Today on Politics Friday, National MP and former doctor Vanessa Weenink, and Labour's Tracey Lee McLellan join John MacDonald to delve into the biggest topics of the week.

They discuss the Government response to yesterday's wind storm, the mega-strike, the end of home economics and outdoor education in schools, political involvement in the Netball NZ debacle, and Labour's future funding policy.

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What happened to the emergency mobile alert system ahead of and during yesterday’s wind storm?

One explanation for the absence of text alerts from one government MP is that, with the power out in places, the cell towers weren’t working.

But the power wasn’t out in Christchurch city and there were still no alerts on my phone. What’s more, the power only went out once the wind hit - well after the Emergency Management Minister pre-emptively declared a state of emergency on Wednesday afternoon.

So, there are questions to be answered.

I also think that, from the outset, the state of emergency shouldn’t have been limited to Canterbury.

If you look around the South Island, there are areas that have been hit just as hard - if not worse - than some areas in Canterbury.

The Emergency Management Minister declared an emergency in Southland this morning. But it should have happened sooner.

Then there are the people who question the need for such a response.

I’m not sure if it was just the state of emergency that made things so quiet in town yesterday or whether it was the state of the emergency plus the mega-strike.

Odds on, it was the state of emergency. Which one Christchurch business owner isn’t happy about. They think it was overkill including Christchurch because the city wasn’t as badly-affected as other parts of the region and their takings were down 50 percent because of it.

It was like a tale of two Canterburys yesterday. We had trees coming down and that fire at Hanmer Springs. Whereas, in Christchurch, I think a lot of us were wondering when it was going to hit.

The wind picked up at times. But, overall, Christchurch got off pretty lightly.

Nevertheless, I disagree that the city shouldn’t have been included in the state of emergency.

Because who knew the wind was going to behave the way it did? With that wall of wind that was heading towards the city yesterday morning splitting into two and skirting around the city.

That’s why I’ll always support the “better safe than sorry” approach.

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Canterbury Civil Defence Controller James Thompson joined John MacDonald on Canterbury Mornings with the latest information we need to know ahead of today's expected damaging wind storm.

The region is under a red wind warning locally, along with parts of the Southern North Island.

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Waimakariri Mayor Dan Gordon joined John MacDonald to get the latest from their district on storm preparation and damage.

There are also reports that people set off fireworks in the area last night.

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The Minister for the South Island is ducking for cover. I probably would be too, if I was him.

Because he knows it’s going to be very difficult to defend the pitiful share the South Island is getting from the Government’s latest $1.2billion funding round for new roads and roading upgrades.

The south island has been virtually shut out, with just 6 percent of the money going to projects here.

The Hope Bypass, near Nelson, is the only one south of Cook Strait. With no mention of making State Highway 1 north and south of Christchurch four lanes, which regional leaders say is needed.

Leann Watson from Business Canterbury is saying that, considering the South Island’s contribution to New Zealand’s economy, it doesn’t sound fair. And she’s spot on.

In fact, I think she’s being generous. It’s a rip-off.

Tell that to Transport Minister Chris Bishop, though, who says the Government can’t do everything at once and needs to prioritise roading projects.

But there’s at least one road in the South Island that needs to be given much higher priority - which everyone seems to have been banging-on about for ages. State Highway 1 between Christchurch and Ashburton is an absolute shocker.

It’s a stretch that South Island Minister James Meagher will know only too well.

How many times do you reckon he’s driven on that road since becoming an MP and since becoming the minister who's supposed to be in Wellington advocating for us?

The guy who seems to have gone to ground and who hasn’t been available to respond to media inquiries about this South Island road funding debacle.

No wonder he hasn’t been available. Because it is indefensible.

At least the transport minister is fronting. Not only saying that the Government can’t do everything at once but also saying that the roads that have got funding - 94 percent of them in the North Island - are getting the green light because they are what he calls “top priority corridors”.

He says they're top priority because they will boost freight movement, increase safety and lead to economic growth.

But let’s just test that.

Would a 4-lane highway between Christchurch and Ashburton already boost freight movement? Of course, it would.

What about safety? Would a 4-lane highway be safer, compared to the 2-lane goat track we’ve got at the moment? That’s a no-brainer.

And what about economic growth? Would a 4-lane highway between Christchurch and Ashburton do good things for the economy? Do I even need to answer that one?

The Government’s argument for 94 percent of this new road funding going to the North Island doesn’t stack up.

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Note: Minister Meager did issue a statement - however it was not initially reported. See below the Minister's full statement:

“I’m very pleased with yesterday’s confirmation of a near $1.2 billion for the next stage of our Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme.

“The Hope Bypass project is significant for the South Island. SH6 is a vital connection for our people and goods to get around, and this bypass will help boost economic growth in Nelson Tasman. It will also bring wider economic benefits for the region; through the jobs the project will create.

“It’s important to note yesterday’s update is just one part of the Government’s ongoing infrastructure work programme.

“Developments continue on the Belfast to Pegasus and Woodend Bypass (a RoNS), with a FTAA application being worked through currently.

“The South Island is also well-represented with six projects in the Roads of Regional Significance (RoRS) work programme, with the Queenstown upgrade package and five Canterbury RoRs:

• SH76 Brougham Street Upgrades
• S75 Halswell Road Improvements
• SH1 Rolleston Access Improvements
• The second Ashburton Bridge

“We’ve also committed to important South Island roading infrastructure outside of the RoNs and RoRs programmes, like a replacement bridge for Christchurch’s Pages Road, which I announced $38.5 million of Government funding for in August.”

