Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

You know what the Government should do with this recommendation from a parliamentary select committee to ban under-16s from using social media? Ignore it. With the Government thinking about copying Australia’s ban, a select committee has looked into it and it’s come back with a whole lot of recommendations relating to the online world - including a recommendation that we go ahead with a ban. The c...

Nationals Vanessa Weenink and Labours Tracey McLellan joined John MacDonald for Politics Friday this week.  They covered some of the biggest topics from the week from the Governments response to the strikes in Iran, a U-16 social media ban being backed by a Parliamentary select committee, and if Christchurch ratepayers should be footing a 10-million-dollar bill to reopen the Dux de Lux buildi...

Are we still living in the same country that told America what to do with its nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed ships? Are we still living in the same country that declared itself a nuclear-free zone? Which had Washington throwing its toys and telling us that it wouldn’t be sharing intelligence with us if its ships weren’t welcome. But that didn’t put us off and the no nukes policy has been in pla...

Labour Leader Chris Hipkins believes that the strikes on Iran from the US and Israel were illegal, and the Government needs to be clearer on its position. Speaking to John MacDonald, The Leader of the Opposition said he thinks a regime change is required in Iran, but legal avenues should've been considered. "It needs to be in adherence with international law, which this is not." If you're talking...

Can you believe the Christchurch City Council is even entertaining the idea of pouring partially-treated wastewater into the sea to try and reduce the stench from the burnt-out wastewater treatment plant at Bromley? Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s shameful that the council has dropped the ball on this one in such a spectacular fashion. And don’t for a minute think that my empathy for the people l...

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark hasn’t been slow in criticising our government’s response to the attacks on Iran. She’s not just criticising it - she’s slamming it. Saying that it’s “a disgrace” for not condemning Israel and the United States and, instead, criticising Iran’s “indiscriminate” retaliatory attacks.  Helen Clark says the Government knows full well that Israel and the US are bre...

Isn’t it amazing that, after all the time spent wringing our hands over the price of electricity, we still haven’t bitten the bullet and gone full boar with solar energy? You might have heard Chris Hipkins hinting yesterday that, if Labour forms the next government, solar will be on the agenda. He isn’t giving too much away but says, yes, ramping up the use of solar power will be one of Labour’s e...

The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor tells me several things, one of which is how much the late Queen really dropped the ball on this one. And that’s putting it politely. She was the one who protected him when all the stories started to emerge. She was the one who, apparently, helped him out with some of the hush money paid out to one of his accusers. Which only fueled the impression - rightly...

National's Matt Doocey and Labour's Megan Woods joined John MacDonald for Politics Friday this week. They covered some of the biggest topics from the week from the Infrastructure Commissions report, NZ First pushing for English to become an official language, and they reflect on the February 2011 earthquake sixteen years on. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do you feel about being told you need to spend more money? That’s what the Reserve Bank’s chief economist wants you to do. As expected, the bank’s governor announced yesterday that there would be no change in the official cash rate because the bank doesn’t want to do anything that could put the brakes on the economic recovery. Which some people are feeling the benefits of, while others aren’t....

Bic Runga is back with her first new album in fifteen years. She spoke with John MacDonald about her new album,  Red Sunset , and touched on what genres inspired the album. "I'm always inspired by anything from the 60's and 70's especially." She also spoke about her biggest hit Sway, and its everlasting popularity thirty years on. "It found a life of its own, I never thought that would h...

One of the problems with politicians is that they often stake their political survival on big infrastructure projects. Which is why we’ve got Waimakariri MP Matt Doocey and Waimakariri mayor Dan Gordon jumping up and down saying like hell, there’ll be no Woodend Bypass. The thing that’s got them excited is the new national infrastructure plan released by the Infrastructure Commission which, in a n...

Chris Hipkins says we need to take the politics out of the Infrastructure Commissions National Infrastructure Plan. The Leader of the Opposition told John MacDonald that he thinks the Commission has done a "really good job" on their recent report, and we need to focus on the basics. "They've pointed out we have an over reliance on shiny new things, and we haven't done the basic maintenance of the...

