Neighbourly Q&A: The Councillor LIVE
We are continuing our Q&A sessions on Neighbourly with the wonderful, Sam McDonald - a second-term Christchurch city councillor representing the Waimairi Ward. We invite you to share a question for him!
A little bit about Sam:
A chartered accountant by profession, Sam has experience in both the public and private sectors. He currently serves as a director of Civic Building Limited (a Ngai Tahu property Joint Venture) and is an Independent Trustee of Development West Coast. Sam is a Chartered Director of the Institute of Directors and has experience in Audit and Risk, Health and Safety and Infrastructure projects.
Sam shares that within Council he is focused on 'financial oversight, particularly of the capital programme and the day-to-day operational expenditure, and how this provides impact investment into Christchurch communities.'
Leave a comment below and Councillor Sam McDonald will answer your questions on all things council, whether it's the budget, rate rises or even about the new stadium.
↓ Share your question now! ↓
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
Poll: 🤖 What skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
The Reserve Bank has shared some pretty blunt advice: there’s no such thing as a “safe” job anymore 🛟😑
Robots are stepping into repetitive roles in factories, plants and warehouses. AI is taking care of the admin tasks that once filled many mid-level office jobs.
We want to know: As the world evolves, what skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
Want to read more? The Press has you covered!
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52.6% Human-centred experience and communication
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14.7% Critical thinking
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29.9% Resilience and adaptability
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2.7% Other - I will share below!
Share your favourite main crop potato recipe and win a copy of our mag!
Love potatoes? We will give away free copies of the May 2026 issue to readers whose potato recipes are used in our magazine. To be in the running, make sure you email your family's favourite way to enjoy potatoes: mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, by March 1, 2026.
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