95bFM: The Thursday Wire with Hamish Fletcher

95bFM: The Thursday Wire with Hamish Fletcher

The bFM WIRE Today: 12 - 2pm weekdays

For links toWindows Media Player & 128kbps Streams Go To:
http://www.95bfm.com/default,live.sm

Coming up on the show:

12:15 Professor Robert Buckle, chairman of the Tax Working Group

It is no secret that New Zealand’s tax system needs a shake-up and that’s exactly what’s being suggested by a report released by the Tax Working Group. They’ve recommend a raft of changes, including a reduction in personal income tax, an increase of GST to %15, and the introduction of a land tax. Apparently, the proposed changes will make our tax system more competitive and reduce the loopholes allowing the wealthy to take advantage of our investment sector. Joining me on the show to discuss these suggestions is Professor Robert Buckle, the head of the group that authored the report.

12:45 Dr Stewart Jessamine – Group Manager of Medsafe

Addiction and misuse of pharmaceuticals or prescription drugs is an ongoing issue for our health sector. Following the spread of this problem, the New Zealand Medicines Classification Committee (MCC) has recommended restrictions be placed on consumers’ access to the painkiller codeine. Medsafe, the body responsible for regulating medicines in New Zealand, is now considering our codeine problem and their group manager, Dr Stewart Jessamine, joins me on the show to discuss what their going over.

13:00 Gordon Campbell – Co-editor of Scoop.co.nz

The debate around New Zealand’s military involvement in Afghanistan has popped up once again after reports that our SAS were present at fighting in Kabul on Monday. Many will have a problem with the SAS’s presence in the first place. However, another less obvious problem is that foreign media, rather than local, were the ones who reported our troops were there in the first place. This raises concerns over the lack of information available on New Zealand’s military involvement in Afghanistan, and following his blog on the topic yesterday, Gordon Campbell from Scoop.co.nz is coming on the Wire to discuss this concern.

13:30 Dear Science – with Peter Griffin from the Science Media Centre (your weekly science and tech news)

It’s been a month since I’ve had Peter on the show and so today he’ll be wrapping up the top science stories of the past few weeks, including the China vs. Google debacle, the top goodies from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, and the recent scandal on the Himalayan glacier melt.

13:40 Papercuts brought to you by MagNation – with Pennie Blair

This week Pennie reviews Self Service, which is more like a book than a magazine. It claims to be involved in fashion, but from what I could see there seems to be very few clothes and a lot of skin.

© Scoop Media