Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

I feel really uncomfortable about the idea of public sector bosses getting performance pay.   Not that the Government is going to care too much about that, because it’s confirmed that, from the middle of next year, that’s what’s going to be happening.   It’s unclear to me at this stage whether it’s going to mean the heads of all our government departments are going to have some of their...

After saying just the other week that I don’t agree with central Government taking over local councils when things go pear-shaped, I’ve changed my tune. Slightly. And I’ve got an idea to run past you.  First, though, can you imagine what it must feel like being a mayor and getting the phone call from the Beehive saying ‘you’re doing a pretty cruddy job so we’re sending someone in to sort you...

Labour Leader Chris Hipkins joined John MacDonald for their regular catchup.  On today’s agenda:  Andrew Bayly is in hot water for his “offensive comments” during a Ministerial visit – what are his party’s thoughts on the situation? Is it time to have central government reporting on local councils to mitigate the chances of what’s happening in Wellington? And, has David Seymour hit the b...

Sometimes you just have to resort to cliches, because there are times when there’s just no other way to say it. Or no better way to say it. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over-and-over and expecting different results. That’s how I feel about the Government strengthening its Three Strikes law to make it easier to keep repeat offenders in prison for longer. Which means that inste...

You can call me a nerd, if you want to. But I reckon there is nothing like the performance of walking down to your local polling booth on voting day and casting your vote. The way we do every three years when we’re electing a Government. In the general election. There’s no confusion. It’s well-publicised. You can do early voting, if you want to or need to. But we all know, don’t we, that when we w...

What’s the thing you hear people say time-and-time again about the way we seemed to just get on with the job of building infrastructure back in, say, the 1970s? What’s the most common thing you hear people say about that? They say “our forebears had the foresight”. And that’s what I hope Christchurch city councillors have when they decide whether or not to press-on with the controversial Wings to...

A blow to South Canterbury as Timaru's Smithfield meat-works is confirmed to be closing.  The entire nearly 140-year-old site will close by December's end.  Alliance Group's told staff they'll be offered re-deployment at its other processing plants, where possible.  Waimakariri MP Matt Doocey told John MacDonald that he's gutted.   He says it'll impact many families and be felt...

Here’s my perception of ACC: some people get ACC pay-outs at the drop of a hat and others have to fight, for what can be years.   And it’s the fighting bit that seems to be biting ACC on the backside, with the news that it’s gone from having a $900 million surplus last year to a $7.2 billion deficit this year.    It’s saying one of the reasons for that is that the courts are coming...

Christchurch's mayor is keeping mum about seeking re-election.  First time mayor Phil Mauger took the reins in 2022 after narrowly beating former health boss David Meates.  City Councillor Sara Templeton has announced her bid for mayor a year out from local body elections.  Mauger wouldn’t confirm to John MacDonald whether he's decided to run.  He says there's a lot going on, s...

The highest court in the land is too big for its boots.   That’s what the guy who runs the New Zealand Initiative think tank is saying today. Roger Partridge is his name - he’s also a lawyer and King’s Counsel.   And he says the Supreme Court needs to be reined-in because he thinks it’s trying to re-write the laws made by Parliament.    One of the examples he’s giving to suppor...

I think we need to get over ourselves here in New Zealand when it comes to foreign investment. And it looks like we’re going to have to get over ourselves - whether we want to or not - with the Government’s plan to make it easier for foreign investors to buy New Zealand companies and properties. The way I’d describe it is that, at the moment, the Government thinks we treat overseas investors as if...

There are a lot of weird things in the world, but one of the weirdest would have to be the international drivers licence.   You know, you’re licensed to drive in one country, but a little bit of paper lets you drive in any country. It doesn’t matter that you know next to nothing about the road rules or the driving conditions.   But tell that to the Government which obviously doesn’t find...

Labour leader Chris Hipkins claims the Government's failure to compensate for the nurses’ pay rise has driven Health New Zealand's budget blowout.   The agency's finances jumped from an expected half-a-billion dollar surplus to a $1.4 billion deficit in April.   It's now expected to blow out to $1.76 billion.   Chris Hipkins told John MacDonald that there's a mix of issues in the sy...

