The bFM WIRE Today: 12 - 2pm weekdays
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The Wednesday Wire Hosted By Paul Deady 10/12/08
1220 – Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson
First up we'll hear from the new minister of Labour (above) who I spoke to this morning. Just about all the unions here
in Aotearoa are crying "arrogance", "undemocratic" and "sheesh" at the National-led government's decision to pass the
90-day probation bill under urgency, and have it in law before Christmas. The bill will allow businesses with fewer than
20 employees to instantly sack new employees in that first 90 days and remove the ability of employees to make a
personal grievance claim. National says it'll give business the confidence to hire new staff in these troubled times, perversely by making it easier to fire them. The unions, the Greens, the Labour all
say the law is a huge breach of good-faith employment practices and the decision to rush the legislation – which was not
on the National's list of stuff they wanted to get done in the first 100 days – bodes badly for the future of this
government.
1240 – Psychometric tests, Brenda Pilott PSA
More employment carry-on at 1240 when I'll be speaking to (above) about a whole nother thing. They're a bit concerned
that psychometric testing is being overused, and also used for performance management which they're not designed for.
They're citing anecdotal evidence so perhaps a grain of salt might be required, but having been incorrectly informed of
my own personality after taking one of the tests, I can certainly vouch for their bullcrap quotient.
1300 – Asteroid Defense, Alan Gilmore Mt John Observatory
At one we'll hear from (above) about a plea made earlier this week to the UN by the International Panel on Asteroid
Threat Mitigation. They want the governments of the world to get serious on the threat posed by Near Earth Objects
(NEOs) and pour way more money into some kind of spaceguard system. Alan regularly looks for the chunks of rock in the
sky that could kill us all and knows a thing or two about that likelihood.
1320 – Counterclockwise
Selwyn Manning's final counterclockwise of the year today at 1320 will be focusing on Human Rights, on this, the 60th
anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights. He'll look at how the last government fared, how the new one might
do, and what are the burning issues for international Human Rights – burning being the operative word, climate change
anyone?
1340 – Book She Read
And Sally's in at 1340 for the final Book She Read for the year. Our erstwhile book lass will go through this years
literary high and lowlights, make a few chrissie pressie suggestions and look at the trends shaping the book world into
2009 and beyond. Word up.
Aucklanders can tune in at 95 on the FM dial.