x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

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

5:49

John MacDonald: Duty of care? Do me a favour, Christian

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/28

Some people think a 90-day trial for new workers is tough, but what about a two-day trial? Which is what’s happened with Liam Lawson. And like his Red Bull teammate, world champion Max Verstappen, I think it stinks. Verstappen thinks Lawson should have been given more than two races to prove himself, and I couldn’t agree more. Red Bull are dressing it up, saying that they’re dumping Lawson as part of their “duty of care” obligations. Red Bull boss Christian Horner said overnight: “We have a duty

en-US

22:41

Politics Friday with Megan Woods and Matt Doocey:...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/27

National’s Matt Doocey and Labour’s Megan Woods joined John MacDonald in studio to discuss some of the biggest political stories of the week. Green MP Tamatha Paul has been under fire for her comments about beat police – does their presence really make people feel less safe? And how do her comments bode for Labour, given they’re potentially coalition partners? Is it fair the new Christchurch stadium could have a levy for ‘out-of-towners', since ratepayers funded the build? And will the proposed

en-US

5:37

John MacDonald: Roadside drug testing? Great. Will...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/27

I’m sure you’ll tell me if you think I’m stuck in the past, but I reckon that with the police now being expected to do roadside drug tests —as well as everything else— I think we should bring back the old MOT. The old traffic cops. Officially, it was known as the traffic safety service, but we all knew it as the MOT. And, yes, I know the police are struggling as it is to get the 500 new cops by the end of the year that the government has promised. But if they are now going to be expected to do

en-US

13:52

Ben Elton: British Comedian talks comedy, his career,...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/26

British comedian Ben Elton is returning to Christchurch this May, in what will be his final show in his Authentic Stupidity tour. He joined John MacDonald for a chat about his outlook on life after years of writing comedy and how he feels about performing in Christchurch – plus, an exclusive reveal about his upcoming autobiography. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

en-US

10:11

Phil Mauger: Christchurch Mayor on the restoration of...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/26

Christchurch's Mayor says he was shocked by the $400 thousand bill to restore Cathedral Square's Chalice. The City Council's investigating ways to reduce the cost for work, including a complete re-paint and corrosion repairs. It's the first maintenance work to the Chalice since installation in 2001. Phil Mauger told John MacDonald options include touching up the Chalice leaves but leaving the actual structure as-is. “The person that we’re dealing with, we’re working with them to see if we can lower

en-US

5:04

John MacDonald: One stadium, one ticket price

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/25

Even though I live in Christchurch and pay rates in Christchurch, you’re not going to hear me saying that I should pay less to get into the new One NZ Stadium when it opens next year. But I bet there’ll be no shortage of Christchurch people thinking that’s a brilliant idea, but I don’t. It’s something that the council-owned company that will run the stadium says could happen. People who live in Christchurch city could pay less than people from anywhere else. The reason being —or the theory being—

en-US

5:56

John MacDonald: Meth use doubles and here's what...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/25

I’ve never used meth. And I hope I never do. I say “hope” because I think that’s as certain as you can be about a drug like that. Because none of us know what’s going to happen in the future and whether we might just find ourselves in a position where we might just feel a bit differently about using it. I don't know how many times I’ve read stories about people saying they had no idea they'd end up using meth. And there’s no shortage of them, with use of the drug in New Zealand increasing by 96%

en-US

5:00

John MacDonald: Are we really that scared of saying...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/24

At the same time as Winston Peters is declaring war on wokeism, we’ve got a Christchurch community board member saying we are too scared to say things these days in case we offend people. Ali Jones is the community board member and she’s firing back at criticisms that comments she made online about mobility car parks were "shocking". I’ll get to her comments and the reaction but, let me say first, that I don’t agree with her that we are too scared to say things these days. I would say the only

en-US

5:45

John MacDonald: How to honour Chch Cathedral's past...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/21

Here's an idea that I’m quite excited about. It’s quite raw – it only occurred to me at about 5:30 this morning. But I reckon it could be a solution to something that has gone on for way too long, with no sign of it ending. There is a one-day exhibition being held inside the Christchurch Cathedral today, of miniature models of buildings that went in the earthquakes. It’s happening today-only at the cathedral and will move to the Arts Centre next week. But I reckon this is what we should be doing

en-US

20:41

Politics Friday with Hamish Campbell and Duncan Webb:...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/20

The future of Christchurch’s beleaguered cathedral is on the radar again – is there a chance it could be turned into a public use venue, or will it be lost to the city entirely? Will a free trade deal with India really be as quick and straight forward as the Prime Minister believes? And does party politics have a place in local body government? This and more are discussed by Labour’s Duncan Webb and Hamish Campbell on Politics Friday. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy

en-US

6:01

John MacDonald: An apprenticeship is anything but...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/19

