Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

We know Jacinda Ardern likes to do a bit of DJing in her spare time, but yesterday, she was the one doing the dancing for a change. And it wasn’t on the dancefloor - it was on the head of a pin. It was all to do with the announcement that the Labour Party caucus had voted unanimously to suspend MP Gaurav Sharma after he went rogue, slagging off his Labour colleagues in Facebook posts about the len...

John MacDonald spoke to former MP Dr Liz Gordon who has spoken out about white supremacist Philip Arps standing for the school board of Te Aratai College. There are currently no rules stopping someone who has spent less than two years in prison standing for Board of Trustees. They spoke about the lack of rules around standing for a school board, and if candidates should be transparent if they have...

When our kids were younger, I served a couple of terms on the Board at our local primary school and never, during that six years, did it enter my mind that some of my fellow board members might be ex-prisoners. I’m pretty sure none of them were but there could’ve been, because we’re finding out today that if someone has served a prison sentence of less than two years they can put themselves up for...

Remember the Seinfeld TV series back in the 90s, and how they always talked about it being a show about nothing? That’s what the media conference NZ Rugby boss Mark Robinson did on Zoom from South Africa was like after the All Blacks beat the Springboks 35-23 yesterday. It went for 20 minutes and no matter how many different ways reporters asked the same question, Robinson refused to say whether o...

Retiring Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel says she's been taken aback by some candidates' actions in the lead up to the elections. Mayoral hopeful Phil Mauger has donated to some city council candidates.  He's endorsed four out of 13, all running as as independents or under the right-leaning Independent Citizens banner. Dalziel told Newstalk ZB's Canterbury Mornings she's never donated to individ...

One day last year, I was walking down Cashel Mall in Christchurch and I saw Finance Minister Grant Robertson. Some people wanted to take a selfie - which he was perfectly happy to do - but I heard him say first: “Hold on, I better put a mask on first or Jacinda will tell me off." Which probably sounded like a bit of a gag but I remember thinking at the time ‘yeah I bet she would’. That’s because I...

Today on Politics Friday, John MacDonald spoke to Labour's Tracey McLellan and National's Matt Doocey about the bullying allegations coming out within the Labour Party yesterday. Have they been bullied, or seen this within Parliament? They also discussed the flagship mental health programme and National's calls to pause it, and should the age for criminal responsibility be raised from 10 to 14 yea...

In a brutally honest interview on Newstalk ZB Canterbury Mornings' John MacDonald spoke to former All Black Zac Guildford following the news that Woodend Rugby Club has approached him to be a coach for their first division team. Currently on home detention for alcohol and gambling related incidents, including stealing and defrauding friends and family for over $100,000, Guildford is still under in...

If we gave out medals for dealing with bullies, I think the National Party would win gold and the Labour Party would probably crash and burn in the semi-finals.      No, it wouldn’t even get that far. It probably wouldn’t even qualify.     Because what we’ve seen from Christopher Luxon in relation to the Sam Uffindell situation shows just how shameful Labour has been in failing to deal with one of...

If MPs resigned every time they did something just to protect their political careers, then we’d probably have no one left in Parliament. But some cases are different - and that's what we have on our hands today. Brand new National MP Sam Uffindell is in the firing line not just for giving a 3rd former a hiding when he was a boarder at King’s College in Auckland 23 years ago, and being kicked out...

John MacDonald had the pleasure of chatting to Kiwi rocker Jon Toogood. Best known as the lead singer of Shihad, Jon is joining a collaboration of New Zealand's best musicians to present Come Together - Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. This is a track by track recreation of the album, celebrating 50 years since the release of Ziggy Stardust.  John asked about the tour, which visits Christ...

Is any job better than no job? The National Party seems to think so - announcing yesterday that, if it becomes government, there’ll be no more young people lying around on the unemployment benefit playing video games all day. “The free ride is over” - that was the warning shot fired from the luxurious surroundings of Christchurch’s new Te Pae Convention Centre, to young people in Aranui, Linwood,...

