This time, Luxon was speaking to award-winning broadcaster John Campbell<\/a>, who was enjoying his first day as co-host of RNZ\u2019s Morning Report. It was Luxon\u2019s regular Monday phone interview slot with RNZ, and before he answered a series of important questions about the severe destruction caused by Cyclone Vaianu, the prime minister wanted to know one important thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGood morning, John,\u2019 he began cheerily. \u201cHow\u2019s the first day at the new school going?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It may have been Campbell\u2019s first day on Morning Report, but he\u2019s no stranger to RNZ. Campbell\u2019s broadcasting career began there in 1989 as a cadet reporter, and after leaving in 1991 for a long and accomplished stint at TV3, he returned in 2016 to present drivetime news show Checkpoint. He departed again two years later, this time for TVNZ, where his roles included Breakfast presenter and chief correspondent. In late 2025, RNZ announced that Campbell was the new co-host<\/a> of Morning Report, following the move of Corin Dann to RNZ business editor.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI must have failed numerous exams because this is the fourth time back here,\u2019 Campbell laughed in response to the prime minister\u2019s question. There was no doubt Campbell was thrilled to be back. \u201cThank you for having me on your show,\u201d he told co-host Ingrid Hipkiss. \u201cI was hardly going to do it by myself,\u201d Hipkiss replied, the banter strong even at 5.58am. Campbell revealed that Morning Report had been the soundtrack of his life, and even though he had to ask if his microphone was on, it was a warm and self-deprecating start.\u00a0<\/p>\n His first interview was with Whakat\u0101ne farmer Brent Mountford, who spoke about the aftermath of Cyclone Vaianu. Mountford had climbed a hill to get cellphone coverage and 8,000 homes in his community were without power. The wind had been fierce, Mountford said, wryly describing how he\u2019d had to chase after the lid of his spa pool. \u201cIt\u2019s such a privilege to talk to you for your first interview,\u201d he told Campbell. \u201cWe\u2019ve got something special, you and I,\u201d Campbell agreed, and promised he\u2019d be down soon for a spa.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hold the phone, John Campbell. That sort of carry-on might be OK on Breakfast, but this is Morning Report. \u201cWe don\u2019t take spas with our interviewees,\u201d Hipkiss reminded him. \u201cJust remember that when you interview the prime minister later.\u201d<\/p>\n Cyclone Vaianu\u2019s impact was the news focus of the morning. From Northland, Tair\u0101whiti and \u014chope, the voices of ordinary New Zealanders shared personal accounts of setting up evacuation centres at local marae, of surviving the brutal weather, and the impact of repeated weather disasters on local industry and infrastructure. \u201cNew Zealand is getting a cyclone season,\u201d one person said. \u201cAnxiety levels are starting to rise,\u201d said another.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dann popped by for his first business update (no word on how his first day at school was going) and revealed that 10,000 Fonterra shareholders will receive a tax-free payment of $400,000 after the sale of the Mainland brand<\/a>. There were bigger bubbles to pop, though. \u201cSomeone\u2019s already complained about the mental image of me and the prime minister in a spa pool,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cI agree. Don\u2019t go there.\u201d<\/p>\n The prime minister called just before eight o\u2019clock, and Campbell asked a series of questions about the wider impact of the cyclone. What was the government doing for Tair\u0101whiti kiwifruit farmers who are suffering from repeat weather disasters? Luxon replied that they were embedding resilience into everything they do. \u201cHow?\u201d Campbell asked, searching for specifics. Luxon mentioned roads and stopbanks and the national flood plan, and explained the national adaptation framework \u201cfor listeners trying to follow along\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n Campbell tried again, interrupting Luxon to say that state highways two and 35 were closed once more. \u201cWhat have you got other than tidying up? What have you got for every community?\u201d The seven-minute interview was always friendly, and ended with almost insistent pleasantries about how nice it was to talk to each other, but it was also a reminder that this was anything but Campbell\u2019s first day at school. He\u2019s had a long career of interrupting prime ministers (including the infamous Corngate interview<\/a>) to hold them to account, and he wasn\u2019t afraid to interrupt Luxon this morning when the prime minister got rolling on a pre-cooked answer. It\u2019s also a sign that Monday morning current affairs is ramping up, and between O\u2019Brien at Breakfast, Ryan Bridge at HeraldNow, Mike Hosking at Newstalk ZB, and Campbell and Hipkiss at RNZ, politicians should expect their media mornings to be anything but relaxed this election year.<\/p>\n An hour later, the show closed with two heartwarming stories about Wellington Zoo\u2019s 120th birthday and a young \u014ctara barber. When Campbell revealed that he gets his hair cut every second Saturday, Hipkiss couldn\u2019t believe her ears. \u201cI\u2019m super uptight and I like to look like this,\u201d he explained. It was nine o\u2019clock, and Hipkiss asked if he\u2019d be back tomorrow. \u201cI\u2019ve loved it, I\u2019ve loved working with you,\u201d he told her.<\/p>\n \u201cAh, well,\u201d Hipkiss replied. \u201cIt\u2019s early days.\u201d<\/p>\n Morning Report streams on RNZ from 6am every weekday.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How did John Campbell\u2019s first Morning Report on RNZ go? Tara Ward listened to find out.\u00a0 Monday mornings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7054,11508,196414,42,121110,1073,43,45,40,38,41,39,119314],"class_list":{"0":"post-376756","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breakfast","9":"tag-christopher-luxon","10":"tag-cyclone-vaianu","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-john-campbell","13":"tag-media","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-tova-obrien"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}John Campbell speaks to RNZ\u2019s Jesse Mulligan ahead of his Morning Report debut. Screengrab: RNZ<\/p>\n
Morning Report\u2019s Ingrid Hipkiss and John Campbell (Screengrab: RNZ)<\/p>\n