Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

Local politicians from both sides of the political divide are slamming police process around the proposed restructure in wider Canterbury.    

Federated Farmers, City Councillors, and schools are concerned at the lack of community consultation.  

Banks Peninsula MP Vanessa Weenink told John MacDonald the communication, for a start, hasn't been well managed.  

She says police will need to do a lot to assure her, ...

When I heard Transport Minister Chris Bishop talking about the Government’s changes to the road user charges system, I had a bit of a Max Bradford moment.  

Max was the National Party minister who told us back in 1988 that his reforms of the electricity sector were going to mean cheaper power prices.  

Which is what Chris Bishop was saying yesterday about the plan to ditch petrol taxes and move all vehicle owners to road ...

With the Government wanting artificial intelligence to be used to mark high school exams, I asked a ChatGPT bot how it felt about that.   

And here’s what it said: "If the Government were to ask me to mark high school exams, I would feel (if I could feel) cautious optimism, with a big dose of responsible hesitation."  

The bot said, on the upside, it could process thousands of scripts quickly, never get tired, and no...

The Opposition leader says he's worried Police are retrenching from rural communities. 

A planned staffing restructure could move some permanent posted rural officers move to work from 24/7 hubs in Rolleston and Rangiora. 

Officer headcount won't drop.  

Chris Hipkins told John MacDonald he's been through this in his own area, in Wellington's Upper Hutt. 

He says it means Police presence reduces.  

He says ...

Canterbury police say they'll still serve rural communities under a plan to centralise officers.  

They're mid-way through two weeks of internal consultation on a plan to shift some officers from smaller rural stations, to larger 24/7 hubs in Rolleston and Rangiora.  

District Commander Superintendent, Tony Hill, told John MacDonald rural liaison officers will still work with smaller areas, and police will respond and com...

Yesterday, when the Government announced that it was getting rid of NCEA, my immediate reaction was that it was a mistake.  

That we would have been much better sticking with the system we’ve got and improving it.  

Twenty-four hours later, I still feel the same.   

There are some aspects of the changes that I think are brilliant. But the more I’ve found out about it, the more convinced I am that this could all ...

Just because someone can afford to do something, it doesn’t always mean they should do it. 

Which is how I’m feeling about Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger using his own money to pay engineers to design a replacement for the controversial Park Terrace cycleway which, he says, is under-utilised and causing traffic congestion. 

According to council data, 648 cyclists use it every week day. Which doesn’t sound under-utilised t...

It must be tricky being at school and feeling like you’re not doing anything to prepare you for what you actually want to do when you leave. 

The Government is starting to think about that after this new report from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority which says NCEA is too focused on kids wanting to go to university. 

The report was prepared for Education Minister Erica Stanford who is promising some big changes.&nb...

Matt Doocey and Duncan Webb joined John MacDonald to give their thoughts on the biggest political stories of the week. 

Changes are likely coming to NCEA – are they needed? And should trades be given more support in schools? 

A lawyer is calling for the Government to step in and shut down Gloriavale, but should this be their responsibility? 

Doocey has launched a petition against a T2 lane – is this an easy hit for v...

It’s believed the government has the ability to shut down Gloriavale.  

The West Coast religious commune's 85-year-old leader Howard Temple is a sex offender, having plead guilty to 12 charges, including indecent assault, mid-way through a trial.  

The charges relate to offending back to the 1990s.  

Leavers' lawyer Brian Henry told John MacDonald there are laws that allow the removal of families from harm, and the C...

The gangs were right, the Government was wrong.  

That’s one way to interpret the news that, for the first time, the number of people on the national gang list is higher than 10,000.  

The gangs were right. Because they said right from the outset that the Government could do what it wants but they will never go away.  

And the numbers don’t lie, do they?  

At the time of the 2023 election, there were 9,270 peopl...

I understand what the Prime Minister is saying about these pay increases for board members at Crown agencies, such as Health NZ and Kāinga Ora, but I’m not buying it.   

The top payment was $90,000. It’s now $160,000.  

Christopher Luxon says the Government needs to offer higher pay for these board roles so they can attract the best people. But tell that to the 28,000 people who have lost their jobs in the past year....

The news today that half of the departments at Christchurch Hospital are operating below full staffing levels doesn’t surprise me.

In some departments, they are less than 80 percent of what they should be.

So, if I’m not surprised, does that mean my expectations of the hospital system are pretty low? The answer to that is “yes”.

I expect that the basics are covered and that’s about it. That our hospitals are full of brilliant peopl...

There will be no shortage of people today thinking that it's a brilliant move by the Government to ditch official guidelines for including transgender people in community sport and leaving it to the sporting organisations themselves to handle it.  

But I think it’s just going to open a can of worms, and these people who think it’s great might think differently if they were on the committee of one of their local sporting clubs....

The former frontman of English new-wave band Spandau Ballet, now a solo act, Tony Hadley is popping over to our shores early next year. 

He’s part of the line up for the 2026 Selwyn Sounds, performing alongside the likes of Ronan Keating, When The Cats Away, and Opshop.  

Hadley joined John MacDonald for a chat about his career, influences, and gave an insight into why Spandau Ballet won’t be reuniting any time soon. ...

Phil Mauger is back on board the climate change bandwagon today – just like he was before the last election.  

I remember asking him three years ago what he thought the most pressing issue facing Christchurch was and he said climate change.  

And he’s at it again today. So is current city councillor Sara Templeton, who also wants to be the city's next mayor. 

It won’t be any surprise to anyone that Sara rates climate...

The Labour Leader has responded to Luxon’s heated comments in response to their jabs about the cost of living. 

The Opposition has criticised the Government’s flagship cost of living policy, raising a red flag over only 153 families getting the maximum credit across all four quarters. 

Luxon says Labour's crying crocodile tears, and that he’s not taking any lectures from "frickin Chris Hipkins" about not supporting workin...

Let's start with the positives in the news that the Government is pressing ahead with a new medical school at Waikato University.  

120 new med students every year. You can’t argue with that.  

But that’s about it for me.   

I’m not going to criticise the Government for doing something to get more doctors, because we need them. Especially in rural and regional areas, which look to be the main focus of this new s...

I’m going to start by quoting someone I’ve quoted before - Dr Nicola Day, who is a plant ecologist at Victoria University in Wellington.

Knowing a thing or two about plants means she knows a thing or two about pine trees. And here’s how she describes them: “Pines are one of the most flammable plants on the planet."

I referred to the same quote last year when the Government turned down a request to change the forestry rules, so that...