If the honeymoon isn't over yet for National Party leader Christopher Luxon, I think it's about to be. Because, in the past 24 hours, I’ve read two political opinion pieces - one by a left-leaning commentator, the other by a right-leaning commentator - which are both saying pretty much the same thing. That Luxon is struggling and Nicola Willis might have been a better bet. I remember getting quite...

Today on Politics Friday on Newstalk ZB Canterbury Mornings John MacDonald was joined by Labour's Poto Williams and National's Gerry Brownlee. The discussed National's Tax Policy and the leadership of the party, following recent media articles around Christopher Luxon's performance as leader. The Shortland Street advertising campaign, and if they thought it was a good way of targeting the nursing...

I think the Labour Party might have cooked its goose in Parliament last night when it used its majority to push through the Canterbury Regional Council Ngai Tahu Representation Bill - which is the official name of the legislation that will now allow Ngai Tahu to appoint two representatives to the ECan council. The Ngai Tahu representatives won’t be elected, they’ll be appointed - over and above th...

Commonwealth Games flag bearer, and shot put star, Tom Walsh, kindly took time out of his games preparation to talk to John MacDonald on Newstalk ZB Canterbury Mornings. He talked about the atmosphere and life at the games village, and how different it is to his Olympic experience last year with Covid in the mix, and how he is preparing for his event after finishing fourth at the recent world cham...

I remember hearing about a school that, apparently, has four categories in its annual cross-country running event. Competitive running, non-competitive running, competitive walking and non-competitive walking. And I suspect this is the type of thing new National MP Sam Uffindell was getting at, when he delivered his maiden speech in Parliament last night. The general drift of his speech was that N...

Former Shortland Street and Westside actor, Will Hall, has returned to his Christchurch roots with his young family after 20 years away, and has announced he will be standing for the Heathcote ward in the upcoming local body elections.  He has a family history in local government, and wants to help bring the communication and community back together for future generations.  He is passionate about...

"Is it you or is it me? Lately I've been lost it seems. I think a change is what I need." Hmmmm, have you thought about nursing? If those lines sound familiar, that's because they’re the opening lyrics of the Shortland Street theme song. It’s been so long since I’ve watched Shortland Street that I don’t even know if they still use the version with the lyrics or whether it’s more of an instrumental...

This week on Politics Friday, John MacDonald was joined by Labour's Poto Williams and National's Matt Doocey. They discussed the Road to Zero campaign, and the role Police have to play in bringing down the road toll. Mental health staffing levels are at a dangerous low, what is being done to ensure there is help for all New Zealanders. Foot and mouth disease is a huge threat to our agriculture sec...

We’re going to be doing a fair bit of driving over the next few days, and how many cops do you think we’ll see on patrol? I’ll say not many - if any. Which is kind of what the Ministry of Transport’s Bryan Sherritt was saying when he spoke earlier this morning about the road toll going up, when it should be going down. The latest Road to Zero monitoring report says there were 320 road deaths last...

Does Crusaders Coach Scott Razor Robertson have your blessing to leave Canterbury and leave New Zealand ASAP to do what he should have been doing years ago - which is coaching a national rugby team and leading it to glory at the World Cup? Does he have your blessing to do that? Because he sure as hell has mine. ASAP, by the way, probably isn’t today or tomorrow - it’s probably early-ish next year...

There’s less than two months until voting opens in the local body elections up and down the country, and the candidates are all starting to come out of the woodwork aren’t they? They include ex-MPs too. I saw this morning that former National MP Maurice Williamson is going to try and get elected to the Auckland Council. Another one of his ex colleagues, Nick Smith, announced yesterday he’s going t...

News just out today from the Christchurch Christmas Show Parade organisers announced that the planned indoor ticketed event has now been canned, and the parade will now be held outdoors at the Canterbury A&P Showgrounds for free. Event organiser Jason Reekers joined John MacDonald to explain the changes, and how they plan to ensure the parade can go ahead despite needing a further $185,000 in...

The people running the Santa Parade in Christchurch seem to have come to their senses, and realised that a $15-a-head indoor Christmas concert, instead of a free Santa Parade outside somewhere was never going to fly. There was an outcry last month when this concert idea was announced. That it would be held at the Christchurch Arena, you’d have to buy tickets to go, and that the days of the free Sa...