Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

You would think that, having had a major terror attack here, we’d be the last people that needed to be told after what happened in Bondi on Sunday night that we’re too complacent. 

But that’s what security experts are saying. That New Zealand remains complacent and naive, despite 51 people being killed in the mosque attacks in Christchurch in March 2019. 

And I think we are getting to the point where we need to have armed...

I’m glad I’m not a volunteer firefighter. Because, if I was, I would be brassed-off that an attempt to get volunteer firefighters the same ACC cover as full-time firefighters has gone nowhere.

A petition calling for the change has been rejected by a parliamentary select committee because it doesn’t want to set a precedent. The committee is trotting out all the usual platitudes but the fact remains that volunteer firefighters have j...

Australia pressed go yesterday on the social media ban for kids under-16 and a Parliamentary select committee here thinks we should do the same.

I don’t. Nor does retired district court judge David Harvey, who is saying today that a ban would be a cop-out for parents. He says it would be another example of outsourcing parental authority to the state.

He might have a point, but I think a lot of parents are to blame for the problem p...

Chris Hipkins is hitting out at the Taxpayers' Union as it prepares to launch a campaign against Finance Minister Nicola Willis. 

The lobby group is questioning Willis's track record on the economy. 

Willis has responded, challenging chair and former finance minister Ruth Richardson to a debate. 

The Labour Leader told John MacDonald the Taxpayers' Union has a view of "entrenched privilege". 

He claims the organ...

There’s a lot to take in with these planning law changes. But what it comes down to is the Government wants people to be able to do more with their own property with less red tape. 

If you want to do something that has no impact on anyone else, you’ll be able to do it. Your house, your castle. 

That’s where there could be a few sticking points, because who determines what impacts others and what doesn’t? But overall, I li...

These researchers calling today for a ban on alcohol marketing and sponsorship sound to me like they’re living in the past.

Maybe it’s the circles I mix in. But I reckon things have come ahead leaps and bounds when it comes to our drinking culture in New Zealand.

And before you start yelling “what about things like crate day mate?” - I’m not saying we’ve got it perfect. But I think we’ve moved on from any decade before the current ...

The eagle has landed. One of the police Eagle helicopters from Auckland is in Christchurch for the next two months as part of a crackdown on these criminal kids doing-over dairies and committing other crimes. 

I think it’s brilliant that it’s here and I think we need one here permanently.  

For several reasons: Christchurch is New Zealand’s second-largest city; we have a level of criminal activity here to justify it; and ...

A couple of advisors at the Christchurch City Council have ripped into the Government’s plan for regional councils and have said to councillors that they reckon there’s a better way.

Or more correctly, two better potential ways. Instead of having local mayors run regional councils for two years and, during that time, work out how they’re going to get by without a regional council. At a briefing meeting yesterday, two principal poli...

You might recall a poll result that came out back in September which proved that 75 percent of us are idiots.

It’s these idiots that the Government is pandering to with the council rates cap it announced yesterday. And the 75 percent of people who said in that poll that they support the Government forcing rates caps on councils will be very happy today.

Because, from mid-2029, annual increases won’t be allowed to be any higher than...

Is it time to have a re-think about what’s done with the residential red zone on the east side of Christchurch?

I think it’s fair to say that mayor Phil Mauger thinks so. And so do I.

Phil’s saying today that he wants to see red zone land used for housing as soon as possible. With the first cab off the rank being land on the edge of the area already zoned for it.

This includes land the city council is going to lease to a housing tr...

It’s taken 46 years and we’ve still managed to stuff up the decision as to where to have a memorial for the 257 people who died in the Mt Erebus air disaster. 

It was 46 years ago today when the Air NZ DC-10, flight TE901, ploughed into the side of Mt Erebus.  

And, yes, nice job making the memorial announcement in time for the anniversary, but Cracroft Reserve in Christchurch is not where it should be. In fact, it should...

How interested are you in the quality of your drinking water?

For example, would you like to be able to look up your address and get credible, reliable information from an official source about the nitrate levels in the water coming through your taps?

I would. Because I just don’t know whether to believe some of the alarming stuff that’s been coming out of Greenpeace this week about the nitrate situation or not.

Let’s bring in Asso...

You know how at work you can get people leaving and, instead of hiring new people, they just dish out the work to other people?

Then it gets to the point where the other people look up and realise they’re overworked, overloaded, and burnt out. 

I wonder if that’s how mayors around the country are feeling about the prospect of them not only running their own councils but taking over their local regional council, as well. 

...

Christchurch City Council's been selected to act as a one-stop consenting authority for large-scale supermarket developments. 

Finance Minister Nicola Willis says it's the latest step in the Government plan to make New Zealand attractive for new operators. 

She says developers previously had to navigate up to 66 different councils, processes and responses. 

Willis says the aim is to boost competition in a sector domi...

Labour Leader Chris Hipkins says he's not clear what the Government's aiming for in its plans to change local government.

It's proposing replacing the country's 11 regional councils with boards made up of local mayors.

Hipkins agrees there's an obvious need for change.

But he told John MacDonald he thinks this looks like an attempt to make councils amalgamate.

Hipkins says if that's what they wanted, they should have told councils ...

This move by the Government to change who is ultimately liable for repairs to defective building work on new houses up to three-storeys high and renovation jobs worth more than $100,000 makes me very nervous.  

At the moment, all parties involved in a project are jointly liable for any defects and repairs.  

Which means, sometimes, if one of them can’t pay or if they’ve all gone under since the work was done, the local co...

I’m with the KiwiSaver providers who are saying we need to go further than just increasing contributions and we need to make them compulsory.

This is after the announcement by the National Party yesterday that one of its election policies next year will be increasing contributions to 12 percent (6 percent from employers and 6 percent from employees) by 2032, to bring us into line with Australia.

KiwiSaver providers are saying today...

Labour says the Government shouldn't be celebrating record high prisoner numbers.  

Earlier this week Prime Minister Christopher Luxon declared it was a good thing the prison population was nearing 11 thousand people.  

The Government is also celebrating a reduction by 38 thousand in the number of victims of violent crime since it came into power.  

Labour's Duncan Webb told John MacDonald that while locking people u...

For me, one of the best things to come out of yesterday’s announcement about the Cook Strait ferries has nothing to do with the ferries themselves. 

There’s still a bit of smoke and mirrors about the numbers and what it’s going to end up costing.  

Because what it still comes down to is that the Government poured $671 million down the drain when the Finance Minister pulled the plug on funding for the old ferry project. Wh...