Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

The Mayor of Christchurch thinks the site of soon to be retired Apollo Projects Stadium should be sold on when it's returned to the council's ownership.  Phil Mauger told Canterbury Mornings he believes the land is best suited for housing, stressing that any redevelopment should respect the site’s past.  "The common-sense use is for housing. Not massive intensive housing, just normal int...

After pretty much telling us to calm the farm over the fuel situation, I can’t believe the government is getting all antsy about its fuel tax increase - due to kick-in at the start of next year.  Yesterday, when Finance Minister Nicola Willis gave her regular fuel update, she said it is “very unlikely” that the Government will go ahead with the 12 percent-per-litre increase in January. ...

I bumped into a mate at the supermarket yesterday and one of the first things he said to me was, “Where’s Christopher Luxon?”.  And I knew straight away what he was getting at.  He was echoing the sentiment of political commentators over the weekend who were asking why the Prime Minister isn’t front and centre of the government’s response to the fuel situation.  Not that Nicola Will...

I think Chris Hipkins’ time could be up.  He said to me last week that he’d had better weeks, after his ex-wife made those claims about him on social media.  But, if he thought things were on the improve this week, that’s probably all come crashing down again this morning with the Herald reporting that he knew more about the Covid vaccine risks than he has let on.  And I think this...

Labour's Reuben Davidson and National's Stuart Smith joined John MacDonald for Politics Friday this week.  The covered the biggest news of the week, including the revelation that Chris Hipkins had been advised on Covid vaccines for teens, the Governments fuel relief package, and the Parliamentary warning around importing liquid natural gas.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for p...

The head of the construction company who built the new One New Zealand Stadium is pleased the stadium has been delivered to the city ahead of time and on budget.  Mark Baker, CEO of Australian firm BESIX Watpac, is in Christchurch for the ribbon cutting ceremony at the new stadium and joined John MacDonald for a chat during his short visit in Christchurch.  "it's been a while in the post...

MPs are debating whether New Zealand should get involved in securing and opening up the Strait of Hormuz to shipping again. Labour is arguing that the Government was too quick off the mark signing an international statement which expressed New Zealand's readiness to do its bit.  Labour says New Zealand needs to be weary of getting involved because of the way the U.S. might go about things.&nb...

The Mayor of Christchurch isn't too worried about the impact of fuel prices on the council at the moment but is keeping a close eye on things.  Phil Mauger told Canterbury Mornings that costs will be affected by the Middle East conflict, but a lot of the council's infrastructure runs on electricity.  "A lot of our fleet is electric, the boilers in the building are changed over to electri...

There are two ways you could look at the Government's fuel relief package. On one hand, you could say it shouldn't have bothered at all. On the other, you could say it should have bothered, but not the way it's doing it. Either way, it's got it wrong in my book. But, despite what I might think, about 150,000 families with kids on low to middle incomes are going to be getting $50 a week in tax cred...

Even though the New Zealand government is making the fuel situation sound a bit more urgent than it had been up until now, sounding slightly a bit more antsy than it was, I bet it still isn't enough to satisfy the head of the International Energy Agency. Fatih Birol is blasting governments around the world, not just ours, for not being as upfront as they should be about the economic carnage from t...

This fuel situation is starting to feel like herding cats.  You’ve got the government, on one hand, going on about seven weeks supply. Don’t panic, keep calm and carry on.  The government is also talking about this rescue package for low-to-middle income earners.   Then you’ve got the hoarders filling up drums and jerry cans with petrol and diesel. I met one on the weekend.  He...

I reckon the Government is going about this fuel price rescue package the wrong way. It seems to think it's doing the right thing picking low-to-middle income earners who, it assumes, are struggling to pay the higher fuel prices.  Of course, someone on the minimum wage, for example, is going to be harder hit by $3.30, $3.40, $3.50 a litre than someone earning $100K. Finance Minister Nicola Wi...

