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PODCAST

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

Every weekday join the new voice of local issues on Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald, 9am-12pm weekdays.It’s all about the conversation with John, as he gets right into the things that get our community talking.If it’s news you’re after, backing John is the combined power of the Newstalk ZB and New Zealand Herald news teams. Meaning when it comes to covering breaking news – you will not beat local radio.With two decades experience in communications based in Christchurch, John also has a deep

news politics

All Episodes

6:04

John MacDonald: Attention motorists, more user-pays...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/26

The Infrastructure Commission's draft 30-year plan is the kind of big picture thinking we’ve been saying is needed, instead of the ad-hoc, politically driven approach we have at the moment. Essentially, the Commission says we’re going to need less schools and more hospitals because of the ageing population. It also says we’re going to need more roads and better roads, and we’re going to have to do some serious thinking about how we pay for them. Its draft plan doesn’t go into too much detail,

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8:41

Chris Hipkins: Labour Leader on the conflict in the...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/25

The Opposition Leader has laid out his view of what's needed for peace in the Middle East. A wavering ceasefire remains between Israel and Iran after scolding from the US President, although both claim breaches by the other. Donald Trump claims his country's strikes this week destroyed Iran's nuclear programme, but early US intelligence indicates it's only set it back by months. Chris Hipkins told John MacDonald diplomacy is needed from everyone. He says bombing isn't the answer to ending a nuclear

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6:10

John MacDonald: Weapons in schools are the canary in...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/25

If we choose to ignore or downplay this new information out today about kids taking weapons to school, we’ll be doing it at our peril. Because what do you hear people say time and time again when something terrible happens? These are people in the news who might be commenting about a stabbing or a shooting, or something like that. What is it we hear them say time and time again? “We never thought this sort of thing would happen here.” We hear people in the United States saying it whenever there’s

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5:33

John MacDonald: Capping council rates isn't a solution

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/24

Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger is in campaign mode for this year’s elections, saying that he thinks the Government might be onto a winner with its idea of forcing councils to put a cap on rates increases. I’m wondering if Phil does actually think it’s a good idea, or whether he’s just saying it. Because I think it would create havoc for local councils having Wellington telling them how much they could increase rates each year. And this isn’t me banging the local democracy drum. This is me taking

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5:33

John MacDonald: Get the Kiwis out of Iran and Israel...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/23

The US air strikes on Iran yesterday are a disaster. A disaster that New Zealand needs to stay well clear of. Before yesterday, the prospect of it happening was a disaster-in-the making. And, now that it’s happened, it’s an absolute disaster. Not because of what might happen today, tomorrow or the next day. But, what will happen when the world least expects it. Not just in terms of what Iran itself will do. I’m talking about the inevitable terrorism activity because of what happened yesterday

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5:05

John MacDonald: The Govt.'s into local...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/19

The Government’s been making it increasingly clear over time that it doesn’t really give two-hoots about local democracy. But, in the last 24 hours, it’s gone next level. First up, we’ve got housing minister Chris Bishop, who announced yesterday that he’s going to be given special powers to ride roughshod over council plans if he doesn’t like them. Essentially, if he thinks a council has a district plan that doesn’t support economic growth and development, or won't do anything to create jobs, then

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8:02

Phil Mauger: Christchurch Mayor on housing...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/19

Christchurch’s Mayor is back with John MacDonald to discuss the biggest stories from the week that was. The Government is giving the Housing Minister the power to overrule local councils, and Phil Mauger has some strong opinions on the topic. Housing intensification is still on the docket, but he’s made it clear they’ll be pushing back against it all the way. And why are there so many leafblowers out and about? Is that a good use of taxpayer money? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy

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4:52

John MacDonald: We need a one-size-fits-all life...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/18

How weird is it that there are different rules or expectations regarding life jackets, depending on where you are in the country? I’m not the only one who thinks it’s weird. A coroner who has looked into the drownings of a 10-year-old boy and his mother thinks it’s weird too, and is calling for change. And instead of local councils being responsible for setting lifejacket rules, she wants there to be a single rule for the whole country making life jackets mandatory on all small boats. Everywhere.

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5:50

John MacDonald: A closer look at our mental health...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/17

It was bad enough that a patient at Hillmorton Hospital who had threatened to kill was still allowed to come and go and ended up killing an innocent woman at her Christchurch home. The fact this person had killed someone else previously, before taking the life of Faye Phillips last year, makes the circumstances behind the tragedy worse. On both occasions he was a mental health patient, which is why Ruth Money —who is the Government’s Chief Victims Advisor— is saying that we must have a Royal

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5:26

John MacDonald: Police cameras yes - with a couple of...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/16

I’ve surprised myself a little bit with my reaction to the news the police are looking at introducing body cameras. Generally, I’m all for it. But the civil liberties people have raised some very good points about them being misused. One example they’re giving is the potential for the cameras to be combined with facial recognition technology. Which I'm torn on, after finding out about facial recognition being used at the Richmond Club, in Christchurch, to keep an eye on people using the pokie

