Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

You know how you hear people talk about “the million dollar question”? Today, it’s a $13 million dollar question that needs answering.

It’s all to do with the streets around the new stadium in the centre of Christchurch: Te Kaha. You might remember, a while back, how the council came up with this idea of spending $34 million getting the streets ready for the stadium opening in 2026.

And how it wanted to do daft things like widen ...

Today on Politics Friday National’s Matt Doocey and Labour’s Tracey McLellan joined John MacDonald to dive into this week’s biggest political stories. 

Christchurch City Council will soon be making decisions surrounding the funding of the new stadium: should the $13 million price tag be paid by ratepayers? Or should the project be put on hold until NZTA can come up with the funding? 

The Reserve Ba...

Savage and rushed. That’s how the Public Service Association is describing the Government’s crackdown on public sector spending, after another 1,000 job cuts were announced yesterday alone. Taking the total so far to more than 3,000. 

I’m going to add “flying blind” to that description. Because I think these cuts are starting to look like cuts for the sake of cuts.  

And I think everyone involved —...

Every time something terrible or tragic happens you hear people trot out a line which, I think, is totally meaningless. 

Maybe I’ve just become too cynical in my old age. But it was trotted out again on TV last night by a reporter talking about the appalling knife attacks at the mall in Sydney at the weekend. 

He was talking about an investigation that’s being launched to look into what happened in...

It seems to me that the rough sleepers are back on Colombo Street, outside Ballantynes. 

I went past this morning on the way in and there were a few of them there in the doorway. They were there last week, too. After what seems like ages. 

But, it doesn’t seem to be the central city where homeless people are causing the most problems at the moment. Or, more correctly, it doesn’t seem to be the cent...

Today on Politics Friday John MacDonald was joined by National’s Matt Doocey and Labour’s Megan Woods to discuss this week’s biggest stories. 

They discussed Puberty Blockers, and what the Government will do about us prescribing ten times the number they do in the UK? Will National’s tenancy laws make life worse for renters? Is it time to build more houses? And what does Matt, as the Mental Health Minister, make...

It happens all the time in New Zealand, doesn't it? Something goes pear-shaped and people start banging-on about the Government needing to step-in and do something. 

And the banging-on is loud in relation to the job losses confirmed by Warner Brothers Discovery and TVNZ. 

Newshub is closing, as proposed. And TVNZ is ditching the Sunday programme, as proposed. As well as other bulletins and the much...

Instead of banging-on about things like fining parents who don’t send their kids to school, the Government should be finding out what’s already working to sort out school truancy. 

They won’t do that, though, because some of the things I’ve been reading about would go down like a cup of the proverbial with voters. And you’ve got to keep the voters sweet, don’t you? 

The one truancy initiative that’...

Chris Hipkins says it's important to look beyond school attendance headlines to what's behind the numbers.  

The Government's unveiled plans to improve reporting of attendance data and bring in a traffic light system of interventions for truant students.  

It will also release new public health guidance about when a student is well enough to go to school. 

The Labour leader told John ...

Do you reckon politicians stay in the job too long? Christopher Luxon thinks so. And I agree with him. 

Some of them, anyway. They’re a bit like the milk that no one chucks out of the office fridge and one morning you turn-up, go to make yourself a cuppa and there are little floaty bits in your cup. 

That’s kind of what the Prime Minister was getting at yesterday with a comment he made when he was ...

I am calling time on my support for the reinstatement of the Anglican cathedral in Cathedral Square. Because we now know that what we suspected is, in fact, true and the whole project is in financial strife and may be about to come to a complete standstill. 

The job is bigger than first thought and the project needs to find an extra $114 million - taking the overall cost to $248 million. 

And here’...

Some things should never be put to a vote. Because, if they were, nothing would happen. Nothing would change. 

I’m not the only one who knows this. The Government knows it too. That’s why it’s telling local councils that, if they want to set-up a separate ward for Māori voters, they have to have a public referendum first. 

The councils are telling the Government to butt out. And I agree with them.<...

Today on Politics Friday John MacDonald was joined by National's Hamish Campbell and Labour's Duncan Webb to dig into the biggest topics from the week.

They discussed Māori wards and the need for a referendum, is the central Government interfering in locals' business?

What chance does the Christchurch City Council have of changing the Marine Mammals Protection Act to keep the SailGP in Lyttelton? 

Is the education system focusin...

When it comes to history lessons, our schools are focussing too much on local and Māori history, leaving out things like national and global history. 

That’s what’s come through in a report out today from the Education Review Office. But, as someone who studied history at school and came away ignorant of a lot of New Zealand’s history, I don’t see what the problem is. 

When I first went to live in ...

Canterbury tourism officials are in talks with the Government about how to make it easier to host SailGP races in the future. 

A dolphin sighting forced the cancellation of one of the two days of races at last month's Lyttleton event. 

Christchurch’s Mayor Phil Mauger says that changes may be needed. 

He told John MacDonald that that could include looking at the current marine mammal ...

When I was in Wellington a few weekends ago, a couple of things happened. 

One: I was walking down Cuba Street in the central city and it occurred to me how ironic it is that we have probably one of the most conservative governments we’ve had in New Zealand for quite some time, and it’s based in one of the country’s funkiest cities. If not, the funkiest city. 

The second thing also happened when I ...

It was a tragic Easter for some, with seven people dying on the roads - the highest Easter toll in three years, and the second highest in 14. 

The worst was on State Highway 8 at Pukaki. Three people died at the scene and a fourth person died in hospital. 

I know exactly where that crash happened because we drove that stretch of road countless times when the kids were rowing, and we were up and dow...

One thing I know with absolute certainty is that I could never be a schoolteacher. 

A few more people might be saying that today after the news that the behaviour of school kids in New Zealand has worsened over the past two years, making them among the worst-behaved in the OECD. 

And I hope that parents around the country are hearing this news and thinking about what they can do to sort out this me...