This week's Politics Friday Election Special focused on the Christchurch East electorate.

The candidates, National's Alexandra Davids and Labour's Reuben Davidson, made their pitch to become the next local MP.

They discussed their backgrounds before entering politics and outlined how they would tackle the key issues facing the electorate, including homelessness, economic development, and the amount of vape shops around schools.

LISTEN ABOVE

This week's Politics Friday Election Special focused on the Christchurch East electorate.
The candidates, National's Alexandra Davids and Labour's Reuben Davidson, made their pitch to become the next local MP.
They discussed their backgrounds before entering politics and outlined how they would tackle the key issues facing the electorate, including homelessness, economic development, and the amount of vape shops around schools.
LISTEN ABOVE

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Newstalk ZB Canterbury Mornings 9am-12pm with John MacDonald on 100.1FM and iHeartRadio.

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 understanding of and connections to the Christchurch and Canterbury commercial sector. Newstalk ZB Canterbury Mornings 9am-12pm with John MacDonald on 100.1FM and iHeartRadio.

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.

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

Election 2026: Alexandra Davids and Reuben Davidson on the race to win Christchurch East

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/dff06563-23e8-4d41-a269-b4f9016ae99b/transcript

With election day tomorrow, how would you rate the campaign?

It feels to me like we’ve been in campaign mode for the whole year. I couldn’t even bring myself to watch TV1's People’s Debate last night all the way through to the end.

Elections are never an overly positive affair, but this campaign has been pretty awful.

So much so, that I reckon a lot of people will have forgotten a lot of the policies that have been trotted out.

And I’m not the only one thinking it’s been a bit of a cluster.

Some of the political leaders don’t think it’s been all that great, either.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins says National has run the most negative campaign of any first-term Government. And the results of a new study would suggest he’s right on that.

The Internet, Social Media and Politics Research Lab at Victoria University has done some analysis and has found that 65 percent of National’s Facebook posts have been negative.

A lot of that will have come from the relentless online attacks the party has made on Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.

It’s been so relentless, that Swarbrick herself has said that she’s effectively being cyber-bullied by National.

I agree with her. Bearing in mind too that it was only a few weeks ago when National’s Selwyn MP Nicola Grigg went public with some of the online bullying she’s been dealing with.

Since then, National has continued having a go at Chlöe online. Using unflattering photos, all of that. Just really nasty stuff.

Not that Labour has been squeaky clean, either.

Because the study which has found that 65 percent of National’s Facebook posts have been negative also found that just over 50 percent of Labour’s posts have been negative too.

So Chris Hipkins may be right when he says it’s been the most negative campaign ever by a first-term Government. But there’s a bit of the old pot calling the kettle going on.

Then we get to how Winston Peters feels the campaign has gone.

The NZ First leader thinks it’s the worst one he’s ever seen. He’s seen a few and is describing this one as a circus. Criticising the party leaders who have been clamouring to the gelato shop in Christchurch to try the gelato flavour named after them.

He’s been saying: “It's just astonishing what's happened here. It's turned into, sadly, a circus. This idea of having an ice cream poll and every leader dutifully turning up, subservient as it is, to such an unscientific, unprofessional thing is beyond me.”

He goes on: “And then you've got people petting dogs. I love dogs, but you know, going around petting dogs can be very dangerous sometimes, you pat the wrong dog.

“They’re talking about a cost of living crisis, and they’re flipping hamburgers.”

He’s talking there about Christopher Luxon and David Seymour who have both been filmed in the past week making burgers.

I don’t get too upset about that kind of thing. It’s just politicians being politicians.

But I do think that it’s a campaign we’ll all be pleased to see the end of. For me, it’s been too long and too negative, with too many debates.

