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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

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All Episodes

4:50

John MacDonald: Who says we're drinking responsibly?

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/29

Associate Health Minister Nicole McKee is talking nonsense when she says most of us who drink alcohol do it responsibly. If she really believes that, then she needs to get out more often. But I don’t think there’s much we can do about it because when it comes to alcohol, the horse has already bolted. She made the comment when she announced changes that will stop people opposing liquor licence applications if they don’t live in the area, allow hairdressers to serve alcohol without a licence, and let

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4:50

John MacDonald: The not-so-super rescue plan for...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/28

It’s just over four years since the Commerce Commission released its first report on the supermarket sector in New Zealand and, yesterday, the Government announced what it’s going to do. Which, in my view, will achieve nothing. To be fair, Nicola Willis wasn’t in Government four years ago and it was Labour that received that first report and went about hiring the Grocery Commissioner. Who, I think we can all agree, has done next-to-nothing. My supermarket bills certainly haven’t got any cheaper

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4:29

John MacDonald: The absurdity of our insurance market

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/27

If this doesn’t convince you that the insurance system in this country is broken, nothing will. Consumer NZ has revealed that in the past 25 years, the cost of insurance has increased by 900%. The largest increase of anything in the Consumer Price Index. If you’ve bought insurance of any type in the past, maybe that won’t surprise you. Because insurance is a necessary evil and with necessary evils, we tend to shrug our shoulders and fork out the money. But here’s what makes this news all the more

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5:30

John MacDonald: The KiwiSaver divide that needs sorting

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/26

I think it would be very easy to push-back on Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson’s call for changes to the KiwiSaver scheme to make it easier for self-employed people to save for their retirement. But I’m not going to. She wants to see changes because people who work for themselves are contributing nowhere near as much as employees —partly because they don’t get the benefit of an employer making contributions— and she says that could mean they end up living in poverty when they retire. A tax

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4:45

John MacDonald: Is user-pays being taken too far?

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/25

We'll be chewing through the power in the south this week with the frosty weather. Which is the "ideal time" for Transpower to reveal that the budget for a major upgrade of electricity transmission lines in the South Island has increased again and that South Islanders will be paying for it. Which raises the question: Is this taking user-pays too far? And I think it is. What’s happened, is Transpower is upgrading its lines north of Twizel. Because, the way things are going, they won’t be able to cope

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4:15

John MacDonald: Fix the Clean Slate law or get rid of...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/22

How do you feel about people being allowed to hide their convictions? There are two ways of doing it. 1) Just don’t tell people about it. Or use the clean slate legislation, which wipes your record clean if you’ve had no convictions for seven years. If you’ve been to prison for your offences though, you don’t qualify. Concerns about the legislation are being raised after an Auckland man with historical indecency convictions was able to pass multiple police checks, become registered as a teacher, and

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19:13

Politics Friday with Vanessa Weenink and Reuben...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/22

Questions have been raised about where a Christchurch homeless community being booted out of a church carpark will go next. City Council's issued an abatement notice requiring Avonside's Holy Trinity Church carpark to stop being used as a campground by 5pm. An extension is possible if a new resource consent, allowing camping, is obtained. Labour's Christchurch East MP Reuben Davidson told John MacDonald the problem isn't the people, but the fact we don't have enough housing. He says we all have

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4:23

John MacDonald: Regional council's tone deaf $40k pay...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/21

What would you say to a $40,000 pay rise? Yes please? If you’re the chief executive of Environment Canterbury regional council, you would. It’s been revealed that in the last financial year, Stefanie Rixecker’s pay increased by 9.3 %, upping her salary by $40,000 to just under $480,000, making her the highest-paid regional council boss in the country. And this wasn’t one of those decisions by the Independent Remuneration Authority, which sets the pay levels for politicians, which also gives

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8:21

Chris Hipkins: Labour Leader on the teachers strike,...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/20

More than 20 thousand secondary teachers are walking off the job today to strike over the lowest pay increase offer in a generation. Post-Primary Teachers Association members will picket outside dozens of schools and MP offices after rejecting a 3% pay increase over three years. Opposition Leader Chris Hipkins told John MacDonald teachers deserve more than the Government's offering. He says that if they accept this offer, they’ll effectively be taking a pay cut as it’s below the rate of inflation

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4:32

John MacDonald: Why is performance pay such a no-no...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/20

You won’t get me tooting for the striking high school teachers. Because I don’t think they’re reading the room at all. On the picket lines, unhappy that they've been offered a 3% increase over three years. And this is nothing to do with the kids not being able to go to school today, because high school kids don’t need babysitting. They can just stay at home and work on their assignments, or go to the mall, or go into town. The reason I think the teachers are going to find it difficult to get a lot

