Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

I’ve been thinking about our MPs and whether they have any idea what life is like at the moment for so many people in this country. I think they are way out of touch. Let’s start with the 6.9 percent inflation rate and all the huffing and puffing we’ve had from MPs. Now there’s a line that gets trotted out now and then which says: People don’t care what you know, until they know that you care. Whi...

Gerry Brownlee and Tracey McLellan were asked if MPs really have a grasp of the realities New Zealanders face in today's world on the back of record CPI numbers. They discussed the situation in the Solomon Islands and their relationship with China, and Labour MP Sarah Pallett has cancelled her involvement with a community group meeting in Christchurch around housing intensification and the Three W...

When I walked out the door just after six this morning, it was beautiful.  Still and warm – about 17 degrees I think it was here in Christchurch.  It was beautiful – for a few seconds anyway – and then I realised our mate from Bromley had turned up again.  You know, the one who works their way inside your house – all over town it seems some days. But I suppose when all your neighbours in Bromley c...

Annual inflation has hit 6.9 per cent for the year to March 31, the largest movement since a 7.6 per cent annual increase in the year to the June 1990 quarter, StatsNZ said today. The figure was lower than some economists had feared with forecasts of up to 7.4 per cent. National's finance spokesperson Nicola Wills joined John MacDonald. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informat...

I don’t consider myself to have been affected at all by the MIQ system that has operated here in New Zealand for pretty much the last couple of years.  I’ve got a brother in London who possibly would have visited if MIQ wasn’t operating. But I don’t have a heartbreaking story, like many other people do, when it comes to the MIQ requirements keeping them separated from friends and families during t...

Are facemasks the new cycle helmet?  If you’re of a certain age you’ll probably remember all the noise about cycle helmets not being cool, not being needed, PC gone mad…all that stuff. That was back in 1994.  Today, most people wear cycle helmets, don't they?  The only people who don’t wear helmets – and this is a bit of a generalisation – are people who nick bikes. They don’t tend to pack a helme...

The big news in Canterbury today is that we have asbestos leeching into our drinking water.  We’re being told the health impact is uncertain but, I tell you what, it’s enough to make me think the Government’s Three Waters reforms might not be such a bad thing after all.  I know the conspiracy theorists are already smelling a rat, and thinking that the timing of this research by the University of O...

Today on Newstalk ZB Canterbury Mornings, John MacDonald was joined by National Party Leader Christopher Luxon.  John questioned the opposition leader about the situation in Christchurch with asbestos in the water, and if it would change this views on repealing Three Waters if National came into power. They also discussed National's stance on the Māori Health Authority, and the calls from various...

I’m getting the impression that the Christchurch City Council is really struggling with its workload at the moment.  Let’s start with building inspections. You may have heard a chap by the name of Peter de Gouw talking to Mike Hosking this morning. He’s from Home Trends Builders, here in Christchurch.  He was talking about the time it’s taking to get building inspections done on residential buildi...

Still no date on fixing damage to Bromley's wastewater treatment plant ... that's causing a stink in Christchurch.  Two trickling filters were destroyed by fire in November.  It's left the community suffering from a distinct smell, described as rotten and very unpleasant.  Mayor Lianne Dalziel told Newstalk ZB's Canterbury Morning's the council's doing all it can.  “This is a multimillion-dollar p...

Here’s a question for you: are you just so sick and tired of everything at the moment that, when it comes to the election next year, you might just vote for a change of government even if, in the past, you’ve been a Labour supporter?  I ask that because I’ve been reading about the phenomena emerging around the world at the moment called “incumbency fatigue” – people are just so over the pandemic a...

I don’t think the Government could be more virtue-signalling if it tried. I’m talking about its crazy idea to ban fizzy and sugary drinks from primary and intermediate schools. It’s a proposal at this stage and Education Minister Chris Hipkins has given us 8 weeks to provide feedback. Well here’s my feedback - “you’re too late mate, because the horse has already bolted - on several fronts”. School...

On World Health Day, we here in New Zealand are staring down the barrel of losing the head honcho of our public health system in about eight weeks’ time. Dr Ashley Bloomfield, the Director-General of Health, announced yesterday that he’s standing down. About a year before his current contract ends. I see fatigue is thought to be one of the reasons behind his decision. And who’d be surprised by tha...

