Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

Anyone who thinks the ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran is going to last the full two weeks is dreaming. 

How many reasons can I give you? Because there are plenty. 

First up, there are these conflicting reports coming through this regarding the Strait of Hormuz. The stretch of water that is the reason why diesel users in this country are paying more for fuel than petrol users. Why Air New Zealand and...

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 intensification. It'll need a bit of a...

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. 

Why’s that? Because the Government ...

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 Willis seems to be complaining. She app...

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 could be the end of his push to be ...

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 COVID era where we're able to say ...

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. 

But I think New Zealand has no ...

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 electric, we've got solar on our galleries...

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 credits to help them deal with increase...

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 the Iran war.

The International Ener...

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 was doing the drums and the cans b...

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 Willis says the people the Government...

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 could be at risk of "stagflation" – a c...

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 interesting bit.

I don't know about you, ...

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 them to go and talk to some other mug ...

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 spotlight can mean loved ones pay a signi...

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 situation in the middle east. 

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