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33:42

Tony Hill: Canterbury District Commander...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/19

Canterbury's top police officer believes the current policies around arming New Zealand police officers are appropriate. Multiple investigations are underway following a double police shooting in Christchurch that left one dead and another seriously injured. The Council of Licensed Firearms Owners says it's an example of what happens when police aren't trained to handle firearms in high pressure situations. Canterbury District Commander Superintendent Tony Hill told John MacDonald training's

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4:31

John MacDonald: Are councils really the best outfits...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/19

We are going to pay more for water services. But even though it's coming about because of government policy, I’m not blaming Wellington. I’m blaming our councils. Councils that should be ashamed of how they ran down our water infrastructure to the extent that millions of litres of water disappear every day because of cruddy pipes. And the consequence of that neglect and incompetence is going to hit us in the pocket. Two examples. In Christchurch, household water bills are expected to increase by

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4:35

John MacDonald: Should NZ build a nuclear reactor to...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/18

How would you feel about New Zealand building small nuclear reactors to generate more power? That’s what the Maxim Institute think-tank is calling for. Saying that, if we did, more of the world’s biggest technology companies could be attracted here to establish big data centres and that would add billions of dollars to the economy. Thomas Scrimgeour from the Maxim Institute says the rest of the world is going nuclear on the power generation front and we need to catch up. He also thinks New

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4:30

John MacDonald: How I feel about armed cops after...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/15

When I first heard about the police shooting and killing someone they had actually gone to help, like most people, I wondered how the hell that could happen. This is the shooting in Bryndwr in Christchurch overnight on Wednesday, which left a woman dead and a man critically injured. As always happens, the armchair experts haven’t been slow in coming forward. For example, demanding to know why the police couldn’t have shot the woman in the leg, rather than taking her life. But unless we have been

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20:22

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

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/15

The Mental Health Minister's defending claiming his Government's inherited Hillmorton Hospital and its failings from the Labour-led Government of the time. A review of Canterbury's mental health services reveals significant failings, contributing to murders by patients in 2022 and 2024. Minister Matt Doocey told John MacDonald it's a fact. He says the report lays bare the state of Hillmorton in June 2022, and that is the reality of the system they inherited. Labour's Megan Woods told MacDonald

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8:09

Ronan Keating: Musician talks his career, Boyzone,...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/14

Ronan Keating has been performing for over 30 years. He debuted in 1993 as the frontman of Boyzone, going on to have an extremely successful solo career from 1999. Keating joined John MacDonald to talk about his rise to fame, life as a grandfather, and what we can expect to see at Selwyn Sounds in 2026. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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5:16

John MacDonald: Boris fronted-up to a Covid Inquiry -...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/14

I can recall a conversation I had about a month ago with Labour leader and former Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins about Part 2 of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into his government’s pandemic response. And he was saying that he was waiting to be invited to appear, and wouldn’t be asking for an invite, and wouldn’t be gate-crashing. That was around the time that he was also saying the Inquiry was a platform for conspiracy theorists. And I said at the time that, if Chris Hipkins was eventually

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4:13

John MacDonald: How do we pay for new roads without...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/13

Like anyone, if I can get something for free - I’ll take it. But if it’s something I have to pay for, then I’ll pay it. Which is how I’m feeling about all this fuss over the new Woodend Bypass, north of Christchurch, being a toll road. Granted, I won’t be a daily user, so the financial impact on me won’t be the same as it will for someone who uses it every day. But let’s get a grip. Toll roads are the future. Tell that to Waimakariri mayor Dan Gordon, though, who is very upset that NZTA plans to

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4:44

John MacDonald: Here's why Luxon and Hipkins are...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/12

If I asked you who you would rather go and have a beer with, Christopher Luxon or Chris Hipkins, who would you choose? I’d choose Luxon any day. One slight technicality is that he doesn’t drink. But he’d have a lime and soda or whatever he likes to drink, I’d have a beer and we’d probably have a very nice time. Reason being that on the occasions that I’ve met him in person, he comes across as a very good guy and good fun to be around. I’ve met Hipkins several times too, but I think he’d be a bit

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4:35

John MacDonald: The stadium train is an excellent...

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald ·

2025/08/11

TOPIC 1 EDITORIAL: STADIUM TRAIN I love this plan for an express passenger train to get people into Christchurch for events at the new One New Zealand Stadium, which is due to open in April next year. But I’ll love it even more if the councils around here chip-in to pay for a new railway station at the corner of Moorhouse Avenue and Colombo Street, which the rail company behind the plan is describing as a “key ingredient”. Because, otherwise, there’s a 4.3 kilometre journey by road from the current

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