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The Government is really spooked by this week’s mega strike. With about 100,000 people expected to walk off the job on Thursday.

If it wasn’t spooked, we wouldn't have Public Service Minister Judith Collins writing this open letter to patients, students and families affected by the doctors, nurses, teachers, prison staff and other healthcare workers going on strike.

It’s a letter which, I think, ups the ante on the serve Health Minister Simeon Brown gave doctors last week over their involvement. Because what Judith Collins says in the letter, aside from how much the Government regrets the impact the strike is going to have on people - which it is, she’s encouraging parents to do, what I would describe as, harassment of teachers.

She’s saying to parents - especially those with younger kids who are going to have to make alternative arrangements for the day because they can’t leave the young ones at home on their own - that they should quiz teachers about the timing of their action.

Why they’re striking in a week when many schools already have teacher-only days and on a day so close to the Labour Day holiday on Monday.

And I think this is so wrong.

Because, if you’ve ever had kids at school, you will know that quite a few parents don’t need any encouragement to have a go at the teachers.

You always hear stories about parents hounding teachers about this and that. And, every now and then, you hear stories about people quitting teaching altogether because of the relentless hassle they get from parents.

And the Government, with this open letter, is just encouraging more of that.

It’s calling the mega strike “politically-motivated”. But the Government stands accused of the exact same thing with this open letter. As well as the outburst last week from the Health Minister.

One of the reasons the Government thinks it’s politically-motivated is the secondary teachers union wanting to discuss Palestine when it met with the Education Minister.

That was just dumb and didn’t do their cause any good.

But the Government just needs to accept that the mega strike is happening and it needs to stop this attack on people who are doing nothing illegal. They’re fully within their rights to strike and this harassment has to stop.

If you heard me last week criticising the firefighters for striking, because I thought it put us at unnecessary risk, then you might think it’s a bit rich of me to be having a go at the Government today.

The difference is, I’m not a government minister. More importantly, though, I wasn’t encouraging anyone to confront the firefighters. Far from it.

But that’s what the Public Service Minister is doing.

The teachers shouldn’t have to defend themselves to nagging parents and the Government shouldn’t be egging them on.

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The Opposition Leader's again expressing concern about Te Pati Maori, but not yet ruling out working with them.

Toxic culture claims by Eru Kapa-Kingi were followed by the party releasing documents accusing him of threatening Parliamentary staffers.

They also show his mother, recently demoted Whip MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, was warned about risking budget overspend.

Chris Hipkins says it’s clear Te Pati Māori has some internal issues to work through before they’d be in a position to form a government.

Chris Hipkins told John MacDonald any decisions about whether or not they’d form a coalition with Te Pati Māori will come closer to the election, as an awful lot can happen between now and then.

However, he says, if there was an election today, he’d say they’re not in a position at the moment to play a constructive role in future government.

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Isn’t it weird that, in the past 25 years, we have spent millions and millions and millions of dollars on road safety campaigns, but there have, generally, been no changes in that time to the penalties handed out for bad and dangerous driving?

I tried to find out exactly how much has been spent, but I realised that was quite ambitious.

Nevertheless, I can safely say that it’s hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. In fact, ChatGPT reckons it’s somewhere between $2.5 billion and $3.5 billion. It’s probably way more than that.

Either way, we’ve spent billions over the past 25 years trying to make people aware of the consequences of bad and dangerous driving, but many of the fines and penalties for drivers breaking the law haven’t changed. And the AA wants that rectified.

I’m not saying don’t do it, but I’m not convinced that that would make much difference when it comes to what actually happens on the roads and how drivers behave.

Aside from the money spent on road safety campaigns, let’s also not forget the gazillions spent on cleaning up the mess after road crashes.

ACC, hospital costs, ongoing care for people – it’s estimated that that comes to about $10 billion a year.

So, in the past 25 years, billions have been spent trying to educate drivers and dealing with the consequences of road crashes. But in that time, not much has changed when it comes to penalties.

Which is why the AA’s road safety spokesperson Dylan Thomsen is saying today that, at the very least, fines should be doubled across the board to make up for inflation, and fines automatically adjusted for inflation on an ongoing basis.

He says: "We need to bring these penalties back up so they work to make drivers think twice about taking risks on the road or breaking the rules because right now they're not doing that."

I agree that they’re not working, but I don’t agree that harsher penalties would make a difference. Because when people are muppets out on the road, they don’t even think twice about the penalties, let alone the consequences.

The AA thinks differently, and reckons the changes need to focus on the types of offences that cause the most carnage on the roads.

Which are: people driving drunk or stoned, people not wearing seatbelts, people driving too fast, and people being distracted by things like mobile phones.

Dylan Thomsen is saying that the AA, generally, wants fines to double but thinks the penalties for these particular offences might have to be increased more than that to really make a difference.

The fine for using your phone while driving would certainly need to be more than doubled if we were to get anywhere close to the fines dished out in parts of Australia.

In New South Wales, if you’re caught using your phone while driving, you’re fined $350 - or $470 if it’s in a school zone. In Western Australia, it’s a $1,000 fine.

Here, it’s $150 and 20 demerit points.

Dylan Thomsen points to a recent survey of AA members which found that most of them don’t think our fines are effective. Less than 50% said they thought the fines dished out for things like speeding and using a cellphone driving were tough enough to change behaviour.

But do you really think harsher fines would change these behaviours? I don’t.

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