LISTEN ABOVE

With election day tomorrow, how would you rate the campaign?
It feels to me like we’ve been in campaign mode for the whole year. I couldn’t even bring myself to watch TV1's People’s Debate last night all the way through to the end.
Elections are never an overly positive affair, but this campaign has been pretty awful.
So much so, that I reckon a lot of people will have forgotten a lot of the policies that have been trotted out.
And I’m not the only one thinking it’s been a bit of a cluster.
Some of the political leaders don’t think it’s been all that great, either.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins says National has run the most negative campaign of any first-term Government. And the results of a new study would suggest he’s right on that.
The Internet, Social Media and Politics Research Lab at Victoria University has done some analysis and has found that 65 percent of National’s Facebook posts have been negative.
A lot of that will have come from the relentless online attacks the party has made on Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.
It’s been so relentless, that Swarbrick herself has said that she’s effectively being cyber-bullied by National.
I agree with her. Bearing in mind too that it was only a few weeks ago when National’s Selwyn MP Nicola Grigg went public with some of the online bullying she’s been dealing with.
Since then, National has continued having a go at Chlöe online. Using unflattering photos, all of that. Just really nasty stuff.
Not that Labour has been squeaky clean, either.
Because the study which has found that 65 percent of National’s Facebook posts have been negative also found that just over 50 percent of Labour’s posts have been negative too.
So Chris Hipkins may be right when he says it’s been the most negative campaign ever by a first-term Government. But there’s a bit of the old pot calling the kettle going on.
Then we get to how Winston Peters feels the campaign has gone.
The NZ First leader thinks it’s the worst one he’s ever seen. He’s seen a few and is describing this one as a circus. Criticising the party leaders who have been clamouring to the gelato shop in Christchurch to try the gelato flavour named after them.
He’s been saying: “It's just astonishing what's happened here. It's turned into, sadly, a circus. This idea of having an ice cream poll and every leader dutifully turning up, subservient as it is, to such an unscientific, unprofessional thing is beyond me.”
He goes on: “And then you've got people petting dogs. I love dogs, but you know, going around petting dogs can be very dangerous sometimes, you pat the wrong dog.
“They’re talking about a cost of living crisis, and they’re flipping hamburgers.”
He’s talking there about Christopher Luxon and David Seymour who have both been filmed in the past week making burgers.
I don’t get too upset about that kind of thing. It’s just politicians being politicians.
But I do think that it’s a campaign we’ll all be pleased to see the end of. For me, it’s been too long and too negative, with too many debates.
LISTEN ABOVE

John MacDonald: The campaign's nearly over. How was it for you?

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/7912d756-5101-4770-9884-b4fa00000522/transcript

If you’re one of the people who doesn’t think Winston Peters has been showing his age lately, you might be thinking differently after the out of touch way he’s handling the Michael Laws situation.

 Because he seems to think that a telling off and a meeting after the election is the way to respond to Michael Laws’ appalling comments about women.

As the NZ First leader said to Ryan Bridge this morning, he thinks the comments were “careless”. But he’s not going to sack Laws before the election. But, in my mind, this guy isn’t fit to be in a modern day parliament and needs to go.

Laws himself - who is number six on the NZ First party list - is saying that his comments were supposed to be “wry and puckish”. And he’s been trotting out that line when people do the old Claytons apology. He said: “If people are offended, I apologise”.

Last week on his radio show, Laws talked about The Opportunity Party’s fourth-ranked candidate, Kayla Kingdon-Bebb, after he’d been involved in a pre-election debate with her.

He described her as “rather severe looking” and compared her to “every officious primary school teacher, female that I’ve ever come across in my life”.

That was bad enough. But he went on. And this is the clincher and this is why there’s no way Michael Laws should be in parliament again.

Talking about the Opportunity candidate, he banged on about the length of her dress and how little make-up she was wearing and then he said this: “Must be hell dating people like that, just quietly. Can you imagine what it’s like post-sex?”.

What a muppet. And I’m being generous.

National leader Christopher Luxon obviously agrees. As soon as these comments came to light yesterday, he swore that Laws will never be a cabinet minister in any government he leads.

All the other leaders have piled-on too. Except Winston Peters. He thinks Michael Laws just needs to be pulled into line. But what hypocrisy. Because, why is it that Michael Laws gets a slap on the wrist when, three-and-a-half months ago, Winston Peters was perfectly happy to accept Stuart Nash’s resignation over his comments about a female MP?

I know why. He was happy for Stuart to go because he wasn’t a few days out from an election.

Nash criticised his local National MP Katie Nimon, for taking time off after having a baby and described as her being the laziest MP he’s ever come across.

Dumb. But Michael Laws talking about what it would be like after having sex with a candidate from another political party is next level.

Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong says the comments were “awful” and “misogynistic” and she thinks Michael Laws should stand down. As I do.

Now I’m not going to pretend that, even in this day and age, some guys don’t talk the way Michael Laws did. That stuff might get said at the pub or on a boys’ weekend.

But that’s private. What Michael Laws did was public. And for him to think that it’s OK for politicians to talk like this, well - as Nicola Willis said yesterday - it’s from another era and he should go back to the ark.

