95bFM: The Wire

Oral submissions to the Select Committee on the divisive Treaty Principles Bill began this week on Monday. This comes after the Bill’s submission deadline was extended earlier this month and over 300,000 written submissions were made. The committee is set to listen to 80 hours of submissions over the next month, from a variety of academics, legal experts, activists, and community groups. 

Producer Sofia spoke to Professor of Māori Studies at the University of Auckland and te Tiriti o Waitangi expert, Margaret Mutu, about this, firstly asking her about what her expectations were going into this week.

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party Wire Host Caeden speaks to Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni about the oral submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill and Luxon’s State of the Nation speech where he revealed National’s intention to campaign on asset sales next election.

For the final State of the States, they speak to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about recent executive orders from Trump, the near-miss trade war with Colombia, DeepSeek AI, and the future of the Trump presidency.

For City Counselling this week, Producer Sofia speak to Councillor Julie Fairey about Auckland Council’s progress on storm recovery, two years on from the Auckland Anniversary floods. 

She also speaks to Professor of Māori Studies at the University of Auckland and te Tiriti o Waitangi expert, Margaret Mutu, about the Treaty Principles Bill oral submissions hearings which began this week.

This week US President Donald Trump signed an order to freeze billions of dollars in Federal grants and loans which, since this interview was conducted, has been rescinded.

Earlier today he signed an executive order to deport non-citizen pro-Palestine student protestors who have any convictions relating to those protests, including trespassing.

On the economic front, America nearly entered a trade war with Colombia over Trump’s deportation policies and the stock of tech giants, including OpenAI, plummeted earlier this week as Chinese company DeepSeek revealed their AI tech.

For our final State of the States, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about all of these topics as well as what the future of the Trump presidency could hold.

It is a fact that what makes Aotearoa New Zealand an amazing place to live is nature. Our export industries are built off the idea of a ‘clean, green New Zealand’, attracting tourists and food exports.

Greenpeace’s Executive Director Russel Norman claims that “Luxon’s relentless War on Nature burns the natural capital of Aotearoa for short term GDP growth.”

He has called it a ‘war on nature’, and says that the clean-up costs of a coal mine are greater than a full year of royalties that coal companies pay to the government.

Sasha spoke in depth about Christoper Luxon’s continued ‘war on nature’ with Russel, further speaking on international implications.

In the lead up to U.S President, Donald Trump’s second term in office, the United States has been in what academics, and observers are calling a state of “permacrisis”.

Since Trump’s inauguration, decisions such as the appointment of Cabinet members, the pardoning of convicts involved in the January 6th Capitol attack, and the signing of executive orders targeting immigrants, and transgender people, have uprooted political conventions, and normalised chaos as a daily occurrence.

Producer Athena spoke to Director and Associate Professor of Global Studies at the University of Auckland, Dr Chris Ogden, about how, and why Trump and his followers weaponise chaos, and manufacture crises.

Last week in a speech from ACT party leader David Seymour which he described as his own “State of the Nation” speech, he called for the privatisation of government assets. Seymour noted recent issues in public sectors such as health and housing, proposing that private organisations would manage operations better than the government. 

The Public Service Association says the privatisation of the health sector will lead to the prioritisation of profits over health outcomes for individuals. Countries like the United States where the health system is almost entirely private see those with or without insurance rejected from hospitals, unable to pay for life-saving treatment. 

Wire host Castor to National Secretary of the Public Service Association, Fleur Fitzsimons, about how a private health system would work in Aotearoa.

This week on the Tuesday Wire...

For Dear Science this week, our expert Professor Allan Blackman chatted with us about good old Ernest Rutherford and why his mug is on our 100 dollar bills. 

In our weekly catchup with the National Party, Wire host Castor spoke to MP Tom Rutherford about National’s recent cabinet reshuffle and Christopher Luxon’s state of the nation speech. 

They also spoke to National Secretary of the Public Service Association, Fleur Fitzsimons, about ACT party leader David Seymour’s calls for privatisation of Aotearoa’s health sector. 

Producer Athena spoke to Director of Global Studies at the University of Auckland, Chris Ogden, about how and why Trump weaponises chaos.

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party Wire Host Caeden speaks to Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni about the first political poll of the year and National’s cabinet reshuffle.

For State of the States this week they speak to Andre Fa’aoso from the Yale Daily News about President Trump’s inauguration and the short-lived Tiktok ban.

And they speak to Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa’s John Minto about the ceasefire in Gaza.

For City Counselling this week, Producer Sofia speaks to Councillor Shane Henderson about new proposed restrictions on dog walking and the Māngere fires from over the weekend.

Also for State of the States this week, she speaks to honorary academic at the University of Auckland Faculty of Science and climate scientist Dr Kevin Trenberth about President Donald Trump withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement.

The first major political poll of the year, the Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll, has Labour ahead of National for the first time in almost two years.

The poll comes as the political year kicks off, with Labour and National both hosting caucus retreats this week.

It also comes after a cabinet reshuffle of National Ministers which Hipkins described as “a futile attempt to turn around a failing government.”

For our weekly catch-up with the Labour Party Wire Host Caeden speaks to Carmel Sepuloni about all of these topics.

The inauguration of Donald Trump has taken place, meaning he is officially President of the United States. 

Many tech giant were at the event, including SpaceX and Tesla’s Elon Musk who appeared to do a nazi salute during his speech.

On his first day in office, Trump signed a series of controversial executive orders, including ordering the United States to withdraw from the World Health Organisation and Paris Climate Agreement.

For States of the States this week Wire Host Caeden spoke to Yale Daily News’ Andre Fa’aoso about the inauguration and Trump’s first few days in office, as well as the short-lived Tiktok ban. 

And Producer Sofia spoke to honorary academic at the University of Auckland Faculty of Science and climate scientist Dr Kevin Trenberth about Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement and what this says about his administration’s policy for climate change