Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

A new report says the South Island has 25% of New Zealand's population, but only gets 9% of the national transport funding. Have South Island MPs done a bad job of campaigning for more funding? John MacDonald asked Matt Doocey and Duncan Webb who is to blame. They also discussed AUKUS, the Prime Ministers comments to parents about getting their kids to school, and who is Casey Costello? LISTEN ABO...

Is it just me or has the Government gone all gung-ho on it since the holidays?   Because it seems to me that our approach to defence has been turned on its head almost overnight.   Last week, we had the announcement that New Zealand is sending six military personnel to help with airstrikes against the Houthi militia in Yemen and the Red Sea.   And today, we’ve got Defence Minister Judith Collins o...

It hasn’t taken long, has it?   It hasn’t taken long for National to start using the same weasel words we got sick of Labour using when it came to police numbers.   Remember Labour’s great promise of 1800 new “on-the-beat” police officers? Only to find out that it was actually 1,530, and the rest wouldn’t be on the beat at all. They’d be back in the office.   And all the dancing on the pin that th...

Labour Leader Chris Hipkins joined John MacDonald this morning for the first of this year’s regular catchups to get his thoughts on recent events.   What does he make of the situation surrounding the timeline of the Government’s promise to add new frontline police?   Does he feel responsible for James Shaw’s resignation?   And what does he think of Christchurch City Council’s investigation into ho...

There’ll be no shortage of people lining up today to bag Oranga Tamariki. But I won’t be one of them.   They’ve just put out their latest safety report which says that, in the year to June 2023, just under 10% of kids in its care were harmed.   This is up from about 5.5% five years ago.   And it follows the news last week that our child welfare agency doesn’t really know whether the kids in its ca...

When I saw yesterday morning that ACT Party leader David Seymour was going to be giving what was billed as a “State of the Nation” speech, I didn’t quite anticipate how pompous he was going to be.   I saw afterwards that one of the news websites was saying that they had planned to run a livestream of the speech provided by the party itself, but they couldn’t because it was too shaky.   And I wasn’...

I think I’m going to have to go and take my temperature.   Because, I’m either coming down with something, or I actually am agreeing with what a New Zealand First MP is saying about cigarette smoking.   I’m talking about Associate Health Minister Casey Costello, who’s in hot water with health advocates over her idea of freezing tobacco taxes for three years.   She isn't convinced the taxes are goi...

I reckon that even if ACT leader David Seymour had gone to the Rātana Church celebrations yesterday, he wouldn’t have batted an eyelid.   Because that’s the thing about the ACT Party leader, isn’t it? Nothing seems to ruffle the feathers.   Not even the fact that his coalition partners don’t seem to want a bar of his treaty principles bill, which would define the principles of the Treaty of Waitan...

What the hell are we doing?   When I say “we”, I mean the country. The Government. What the hell are we doing getting involved in airstrikes against the Houthi militia in Yemen and the Red Sea?   The Houthi militia that seized parts of Yemen and some of its Red Sea coastline in a revolution back in 2014.   The Houthi militia that is supported by the Iranian government and has been attacking ships...

The Commerce Commission is huffing and puffing and threatening to blow the two big supermarket chains down over some of their pricing practises. Well, it’s certainly huffing and puffing. Whether it’s going to do anything more than that remains to be seen. In fact, I’ll tell you right now - it isn’t going to achieve anything more than that. Because all it’s doing is going through the motions after...

If you still needed convincing that our politicians are hopelessly short-sighted, I hope you came to your senses late yesterday. When Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced she was pulling the plug on the inter-island ferry upgrade. Or, more specifically, refusing to pour money into it which, KiwiRail says, gives it no option but to pull the plug on its mega ferries project. There are big number...

Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger joined John MacDonald in the studio for the final time this year.   He discussed his views on the Ferry funding from the Government and whether it’s time to bring it to Lyttleton.   How does he feel about the Councils decision yesterday regarding asset sales, and how important is the SailGP to Christchurch?   LISTEN ABOVE   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inf...

