95bFM: The Monday Wire with Will Pollard 16/08/10

The bFM WIRE Today: 12 - 2pm weekdays

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12.07 – Morning News Team Report

This week Esther MacIntyre looks into NZ On Air’s funding for ‘overseas exposure’…

12.15 – Medical Specialist Crisis! Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists.

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists released an issues paper over the weekend, highlighting the severity of the specialist workforce crisis in our public hospitals. The association’s Executive Director, Ian Powell, says we have “the second highest emigration rate of doctors; the highest dependency on overseas trained specialists (40%) and the lowest number of specialists per head of population (0.8 per 1 000)” in the OECD. Young specialists seem to be fleeing the country in droves for better pay and work conditions, and Powell says the government is making no serious attempt to do anything about it. But what should the government be doing to try and ensure we have enough medical specialists in our hospitals? And are we already seeing the impact of a specialist shortfall? Ian Powell will join us on the line at around quarter past the hour to tell us more.

12.30 – NZ SAS linked with Afghan Security force torture. Keith Locke, Green Party MP.

The Minister of Defence, Wayne Mapp, says it’s possible that New Zealand SAS troops in Afghanistan have been involved in handing over prisoners to face torture at the hands of the Afghan National Directorate of Security. British military forces have recently been banned from handing prisoners over to the Afghan authority due to its track record of mistreating prisoners. Mapp is looking into the situation, and is waiting on further reports before making any more comments on the issue. But Green Party MP Keith Locke argues that we need to take responsibility for any possible involvement, and supports the withdrawal of the NZ SAS from Afghanistan. Locke will speak to us live from Melbourne at around 12.30pm.

12.45 – Australia Plans to Outsource Asylum Seeker Dealings. Priyaksha Pathmanathan, Executive Member of the Refugee Council of New Zealand.

As often seems the case during Australian elections, the issue of immigration seems to be one weighing heavily on the table this time around. Just last month, the Australian PM Julia Gillard announced plans to develop a new offshore detention centre for processing refugee claimants away from Australian shores. East Timor was initially named as the possible site of a detention centre, and the New Zealand government has announced it’s intended participation in the scheme. But the proposal has been met with opposition from a range of Human Rights and Refugee groups including the Refugee Council of NZ. The council opposes New Zealand’s involvement, and rejects claims made by the PM John Key that we could somehow be at risk of facing a flood of ‘boat people’ to our shores in the near future. To hear more about the proposed plans and the position of the Refugee Council – we’ll have an executive member of the council, Priyaksha Pathmanathan, up on the show around 12.45pm today.

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