NZ First is on the up, according to the latest 1News Verian poll. The result out last night had Winston Peters’ party on 10 percent - its highest rating in that particular poll since August 2017. It comes just a few weeks after a Taxpayers’ Union poll ranked NZ First the third most popular party in Parliament. Ask NZ Herald chief political reporter Jamie Ensor and he’ll tell you more and more vote...

Isn’t David Seymour the guy who got himself into government at the last election and then went and set up a new government department? But, despite the irony, I agree with him that we need fewer government departments and fewer Cabinet ministers. Previously, the ACT leader has described the public sector as "a big, complicated bureaucratic beast". There are the numbers to back that up. We have 82...

This week on Politics Friday John MacDonald was joined by National MP for Banks Peninsula Vanessa Weenick, and Labour List MP Tracey McLellan. They covered the latest national and local issues, including NZ First's announcement to campaign on a Māori electorate referendum, whether all events at One NZ Stadium should have a levy, electric e-trail bikes that are speeding around the city, and more. L...

Christchurch City Councillor Yani Johanson thinks we should all pay a special levy when we buy tickets for all events at Christchurch’s new One New Zealand Stadium. And he won’t be getting any argument from me. Yani can’t believe the news today that a levy is only going to be charged on tickets for concerts by international artists. He says it is “inconceivable” the levy won’t be charged for all e...

Do you think there is anyone in New Zealand who believes the Government’s line that it’s a coincidence the findings of its inquiry into the Reserve Bank’s COVID-19 response will be released a few weeks before the election? As the NZ Herald’s political editor, Thomas Coughlan, puts it: the inquiry will ask the right questions at the wrong time. Because this has election campaigning written all over...

Is there anything about the Government’s free trade deal with India that anyone likes? The prime minister and the trade minister love it. Winston Peters doesn’t. And it seems Labour leader Chris Hipkins is coming around to thinking that he doesn’t like it, either. He’s concerned about the prospect of an unlimited number of Indian students being allowed to come here and work and the impact that cou...

A lawyer believes the Christchurch couple who found $200,000 in their ceiling space should keep the cash that they found in their property. However, the High Court has decided that the couple are not owed a cent of the money, even though they handed it in with good faith. They uncovered the cash sealed in plastic bricks and concealed in insulation in 2021 and reported their discovery to police. La...

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has fallen into the trap that I could very easily find myself falling into if I didn’t think a little bit more carefully about this plan by the Government to set-up a new shipping terminal in Taranaki to import liquified natural gas. This is the gas that’s needed to generate power, alongside the other ways we generate power in this country - hydro, coal and wind. It’s g...

I’ve done a few things in my time. But one thing I haven’t done is serve on a jury. For a long time, I put it down to me working in the media. But I was out of the media for a long time, as well. So I don’t know why I haven’t had the call up. But, apparently - according to defense lawyer John Munro - I might be somewhat unusual in my enthusiasm. He says people don’t have the same sense of civic du...

Do you feel better off than you did three years ago? With it being election year, that’s the question politicians are going to be asking you. It’s the question I’m asking you too in light of the latest unemployment numbers - which are the highest in more than a decade. That’s the overall number. In Canterbury, things are a little bit better. The unemployment rate here is down and we’ve got 12,000...

I think the Government is making a terrible mistake ditching the second practical test for new drivers. I like some of the changes it’s making to the driver licensing system. But getting rid of the second practical isn’t one of them. I’ll tell you why. But, first, what bits do I like? And what is missing from the changes?  For starters, I like the idea of a zero-alcohol limit for all new driv...

How on earth did we get to the point where we’ve got schools saying today that kids are starting school without some of the most basic skills? And when they say basic, they mean basic. According to the Auckland Primary Principals’ Association, there are five-year-old kids starting school who can’t talk, who can’t feed themselves and who haven’t been toilet trained. I think I’ve got a partial solut...