I think we need to see the New Zealand Navy ship sinking as a wake-up call. Not the sinking itself, but what it’s going to mean for our Navy and our wider defence force.    The fact that we’re probably going to lose a truckload of money because of the ship being under-insured isn’t an issue for me and I wasn’t overly surprised when Finance Minister Nicola Wilis confirmed it yesterday. Be...

The Government's fast track legislation is shaping up to be a real cluster. Especially, in Greater Christchurch. I think some of the projects it wants to get going here sooner rather than later are making its new legislation more ram-raid than fast track.  So it's released details of 149 projects that will be included in the Bill which, it says, is being done to help rebuild the economy, sort...

Today on Politics Friday, John MacDonald was joined by National’s Vanessa Weenink and Labour’s Tracey McLellan to discuss the biggest political stories of the week.  On today's agenda was Health NZ’s nearly $1 billion deficit – how does the Government get them out of this hole? Are private-public partnerships the answer?   Is it time to stop people building homes in 'dumb places' as the...

I don’t know whether Mary Richardson is a martyr or a mug. But, I tell you what, the acting chief executive at Christchurch City Council has shown outstanding leadership, not just outstanding leadership - she’s also shown outstanding political nous with this $100,000 pay cut. She demanded it because of the financial pressures the council and ratepayers are dealing with, which I believe has gone do...

I think the hospitality outfits trying to shut down the Arts Centre’s plans to have more food trucks on-site need to pull their heads in.   Annabelle Turley from the Central City Business Association has made the bold demand that the council pull its funding from the Arts Centre if the food truck thing goes ahead.  This all goes back to the city council not providing as much ratepayer fu...

Christchurch's Mayor isn't swayed either way on a clash between city hospitality and food trucks.   The Arts Centre Trust is applying for up to 33 food trucks to operate on the site.   The Central Business Association says that's unfair, given businesses subsidise the centre and commercial rates are higher than residential.  Mayor Phil Mauger told John MacDonald he sees both sides....

Stop building houses in dumb places.   That’s the message the Insurance Council is giving the Government.   That bit about “dumb places” isn’t me paraphrasing, by the way. They’re not my words. They’re the exact words the Insurance Council is using after the Government confirmed that changes to the Resource Management Act are one of the 43 things in its final quarterly action plan for th...

I’m glad I’m not a teacher today. If I’m honest, I’m glad I’m not a teacher every day. Couldn’t do it. But I’m especially glad after this ham-fisted announcement by Associate Education Minister David Seymour that, if schools want to have teacher-only days, they’re going to have to have them outside term time. Which is essentially telling the teachers that if they want to have any sort of professio...

Today on Canterbury Mornings, John MacDonald was joined by Duncan Webb and Nicola Grigg for Politics Friday. On the agenda: how does National defend what has been labelled an attack on teachers with changes to teacher-only days? Was the Government too ambitious with its plans for the Dunedin hospital? How will this impact medical students in Otago? And the Selwyn Mayor says his district will be bi...

When you look around Greater Christchurch, do you look around and think “oh, we could handle another 100-or-so thousand people living here”?   Do you think to yourself “our roads aren’t clogged up, our schools aren’t overcrowded, we’ve got plenty of houses”? Do you think that?   Or does it feel to you like we’re just getting by with what we’ve got, with the population we’ve got?   I think we’re ju...

What about all the weasel words we’ve been hearing from the Government about Andrew Coster? Who’s stepping down from the job of Police Commissioner to head the Government’s new Social Investment Agency.    He’s leaving the police force a bit earlier than expected. He was due to stand down in April and, if I was a suspicious person, I’d see this as a win-win for him and the Government. Because, des...

Labour still isn't ruling a capital gains tax in or out, following comments from the boss of our biggest bank.   ANZ CEO Antonia Watson says while she isn't jumping for joy about the prospect of a capital gains tax, the time has come to for a tax on realised gains.   Labour's Carmel Sepuloni told John MacDonald that Watson is just another example, of a prominent figure who's now open to the idea....