aotearoa.

A rather mellow show on to cast you through your work day. We listen to a song from Word Jazz called 'My Baby,' an album recommended by a listener last week. Apparently, Elle is in a Nico and Velvet Underground phase because we hear Nico's 'Waiting for the Man' and Patti Smith's live cover of 'Pale Blue Eyes.'