New Zealand's economy wasn't doing as well as we thought, even before war broke out in the Middle East.  Latest Stats NZ data shows GDP rose just 0.2% in the December quarter – well under the Reserve Bank forecast of 0.5%.  Inflation hit 3.1% in the quarter, above the central Bank's forecast of 2.7%.  The Herald's Liam Dann told John MacDonald if the Iran conflict continues, we coul...

While I don't like the idea of us being dragged into the AUKUS military alliance with Australia, the UK, and the US, I think what the government's doing creating something along the lines of an ANZAC defence force - I think it makes a truckload of sense. The plan is that by 2035 there'll be an integrated, combat capable Australia New Zealand defence force. Combat capable is the particularly intere...

There’s no doubt the Government has failed us on food prices.  But then, it was always going to. In fact, any politician who says they’re going to bring food prices down is dreaming.  This election year, if you hear any of them saying they’re going to get on top of the costs of living and you’ll be paying less at the supermarket if you vote for them, just block your ears.   Tell the...

Labour Leader Chris Hipkins doesn't want people to read too much into him considering his political future as ripples spread from personal allegations made by his ex-wife.  Jade Paul posted claims on a private Facebook page on Sunday that are now deleted, none of which related to unlawful conduct.  Hipkins says it wasn't a long deliberation, saying that he recognises the political spotli...

Maybe my head is in the sand, but all this excitement about fuel prices isn’t making me any more inclined to buy an electric vehicle.  Tell that to the people who are getting all excited and buying them. In big numbers too, it seems.  So we’ve got the government warning that petrol prices could hit $4 a litre and EV dealers saying they’re being run off their feet because of the ongoing s...

I’ve got a story which has Covid-19 toilet paper mania written all over it.  I was blown away talking to someone in Christchurch at the weekend who said they’d been out and bought a whole lot of extra food because of the fuel situation with everything going on in the Middle East.  This is not something I endorse and it certainly isn’t something I'll be doing. But maybe the fact that they...

Aside from trying to make sure we don’t run out of fuel because of what’s going on in the middle east, the other challenge the Government has on its hands is that we’re not the country we were six years.  Six years ago, when COVID first hit, we were much more compliant. Way more than we are now.  Six years ago - by and large - we all went along with all the restrictions and the initial l...

National's Hamish Campbell and Labour's Tracey McLellan joined John MacDonald for Politics Friday this week.  They covered some of the biggest topics from the week, including the release of the second phase of the Covid Inquiry, if more public money is required for the Christ Church Cathedral, and what is the landmark you think of when you think of Christchurch? LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.co...

Three hundred and fifty jobs at Heinz Wattie's are on the line and we’ve only got ourselves to blame.  I’m including myself here.  Because all of us have pretty much fallen into the trap of thinking cheapest is best.  And, more often than not, if we think cheapest is best then we end up buying stuff from overseas and turning our backs on local products.  Before now, I've never...

There is another plan in the works to revive Cathedral Square with the Council asking for the public's ideas later this year The Christchurch City Council has announced they have a budget of $28.5 million set aside to put a revitalisation plan in action. Mayor Phil Mauger told Canterbury Mornings that he would like to put some of the money into the Christ Church Cathedral to fix it instead of only...

I don’t think there’ll be too many complaints about the report from phase two of the COVID inquiry. Because, for $14 million, we’ve all got something out of it. That’s $14 million for this phase. Phase one cost us about $17 million.   If you’re anti-vax or vaccine-weary, you’ve got the bit in the report about officials not telling ministers that 12 to 17-year-olds shouldn't really have been g...

The rubber is hitting the road for us here in New Zealand with fuel prices on the up because of the situation in the Middle East.  The Taxpayers’ Union hasn’t been slow in coming forward, saying the government should be cutting its fuel taxes. Temporarily, anyway.  It says households shouldn’t be forced to shoulder the full cost of global instability.  It’s spokesman Jordan Williams...

Christopher Luxon is at risk of sounding a bit like Joe Biden. You’ll remember the former US president bungled that election debate with Donald Trump and then people started calling for him to go and he said he wasn’t standing down. Christopher Luxon sounded a bit like that when he was on Newstalk ZB on Friday afternoon and this morning. He said he was “absolutely not” considering standing down. T...