Hear me out on this one. Because I reckon there is some logic in this idea of mine. NZTA has been making local authorities come up with speed management plans. Which has meant 30 kph speed limits on many roads in the city limits, and 80 kph speed limits starting to pop-up on roads in the country areas. Simeon Brown has been given the job of Transport Minister and he’s going to do something about a...

When I started at Newstalk ZB, I was on a 90-day trial, of sorts. So, if I can make it through, anyone can. Seriously though, the honchos here said "we want to give you a go. How about doing it for three months and then you’ll know if you really want it and we’ll know if you’re the person for the job.” That was two-and-a-half years ago. I was in my early 50s, two of the kids were still living at h...

If you think I’m going to be cheerleading for the Catholic Church’s idea of building a new cathedral on its original site on Barbadoes Street, instead of in the central city, then think again. Because, as far as I’m concerned, cathedrals in New Zealand have been nothing more than visions of grandeur. And I think there are much more meaningful things the church could do with tens of millions of dol...

It hasn’t taken the new Police Minister long to start firing instructions to Police Commissioner Andrew Coster. Mark Mitchell has sent through what is officially known as a Letter of Expectations. This is what all ministers send to the government departments they’re responsible for to make sure the people who work for them know what is wanted. And, in no uncertain terms, Mark Mitchell has told And...

The new stadium in Christchurch, Te Kaha, is shooting up out of the ground and so are our rates. The big news today is that those of us in Christchurch are facing rates increases of more than 30 percent over the next three years. Thanks to inflation, insurance and the cost of the new stadium. Yes, I know our mayor said rates increases wouldn’t be any higher than the rate of inflation. But, if you...

Today’s protest action instigated by Te Pāti Māori hasn’t taken long to happen, given the new coalition government was only sworn-in last Monday. Not that the things being protested against today are major surprises. It was clear before the election that Māori weren’t going to be high on the list of priorities if National and ACT got their way. Despite Christopher Luxon saying that his party is he...

So, no surprises, the Government has officially pulled the plug on the $16 billion Lake Onslow hydro project in Central Otago. Work stopped on Friday. Because the Government thinks it’s money down the drain; says it would be wasteful spending if it allowed it to continue; and reckons it would be a long time before we saw any benefits. Instead, it’s going to focus on things like wind, solar and geo...

Do you think a leopard can change its spots? I think it can. The Labour Party, though, doesn’t. Which is why it has come out with what I would rate as the second-most hysterical reaction to the new government’s plan to do away with aspects of our smokefree laws. So Labour decided last year that anyone born after 2008 would never be able to buy cigarettes and tobacco legally. So anyone 14 and young...

Do you think Christopher Luxon might be starting to feel a little bit like Princess Diana, who famously said her marriage to Charles was never going to work because there were three people in the relationship? And how she tried to turn a blind eye to his bad behaviour, until she couldn’t. The new Prime Minister obviously isn’t at that point yet because there he was yesterday continuing to turn a b...

Yesterday, I was contacted by someone who, I think it’s fair to say, has had a gutsful of the Christchurch City Council. They are someone who is involved with business groups and community groups in Christchurch and they’ve felt compelled to get in touch after all the goings-on over the last couple of weeks. We’ve had the chief executive quitting, the chief financial officer quitting, the KPMG rep...

Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger joined John MacDonald live in studio to discuss the recent departure of Dawn Baxendale, Three Waters overspending, and whether the public's confidence in the City Council has diminished. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Forget about it. That’s pretty much the message the Government is getting today from the owner of the Marsden Point oil refinery. That’s the Marsden Point oil refinery that doesn’t do any refining these days because, as you’ll remember, it was shut down in April last year by its private owner which, back then, was known as Refining NZ. These days it’s known as Channel Infrastructure. 240 jobs went...

I hope just as much as the next person that good things do come from our new Government, but what it’s planning to do to our smokefree laws is just unforgiveable.   You’ll remember that, last year, the Labour Government passed one of the toughest laws in the world to try and reduce smoking rates in New Zealand.   Which would have meant that anyone born after 2008 would never be able to buy cigaret...