Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

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 really signed up to that whole buy ...

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 funding the redevelopment of Cathe...

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 getting two doses of the vaccine. Be...

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 is saying that people are already ...

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. That the only thing he was thinking ...

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 committee says: “Harm to young New Z...

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 building.  

LISTEN ABOVE 

See om...

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 place ever since.

That was back in 198...

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 about a regime change, you need to ...

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 living with that smell night and day...

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 breaking international law with these ...

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 election policies.

There’ll be no de...

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.

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