95bFM: The Wire

Last week a review into a number of Ministry of Social Development payment errors over the past few months were released. It found more than 30,000 social welfare payments were wrongly suspended.

Many were directly caused by a mistake made in legislative change meaning pensioners missed out on Winter Energy Payments, but others were from a subsequent processing backlog causing large workloads.

The Public Service Association has said a lot of these mistakes could have been avoided if the MSD was properly staffed. This government has cut more than 700 roles, or almost 10% of the workforce.

To discuss the review, and impacts of low staffing in the MSD producer Thomas talked to PSA National Secretary Fleur Fitzsimons.

New data from the New Zealand Police on the initial rollout of roadside drug tests has found that THC was one of the most commonly detected drugs.

The testing stations are part of a response to high numbers of road deaths involving drug use.

However Cannabis Clinic CEO Waseem Alzaher has voiced concerns that the testing data does not distinguish between recreational and medicinal cannabis use, nor does it identify the actual impairment caused by use.

Producer Sara spoke to Alzaher about the issue as it relates to medicinal cannabis users

Migrant bus drivers are rallying in central Auckland this week, calling on the Government to provide greater security for workers who were originally recruited to help address New Zealand’s post-Covid driver shortage.

Many drivers who arrived under the earlier transport work-to-residence pathway now face barriers to securing residency, including English-language requirements, while those recruited after the pathway closed may have no route to residence at all.

Producer Pranuja spoke to Union Network of Migrants coordinator Max Santiago about whether New Zealand is treating migrant drivers as temporary labour rather than long-term members of their communities, and what drivers are demanding from the Government.

The “Keep Our Bus Drivers Here” rally will take place at Te Komititanga Square, Britomart, on Tuesday 15 September from 3:30pm to 5:30pm

This week on the Monday Wire...

For our weekly catchup with the ACT Party, News Director Castor spoke to MP Simon Court about the party list rankings, the opening of the CRL, and ACT Party proposals to scrap the Waitangi Tribunal.

For the first interview in 95bFM's new series “Candidates of Tāmaki Makaurau”, Castor also spoke to Te Whatanui Skipwith, Green Party candidate for the Ōtāhuhu electorate. 

Producer Pranuja spoke to Union Network of Migrants coordinator Max Santiago about the uncertain future facing migrant bus drivers and Tuesday’s “Keep Our Bus Drivers Here” rally at Britomart.

And producer Sara spoke to Cannabis Clinic CEO Waseem Alzaher about roadside drug testing in Aotearoa.

The ACT Party list was announced yesterday, though not without a few surprises. Some people are up, some people are down, but most notable is the presence of first time candidate Paul Henry at number four. While Henry said he expected a high placement when his candidacy was announced, the exact placement was not public information until yesterday. 

Alongside the ACT Party list announcement, and overshadowing it slightly in the media cycle, the City Rail Link also opened yesterday. After a decade of development including roadworks, high costs, and numerous delays, the trains are finally running beneath the city centre. 

Finally, the ACT Party announced last week that they plan to campaign on scrapping the Waitangi Tribunal. They claim that the Tribunal has served its historical role in negotiating existing treaty claims, but has little relevance in modern Aotearoa. Opponents of the policy, however, claim that scrapping the Tribunal would make the government even less accountable to its obligations under Te Tiriti. 

For our weekly catchup with the ACT Party’s Simon Court, News Director Castor asked about each of these issues, beginning with the ACT Party list.

Auckland Council’s Planning Committee has voiced strong opposition to fast-track projects where the Council is unable to meet infrastructure demands.

And the City Rail Link’s opening day is this Sunday, September 13.

For City Counselling this week, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Councillor Shane Henderson about both of these topics.

For City Counselling this week, Wire Host Caeden spoke to Councillor Shane Henderson about Council’s opposition to fast-track developments and the City Rail Link opening this weekend.

Producer Liam spoke with Dr Tom Robinson, a senior lecturer in Disaster Risk and Resilience at University of Canterbury, about landslides and flooding in Nepal and Tibet. 

Producer Flo spoke with Labour MP Shanan Halbert about the current public service strike, AI regulation and datacentre building as well as the supermarket duopoly.

And producer Eloïse spoke with Senior Māori Medical Advisor at the Immunisation Advisory Centre Dr Mamaeroa David about the current flu outbreak and the flu vaccine.

Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora recently issued a reminder that ‘many winter illnesses are still circulating in our communities’, including Influenza A.

The latest outbreak is a highly infectious variant of influenza called subclade K - increasing the number of people who develop more severe illness and increasing pressure on the health system.

Producer Eloise spoke with Dr Mamaeroa David, Senior Māori Medical Advisor with the Immunisation Advisory Centre, on the importance of influenza vaccination - especially for tamariki and pēpi.

Before we start, we’d just like to warn that this story mentions economic abuse and briefly touches on intimate partner violence.

Aotearoa New Zealand has the highest rates of family violence in the OECD.  It’s estimated that one in three women in New Zealand have experienced physical or sexual intimate partner violence, with one in two experiencing these or psychological forms of abuse.

Less well known is the role of economic abuse in family violence. It describes the  use of coercive, controlling, and threatening behaviour to restrict or remove a person’s financial freedom, autonomy, and security. Research shows that one in seven women have experienced economic abuse. 

Given this lack of recognition, how well are we responding to economic abuse in Aotearoa?

Good Shepherd, in close partnership with the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges, have put together a list of recommendations to change how we approach economic abuse. Their campaign, called ‘This Is Violence’ launched just yesterday, and is looking to raise awareness of economic abuse and push for systemic changes to prevent and respond to it.

So, to understand more about what economic abuse looks like, and the changes that we can make to address it, Producer Theo spoke with Good Shepherd’s Brittany Goodwin.

If you’re interested in signing the campaign that Brittany mentioned, you can find it on the ActionStation website, or through this link.

if you suspect that you may be experiencing economic abuse, you can reach out to Good Shepherd on 0800 466 370 or 09 302 1643, or visit their website.

You can also contact Women’s Refuge’s crisis contact line on 0800 REFUGE or 0800 733 843. In an emergency call 111.

Like Brittany said, even if you’re not entirely sure what you’re experiencing is economic abuse, but something feels a bit off, give them a call, they’d love to hear from you.

There’s 47 days until voting starts in the 2026 NZ election and the issue that dominates polls remains the cost of living.

Yet, year on year, the amount of food the average kiwi can put in their basket is getting smaller and smaller as the cost of food grows faster than wages. On some essential items such as butter and sliced white bread, costs have risen more twice as fast as wages over ten years.

To understand why we must look at our market for food. Dominated by two big players, The first is Foodstuffs - who owns Paknsave, New World and Four Square, - the other big player is, of course, WoolWorths. Together they control between 80 to 90 % of the grocery market.

They can set the prices as high as they like, and if you can’t pay for it, you probably can’t eat it. 

Earlier this year the Green Party announced a bill to ban price gauging, and now they are proposing to go further. They want to establish a third big grocer in to the market, owned by the state, to compete with duopoly and would force the Duopoly to make room in the market for them.

So for this week’s catch-up with the Green Party’s I asked the Greens Policy MP Ricardo Menéndez March, why they prefer a state run supermarket to a free market