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The 2024 Auckland Writers Festival is kicking off next week, offering 200 events exploring literature, arts and culture and bringing together creatives from both Aotearoa and across the globe. Producer Jasmine Gray spoke to Festival Co-Curator Michael Bennett about this year’s programme, discussing incorporation of Te Reo and Te Ao Māori, alongside the importance of intergenerational relationships in this creative space. 


To learn more about programme events, head to www.writersfestival.co.nz

This week is Rape Awareness Week in Aotearoa, a kaupapa that seeks to start conversations and facilitate social change for sexual violence prevention in Aotearoa. This year’s initiatives, led by Whāngarei Rape Crisis and HELP Auckland’s Dear Em Programme, focus on the theme ‘A Community of Consent’. Producer Jasmine Gray spoke to Dear Em Acting Programme Lead, Imogen Stone, on the importance of this movement for Aotearoa, and how to get involved.

For our weekly catch-up with Deputy Labour Leader Carmel Sepuloni Caeden asks about Celebrity Treasure Island and the potential end of election day voter enrolment.


They also speak with Councillor Lotu Fuli about the latest Auckland port announcement and if Auckland Council will call for a ceasefire in Gaza.


And they speak with Victoria University’s Dr Lara Greaves about the proposal from the Government to end election day voter enrolment.


Jasmine speaks to Co-curator of the Auckland Writer’s Festival Michael Bennett about the incorporation of Te Ao Māori and language revitalisation for this year’s programme


And this week is Rape Awareness Week, so she speaks to Imogen Stone, Acting Programme lead at HELP Auckland’s Dear Em Programme, about how Kiwis engage with this initiative to support sexual violence prevention in Aotearoa

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has announced the government is considering removing election day voter enrolment. 


A spokesperson for the Electoral Commission told 95bFM background information on what election day voter enrolment is including that:


Election day enrolment was introduced for the 2020 General Election, so there have been two elections when it’s been in place.


It means people can enrol or update their details, and then vote, on election day.


Before 2020, people needed to enrol by the day before election day.


In 2023, about 110,000 people enrolled or updated their details on election day.


Anyone who enrols or updates their details in the month before election day needs to cast a special vote.


Minister Goldsmith's reason for looking at abolishing election day enrolment included; that few countries have this ability and the electoral commission does not have enough resources to deal with these special votes. 


Opposition MPs, including Green Party Leader Chlöe Swarbrick has spoken out against removing same-day voting and enrolment, stating in a Press Release “any imposed barrier [to accessible elections] is rightfully open to serious criticism of voter suppression.”


Caeden asked political scientist at Victoria University Dr Lara Greaves (Ngāpuhi, Pākehā, Tararā) about the proposal and its resulting opposition.


They started by asking her to explain the issues with same day enrolment and voting.

On April 17th 2024, amidst widespread international focus on Israel’s military operation in the Gaza strip, pro-Palestinian students at Columbia University in New York pitched tents on their campus's southern lawn, forming an encampment to protest against the university’s financial ties with companies associated with the state of Israel.


Despite a brutal crackdown on the protesting students, Columbia’s Palestinian Solidarity Encampment inspired the creation of 155 similar protest encampments in universities across the globe, with one such encampment having been planned outside the University of Auckland general library, organised by the University’s Students for Justice in Palestine group.


Despite the plans for an encampment, SJP reformatted the event to become a standard rally after the University threatened to call the police if an encampment be established, only allowing a general protest to be held as a form of compromise.


Oto attended the rally and spoke to members of Students for Justice in Palestine, as well as other students, attendees, and supporting faculty members who were there.

Earlier this week, the government announced a plan to invest $1.9 Billion dollars into corrections facilities across Aotearoa, which would be used to recruit and train staff, provide rehabilitation for inmates on remand, and the expansion of 810 new beds at Waikeria prison, which had previously been damaged during a prison riot in 2020. 


For their weekly chat, Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez March to discuss the party’s take on the corrections investment. We also talked about the central bank’s recent Financial Stability report, as well as the Remuneration authorities decision to increase pay for MPs.