LISTEN ABOVE

If you’re one of the people who doesn’t think Winston Peters has been showing his age lately, you might be thinking differently after the out of touch way he’s handling the Michael Laws situation.
&nbsp;Because he seems to think that a telling off and a meeting after the election is the way to respond to Michael Laws’ appalling comments about women.
As the NZ First leader said to Ryan Bridge this morning, he thinks the comments were “careless”. But he’s not going to sack Laws before the election. But, in my mind, this guy isn’t fit to be in a modern day parliament and needs to go.
Laws himself - who is number six on the NZ First party list - is saying that his comments were supposed to be “wry and puckish”. And he’s been trotting out that line when people do the old Claytons apology. He said: “If people are offended, I apologise”.
Last week on his radio show, Laws talked about The Opportunity Party’s fourth-ranked candidate, Kayla Kingdon-Bebb, after he’d been involved in a pre-election debate with her.
He described her as “rather severe looking” and compared her to “every officious primary school teacher, female that I’ve ever come across in my life”.
That was bad enough. But he went on. And this is the clincher and this is why there’s no way Michael Laws should be in parliament again.
Talking about the Opportunity candidate, he banged on about the length of her dress and how little make-up she was wearing and then he said this: “Must be hell dating people like that, just quietly. Can you imagine what it’s like post-sex?”.
What a muppet. And I’m being generous.
National leader Christopher Luxon obviously agrees. As soon as these comments came to light yesterday, he swore that Laws will never be a cabinet minister in any government he leads.
All the other leaders have piled-on too. Except Winston Peters. He thinks Michael Laws just needs to be pulled into line. But what hypocrisy. Because, why is it that Michael Laws gets a slap on the wrist when, three-and-a-half months ago, Winston Peters was perfectly happy to accept Stuart Nash’s resignation over his comments about a female MP?
I know why. He was happy for Stuart to go because he wasn’t a few days out from an election.
Nash criticised his local National MP Katie Nimon, for taking time off after having a baby and described as her being the laziest MP he’s ever come across.
Dumb. But Michael Laws talking about what it would be like after having sex with a candidate from another political party is next level.
Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong says the comments were “awful” and “misogynistic” and she thinks Michael Laws should stand down. As I do.
Now I’m not going to pretend that, even in this day and age, some guys don’t talk the way Michael Laws did. That stuff might get said at the pub or on a boys’ weekend.
But that’s private. What Michael Laws did was public. And for him to think that it’s OK for politicians to talk like this, well - as Nicola Willis said yesterday - it’s from another era and he should go back to the ark.
LISTEN ABOVE

John MacDonald: On Line 1, it's the 1970s calling for Michael Laws

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/a9b05c50-6361-4e65-9fa2-b4f801862c36/transcript

Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger believes the Christchurch City Council has a responsibility to help campers living in the residential red zone find alternative accommodation.

Speaking to John MacDonald on Newstalk ZB Canterbury Mornings, Mauger said homelessness remains primarily a central government responsibility, and the council needs more support from Wellington to help relocate campers.

"We do have a sort of civic duty to house these people, but we need the dough to be able to do it."

Residents of the homeless encampment in Bexley's residential red zone have been told to move out by next March despite no alternative accommodation being arranged, as the council plans to start wetland restoration in the area.

They also discussed plans to reduce future spending on cycleway projects, the council's bid to retain voting rights for some unelected committee members, and the mayor's suggestion of possible ways to cool the overheating One New Zealand Stadium.

LISTEN ABOVE

Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger believes the Christchurch City Council has a responsibility to help campers living in the residential red zone find alternative accommodation.
Speaking to John MacDonald on Newstalk ZB Canterbury Mornings, Mauger said homelessness remains primarily a central government responsibility, and the council needs more support from Wellington to help relocate campers.
"We do have a sort of civic duty to house these people, but we need the dough to be able to do it."
Residents of the homeless encampment in Bexley's residential red zone have been told to move out by next March despite no alternative accommodation being arranged, as the council plans to start wetland restoration in the area.
They also discussed plans to reduce future spending on cycleway projects, the council's bid to retain voting rights for some unelected committee members, and the mayor's suggestion of possible ways to cool the overheating One New Zealand Stadium.
LISTEN ABOVE

Mayor Phil Mauger on red zone campers, cycleway budgets and how to cool down One NZ Stadium

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/f94458fe-6845-4321-a2f9-b4f8016bf89b/transcript

Election 2026: Alexandra Davids and Reuben Davidson on the race to win Christchurch East

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