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4:59

John MacDonald: Australia might have AUKUS-buyer's...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/13

Donald Trump won’t be too happy with Helen Clark right now, because she’s saying she doesn't want New Zealand to be an ally of the United States ever again. I’m with her on that one – while Trump is president, anyway. I’m also with Defence Minister Judith Collins who isn’t saying anything about Trump doing a review of the AUKUS military alliance with Australia and the UK, to make sure that it’s a fair deal for America. I think Judith Collins going all quiet about this cloud over AUKUS is the

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19:09

Politics Friday with Matt Doocey and Duncan Webb:...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/13

Matt Doocey and Duncan Webb joined John MacDonald in studio for Politics Friday. They discussed Helen Clark’s recent comments around New Zealand’s relationship with the United States – do they agree? On the topic of privacy versus safety, when it comes to mental illness, is keeping people safe a higher priority than keeping someone’s health private? And Tourism New Zealand’s new 100% Pure marketing campaign has been launched, and Duncan Webb is not a fan. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for

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4:35

John MacDonald: Wool carpet is great - but not...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/12

I’m all for the push to have wool carpet used in government buildings but I think it’s a mistake putting it in state homes. Kāinga Ora has announced that, from next month, there will be woollen carpets in all new state homes. It’s also going to use wool if the carpet in existing homes needs replacing. Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says Kāinga Ora has managed to get a deal that will mean the wool carpet won’t cost any more than nylon carpet. Which is interesting because, in December last

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5:58

John MacDonald: People should have known about...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/11

I’m not exactly sure where to start with this, because it is just so tragic and there is so much to it. I could start by ripping into the people who run Hillmorton Hospital, in Christchurch, for not doing more to try to prevent one of their patients murdering a woman at her home in Mt Pleasant – because I want to rip into them. I could start with the thought that ran through my head when more details emerged at Elliot Cameron’s sentencing yesterday for the murder of 83-year-old Faye Phelps, but

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8:44

Chris Hipkins: Labour Leader on Te Pati Māori,...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/11

Labour's leader says Te Pati Māori should focus on the issues most New Zealanders care about. Parliament last week voted to hand down the harshest suspensions in history to three MPs over a haka performed during the Treaty Principles Bill vote. Labour's Willie Jackson and Adrian Rurawhe argued the punishments were too harsh, but also suggested the Party could compromise or say sorry. Chris Hipkins told John MacDonald housing, health, and education are the main things Māori around the country

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4:47

John MacDonald: The Govt needs some skin in the solar...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/10

How would you feel if the Government came out and said solar energy is the future and it was going to throw everything at it? Because that’s something I think it needs to seriously consider doing. For me, there would only be one fly in the ointment – I’ll get to that. But it’s not enough for me to say that the Government shouldn’t be ploughing money into solar energy. Lodestone Energy is in the news today talking about its latest solar farm, which will cover 42-hectares in the Clandeboye area in

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5:06

John MacDonald: We need to get real about housing...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/09

“A complete balls up”. How about that for what might be quote of the day? That’s how Christchurch city councillor Andrei Moore is describing the council’s handling of the housing intensification row. It’s a row that has been shut down for good by Housing and Resource Management Minister Chris Bishop, who has rejected Christchurch’s bid to have its own, separate housing intensification rules. Which I have no problem with. If he had given-in to Christchurch, it would’ve opened the floodgates right

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5:31

John MacDonald: The modern learning environment -...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/06

Imagine a school having $800,000 in the bank. Imagine all the things a school could buy with that amount of money. This is a state school I’m talking about, not a Flash Harry private school that can put the call-out to the old boys and the old girls when it needs cash to do something. So a state school with $800,000 in the bank, and this state school has to spend that money fixing up a cock-up forced on it by the Ministry of Education. The cock-up I’m referring to is that disastrous experiment

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16:26

Politics Friday with Matt Doocey and Tracey McLellan:...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/05

John was joined by Matt Doocey and Tracey McLellan this week for Politics Friday. They discussed the situation with Shirley Boys High School, who have spent $800,000 to move their school away from the modern learning model. Is it fair that schools have to foot the bill for this? The decision has been made around punishment for Te Pati Māori, does this affect Labour's view of working with them in future, and is there really gas to be found in New Zealand?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy

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5:27

John MacDonald: There's nothing special about...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/06/05

I love this idea the Commerce Commission and the Grocery Commissioner have come up with, of supermarkets giving us everyday low prices instead of the ever-changing, so-called “special prices”. The supermarket specials that really brass me off are the ones where you might see meat in one of the fridges, and they’ll have a sign showing the price per kilo. That means absolutely nothing to me. Maybe there are some shoppers who know all the ins-and-outs of prices per kilo, but I’m not one of them. The

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