I thought I was seeing things last night when I saw that Defence Minister Peeni Henare wants to send anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. This is the Government remember that gets real tough by allowing Russia’s ambassador to stay put in Wellington even though his embassy is pushing out lies and propaganda on its Facebook account. I’ve checked again today and it’s still pumping it out - banging on about...

How many times have you heard someone say something like ‘if there weren’t people involved, it would all work perfectly’? We’ve probably all said it at some point, haven’t we? Because people aren’t machines or computers. You can’t programme people to think the same way or do the same things. And, generally, what we think and what we do comes down to one thing: selfishness. We are all selfish. It i...

It is great to be back. We had a brilliant week in Twizel with the teenagers at the Maadi Cup rowing championships.  Cashmere High School did itself very proud – the girls winning silver in two finals (the first-time girls from Cashmere have ever won medals at the Maadi Cup).  And the boys in the Big 8s boat came 4th in the big Maadi Cup final – only the second time Cashmere has qualified for that...

Today on Newstalk ZB Canterbury Mornings, Tyler Adams spoke to Gemma McCaw following the news that St George Hospital will be closing its maternity services, many for many Canterbury women it may mean a trip to Rolleston or Rangiora to give birth. Gemma spoke about her experiences at St George with her two babies, and just how important it is to keep access available for the welfare of mothers and...

At 12 minutes past seven this morning I just wanted to put my head in my hands. Because what I was listening to was so depressing.  You may have heard it too. It was the conversation Mike Hosking was having with a bar owner in Rotorua, who was talking about homeless people living in motels.  Megan Woods was in Rotorua yesterday to do some cheerleading about a new “hub” the Government is setting up...

Today on Newstalk ZB Canterbury Mornings, John MacDonald was joined by Labour's Megan Woods, and National's Gerry Brownlee returned.  MacDonald discussed the latest Covid changes to mandates and vaccine passes, and also raised the issue of emergency housing which has been in the news today following Megan Woods' visit to Rotorua yesterday.   They also discussed the advertising of alcohol in sport...

It seems a lot of people are in a bit of a flurry today – trying to make sense of what the Government’s announcement yesterday – about the changes in the COVID rules – means for them.  One of the things our family has got an eye on is what the removal of limits on the number of people who can gather outdoors means for the Maadi Cup rowing champs in Twizel next week.  Our twin teenagers row for Cas...

I remember the day after the big Christchurch earthquake in February 2011, listening to the battery-powered radio and hearing all the talk about the risk of water contamination.  That was because they reckoned at the time that about 50 percent of the city's underground water and sewerage services had been damaged. I can’t remember if that figure about the extent of the damage changed much over tim...

I need your help today with an answer to a question that the Prime Minister seemed unable or unwilling to answer yesterday.  I suspect you may be more forthcoming than Jacinda Ardern. Well, I hope so anyway.  It’s to do with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, and his appalling ongoing invasion of Ukraine.  The Prime Minister was asked by a reporter yesterday, “Is Putin a war criminal?”  This was a...

Today on Newstalk ZB Canterbury Mornings, John MacDonald spoke to Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel about Government's pending decisions regarding mandates and vaccine passes.   He asked if Council were considering doing away with the pass requirements to visit their facilities, and also discussed cycleway funding and the recent colour scheme change to Branston Park.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.c...

"We are right on the border of losing control."   That’s what epidemiologist Rod Jackson has been saying ahead of Cabinet deciding what to do with vaccine passes, vaccine mandates, traffic light settings … all of that stuff.  And he wants to see all current public health measures kept in place until the current Omicron outbreak is over. He’s talking another two-to-four weeks.  So, if Rod Jackson h...

The new school history curriculum unveiled by the Prime Minister yesterday has some people’s backs up and their necks burning bright red.  I’m not necessarily surprised, to be honest, but I still can’t fathom why anyone would be so scared or upset at the prospect of our kids learning more about some of the cruddy things that have happened in this country.  One stupid reaction I saw - it was very c...