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The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union has announced a series of 10 hour strikes to close out this year over poor pay officers and failures to maintain equipment by Fire and Emergency NZ.  These strikes follow over a year of one hour strikes, numbering 72 when the ten hour strikes were announced.  To discuss the strike plans and why the union has decided to escalate things, News Director Castor spoke to National Secretary of the NZPFU, Wattie Watson.

This week on the Tuesday Wire... For Dear Science this week our experts Professor Sebastian Leuzinger and Dr. Syrie Hermans spoke to us about why small dogs live longer, how trees know when to stop growing, and the potential impacts of jetlag on birds.  For our weekly catch-up with National MP Dan Bidois, News Director Castor asked about the election result, impacts of the overhang strategy, and possible coalition agreements with Opportunity.  And they spoke to national secretary of the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union, Wattie Watson, about the organisation's planned upcoming 10 hour strikes.

This week on the Monday Wire... For our weekly catchup with the ACT Party, News Director Castor spoke to MP Simon Court about the election results for ACT, the Tāmaki electorate, and what ACT’s role will look like depending on the coalition outcomes. On election night our Opportunity correspondent Toby spoke to the party’s candidate for Auckland Central Johan Chang about Dungeons and Dragons, campaigning, and alcohol.  Following Election Night on Saturday, Wire producer and Election Night co-host Sara also grabbed a couple highlights from the bFM election coverage including: - Our interview with National MP Greg Fleming - And our segment on Climate Policy with expert Dr Cathrine Dyer And On Guy Fawkes day last week, she spoke to SPCA Senior Scientific Officer, Dr Alison Vaughan, about the impact of fireworks on animals.

When we last spoke to Simon Court, we both expressed how excited we were for the result of the election. It turns out that we’ve still got a wee while to wait, with this weekend’s result still up for change when results from special votes arrive on November 27th.  With that in mind, we decided to chat about the election results that we can observe - four new MPs for ACT but a loss in the Tāmaki electorate previously held by former deputy Brooke van Velden.  Given the range of possible outcomes, we spoke about all of them - governments with and without Opportunity and what the ACT party could look like in opposition.  To discuss each of these things in light of Saturday's election result, News Director Castor spoke to ACT MP Simon Court.

In the midst of the Guy Fawkes anniversary, and the General Election, SPCA are renewing their calls for a ban on the private sale of fireworks. Their petition to the next Parliament, with more than 10,000 of the aimed for 15,000 signatures, calls for the next government to “create a future where New Zealanders can continue to celebrate without causing harm to animals.” Producer Sara spoke to SPCA Senior Scientific Officer Dr Alison Vaughan about the issue.

As part of the Election Night Special on 95bFM, we covered Economic Policy - focussing on tax proposals and changes to retirement funds and kiwisaver. Sara spoke to public policy expert Grant Duncan about the strategies of major parties relating to economic policies.

As part of the 95bFM Election Night Special, we broadcast a Climate Policy segment, which included a recap from key climate policy news throughout the last government term, as well as a live interview with climate expert from the Victoria University of Wellington, Dr Cathrine Dyer.

Democrats have gained control of both the Senate and the House following a historic midterm result for the party.  For a special edition of State of the States, Wire Host Caeden caught up with Yale Senior and former political reporter for the Pacific Media Network and 95bFM Andre Fa’aoso about the results.

Back in 2024, the Government began working on education reforms that would amend the Education and Training Act 2020 to make educational attainment the paramount objective for state schools. Doing so would have demoted schools boards’ obligation to give effect to Te Tiriti as essentially a supporting objective. At the time, Education Minister Erica Stanford had said that this objective would be retained. The amendment passed its first reading. It passed through the select committee stage. It passed its second reading. However, at the Committee of the Whole House stage, the Crown abruptly introduced an amendment to remove Section 127 (1) (d) - that is, for school boards to give effect to Te Tiriti - entirely.  The sudden move bypassed any engagement on the reforms and completely blindsided Māori. To justify the move, the Crown said it was inappropriate for school boards to hold Tiriti obligations, and that this should rest solely with the Crown. This argument was rejected by the Waitangi Tribunal, and many school boards - 1800 of which committed to continuing to give effect to Te Tiriti. So for this week’s Get Action, producer Theo spoke with Therese Ford and Jessie Moss from Te Akapūmau, who are campaigning for the Crown to - in line with the latest report from the Waitangi Tribunal - publicly apologise to Māori, restore section 127(1)(d), and work to restore the genuine Te Tiriti partnership in our education system that would see a truly Indigenous Māori-medium and Kaupapa Māori curriculum. You can find the petition on the ActionStation website, or linked right here.

The term fashion slop has recently started being used to refer to fast fashion, which is the cheap, mass production of clothes. This mass production creates a culture of disposing of clothes, which leads to both environmental and economic problems.  Emissions from the fashion industry have increased by 14% over the last 2 years alone. A major factor in this steep increase is the production of polyester, which is derived from fossil fuels. And while many companies are currently setting environmental goals for themselves. A 2025 report published by McKinsey shows that some of these companies, instead, increased their emissions by 40%. So, to learn more about what fashion slop is and what we can do about it. Producer Jude spoke to the University of Auckland's Professor of Marketing, Mike Lee.