95bFM: The Wednesday Wire with Paul Deady 06/05/09

The bFM WIRE Today: 12 - 2pm weekdays

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1220 - Barry Coates, Oxfam Exec. Director

I’ll start the show today with Oxfam's executive director (above) on the line to discuss the changes planned for NZ's semi-autonomous aid agency NZ AID. Foreign Minister Murray McCully has announced the body will be sucked up into the MFAT, will refocus it's energies from poverty reduction to economic growth. McCully says the former was too nebulous a mandate, and in a speech earlier in the week (at which he was pretty roundly booed) came out attacking the levels of bureaucracy which saw too little money directed at those who need it, and too much filling the coffers of NGOs like Oxfam. Oxfam says this is unfortunate, and the minister shouldn't be attacking those who should be his allies. Barry also wonders about the new approach, and worries that "economic growth" will ignore the 80% subsistence-living Pacific Islanders and instead funnel the money into the private sector. The minister was invited on the show, but was too busy.

1240 - Student Work Scheme - Sophia Blair (NZUSA Co President)

Summer is not just about having fun in the sun; for many students it means finding work to help finance their University studies. For some though finding work has proved in the past to be a hard task with some unable to find the resources to keep being employed over this period. The New Zealand Union of Student's Association have urged the Government to fund universities over this time period to keep employing students by increasing the number of scholarships and creating ten-week summer work programmes. At 1240 we talk to the Association's co-president, Sophia Blair, and discuss how bad the problem is, and find out what kind of support schemes are currently in place, if any at all. She says it's vital the government acts quickly to get initiatives up this year - has this been a problem the country has been neglecting?

1300 - Science Vs Commerce - NZAS President Dr Kate McGrath

At one I'll be playing an interview I did this morning with (above). The nationwide association of practising research scientists has this week expressed concern over scientists' freedom to speak publicly in their field of expertise, without threat of corporate constraints. Jim Salinger anyone? The high-profile scientist, whose work contributed to a Nobel prize, is reported to have been sacked for ignoring a new NIWA policy against speaking publicly without prior approval. Ah yes, it's the old science versus commerce debate. Kate told me that scientific research and corporate models have never been a good fit, and wants the government to reconsider running publicly funded research bodies - like Crown Research Institutes. And judging by the response from other scientists, she's not alone.

1320 - Counterclockwise with Spike

A new voice from the scoop stable joins us at 1320 for counterclockwise, please welcome Spike! Today he'll be running through some very interesting, but scantily reported stories regarding the PR strategies of Big Booze, the government's use of private "purchase advisers " - what the Labour Party billed as "Taxpayers pay $400,000 for English’s hand-picked hacks", and the the infiltration of Parliament by lobby groups...

1340 - Google Killer (Wolfram Alpha) - Dr. Ian Watson (Department of Computer Science, Auckland University)

It's been touted as the "Google Killer" - the unveiling of Wolfram Alpha at Harvard University last week has got technophiles rejoicing. It's is already being called "revolutionary" with the way it collates data "on the fly"but cross referencing other pieces of information on the world wide web. It can answer whether there'll be a full moon on September 4th, inform you what the weather was like in the United Kingdom the day JFK was shot, or tell you the box-office takings around the world for the new Star Trek movie. But is it for everyone? Early reports state that the syntax, or the way of putting information into the engine, is very picky and not intuitive and isn't something you would suggest your mum and dad use. At 1340, we talk to Dr. Ian Watson, from the University's Computer Science department, about whether the"computational knowledge engine" is really a threat to Google or if it's just something the "leet" of the computing world can really get their teeth into.

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