Gordon Campbell on talking tough about law and order
Harsh sentences are being offered as a deterrent to crime, but voters are being sold a crock. For one thing… Fear of the consequences loses […]
Blog
Recent News
Gordon Campbell on Sir Roger’s lament, and the Commonwealth Games
So Dr. Frankenstein is feeling upset about how his monster has turned out. To the dismay of Sir Roger Douglas, the ACT Party has become […]
Gordon Campbell on how political donations favour the centre-right
Political donations are not gifts. They’re an investment. Lest the recipients forget the gesture, one of the purposes of political lobbying is to remind everyone […]
Gordon Campbell on dancing with NATO on Defence
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has been keeping some serious company of late. He’s been signing a free trade deal with the EU, shooting off to […]
Gordon Campbell on National’s need for Winston Peters
As a spectacle, politics can be pretty boring. MMP politics isn’t a cage fight, or even (ultimately) a struggle between individual parties. Moreover… Under MMP, […]
Gordon Campbell on relying on Israeli news narratives about Palestine
So far, the coverage of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) assault on the Jenin refugee camp has followed a familiar pattern. Images of explosions and […]
Gordon Campbell on the Greens plan to help renters
One of the best things about the Greens plan to cap rent increases at 3% annually is that it spreads around some of the pain […]
Gordon Campbell on the ripple effects from the Titan submersible disaster
As clickbait, the saga of OceanGate’s Titan submersible belongs to the same genre of real time news countdowns as the boys trapped in the Thailand […]
Gordon Campbell on China, University Funding, Ukraine
Gosh. According to a tip leaked to a journalist from the Australian newspaper by an anonymous source whose identity cannot be disclosed for secret squirrel […]
Gordon Campbell on National’s law and ordure policy
So here we are… Barely 75 days out from election day, and National STILL hasn’t revealed how it is going to pay for its stupendously […]
Gordon Campbell on ACT’s anti-worker crusade, and Israeli settler violence
The ACT Party’s announcement yesterday that it aims to stop workers in the gig economy from being allowed to test in court whether they deserve […]
Gordon Campbell on TOP, and the bank inquiry
The 5% MMP threshold soaks up a disproportionate share of the attention paid to the struggle by small parties to get into Parliament. By now, […]
Gordon Campbell on the crackdown on gangs
For much of last week, Opotiki was like the setting of a Wes Anderson movie. Gruff, no nonsense cops. Bikers who looked just as tough, […]
Gordon Campbell on the recession engineered by the Reserve Bank
This week, we got official confirmation that the Reserve Bank has finally achieved the recession it has worked so hard to engineer. The Bank has […]
Gordon Campbell on losing the Ukraine war
Obviously, no-one defends the RNZ digital journalist who distorted the content and meaning of so many articles on the Ukraine war, some of them bylined […]
Gordon Campbell on changing the GE rules, plus a music playlist
So Christopher Luxon wants to relax the rules that govern the use of genetic modification outside a laboratory setting. Would this mean going only so […]
Gordon Campbell on Saudi sports-washing
Since sport is our global religion, it isn’t surprising that the theocratic kingdom of Saudi Arabia has taken the redemptive power of sportswashing very seriously […]
Gordon Campbell on red tape and Nicky Hager’s regal reward
Not for the first time, David Seymour looks like an answer to a non-existent problem. Reportedly, ACT is promising to establish a Ministry of Regulations […]
Gordon Campbell on how private profits are driving Defence spending
Speak of the devil. The Australian website Crikey has just launched an investigative series about the notorious lobbying firm Crosby Textor, or C/T as it […]
Gordon Campbell on sending mixed messages out on purpose
National has developed a novel election strategy. It involves being both for and against almost every issue that comes down the pike. The use of […]
Gordon Campbell on National‘s aversion to transparency
In the last year of a second term in government. the election outcome shouldn’t even be close. All that’s required for a competent Opposition to […]
Gordon Campbell on America’s plunge into religious extremism
Yikes. If either Donald Trump or Florida governor Ron De Santis win next year’s presidential contest with Joe Biden, the commander-in-chief of the world’s greatest […]
Gordon Campbell on the NZ Steel deal
Goodness gracious: The National Party has come out against corporate welfare! Or at least it is dead against the government’s $140 million subsidy deal with […]
Gordon Campbell on the Budget
Heaven help us, but this year’s Budget is what a “targeted” and “no frills” response to the financial hardship facing hundreds of thousands of New […]
Gordon Campbell on trying to pass National on the right
It may be naïve to expect any politician to be consistent, but Christopher Luxon really is in a class of his own. One day, he’s […]
Gordon Campbell on Labour’s epic fail on seabed mining
Seabed mining is a substantive issue. It pits environment harm and the interests of indigenous communities against the relatively few jobs for locals, and the […]
Gordon Campbell on the endless spending on Defence
Defence is the one area of government spending where the politicians never, ever demand – but how on earth do we propose to pay for […]
Gordon Campbell on the wilting of the Greens
For a party that thinks global, the Greens have developed a habit of acting local, and by local I mean North Island, and by North […]
Gordon Campbell on the Coronation
Finally, the imperial sound of one hand clapping. Saturday night NZ time, Charles III will be officially sworn in as King and as our head […]
Gordon Campbell on the Hollywood writers’ strike
Capitalism has a habit of throwing up business models that disrupt business as usual, but that are not sustainable. Uber for instance, couldn’t provide a […]