I always have and always will be a huge fan of on-the-job training. Which is why I think it’s brilliant that we’ve got an education expert saying today that the apprenticeship system needs an overhaul. And not only that, he wants to see schools doing more, and is suggesting they could offer a trades preparation qualification to create a pipeline of new apprentices - but also to remove the stigma that an apprenticeship is second fiddle to a university degree. Michael Johnston from the NZ Initiative

en-US

4:36

John MacDonald: What's so bad about political parties...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/18

David Seymour says the ACT Party wants to put up candidates in this year’s local body elections because “it’s time for a clean-out”. Whatever his motivation is, I think his plan to get ACT involved in local councils is a good thing. Some people think political parties shouldn’t be involved in local councils, but what would you prefer? If someone’s wearing a party badge, at least you know what they stand for. Anyone else, and it can be a guessing game. And I agree with Seymour when he says it would

en-US

5:03

John MacDonald: We shouldn't be in the dark to the...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/16

Isn't it crazy that schools don't have to report how much bullying is going on? The Chief Children's Commissioner thinks so too, which is why she’s saying that it should be mandatory for schools to provide regular, publicly-available numbers. No wonder some parents feel their school isn’t doing enough about bullying. Because, if you don’t have to report it, it's much easier to sweep under the carpet, isn’t it? Thankfully, our kids never had any serious problems with bullying. And I'm pretty sure I

en-US

19:49

Politics Friday with Matt Doocey and Reuben Davidson:...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/14

Today on Politics Friday, John MacDonald was joined by National’s Matt Doocey and Labour’s Reuben Davidson. Christchurch City Council is considering allowing unleashed dogs to run free in two central city parks – neither were fond of the idea. With the Investment Summit underway in Auckland, is Davidson disagreeing with his own party on the future of public-private partnerships? And Doocey believes there’s no reason to change the voting system for local body elections – do we just have too many

en-US

5:28

John MacDonald: Road rage is getting worse - here's...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/11

Road rage is getting worse according to survey results out today, and I think it’s time we made road rage a specific criminal offence. I’ll come back to that but, first, how about this for a story? A guy’s driving around Governor’s Bay when this boy racer starts tailgating him, then stops in front of him, pulls out a baseball bat and starts smashing the guy’s windscreen. That was a week ago. Then we had someone else sent to prison last week after stabbing someone in an apparent road rage incident

en-US

5:04

John MacDonald: Taking away the Environment Court is...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/10

I don’t like this idea of dangling bigger carrots in front of people who own land that the government or your local council might want for big infrastructure projects. But I'm more concerned about denying people who object access to the Environment Court. Instead of the court, if someone isn’t happy about compulsory sale of their land, they’ll have to complain to the Land Information Minister or their local council – depending on who it is that wants their land. And we know who’s going to win that

en-US

5:25

John MacDonald: Winston had no option

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/06

Winston Peters had no option when it came to sacking Phil Goff from his job as High Commissioner in London, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy with it. I think he’s done the right thing. But he’s done the wrong thing, as well. Because it just shows how scaredy-cat the world is of Donald Trump. But we better get used to it – this is how it’s going to be for the next four years. That’s why I accept that it needed to be done, but it’s still pretty cruddy that we are running scared of him like this

en-US

5:59

John MacDonald: Orr's job was to re-build the rock...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/05

I'm neither happy or unhappy that Adrian Orr is no longer Reserve Bank Governor, but I do have a piece of advice for whoever ends up taking over from him. Just be the complete opposite. Because I reckon he fell into a trap that ended up with him getting too big for his boots. Which, maybe, is very hard to avoid when you’re in a job like his, but the next person needs to make sure they stay in their lane and keeps themselves in check. When you’re the Reserve Bank Governor, your job is to work on

en-US

5:17

John MacDonald: The PM just doesn't get it, does he?

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/04

I’m still getting over the Prime Minister saying if people don't like the food provided by the school lunch programme, they should make a marmite sandwich. And quite rightly, his comments are being described by the principal of a school in Kaiapoi as “absolutely disgraceful”. And I couldn’t agree more. Jason Miles is the principal of Kaiapoi North School and he’s bang on – that talk from the PM was disgraceful. And he says it just shows that Christopher Luxon has had a gutsful of the school

en-US

8:42

Chris Hipkins: Labour Leader on tariffs, Ukraine,...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/03/04

Labour Leader Chris Hipkins joined John MacDonald this morning to dig into the latest. They discussed the latest from Ukraine and the potential for Trump to introduce agricultural tariffs in the wake of his over 20% tariffs on key trade partners. Is talking to an overseas GP on the phone really a good solution to our lacking services? And what on earth has gone wrong with the school lunch system? Is a marmite sandwich really sufficient? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy

en-US

1,129 results

Similar Podcasts

Expres Ráno

Expres FM

PBS News Hour - Full Show

PBS NewsHour

CD Voice

China Daily

Israel Today: Ongoing War Report

Noa Levi

Jeffrey Epstein: The Coverup Chronicles

Bobby Capucci