Gordon Campbell on Canada’s election, and the AUKUS defence pact
Yesterday, Canada held an election in which everyone lost, including the voters. After holding its most expensive ( $C600 million) election campaign ever, the result […]
Australia
Gordon Campbell on our polarised attitudes to the Covid response
Thesis meets antithesis again, this time in the pages of the New Zealand Herald. A week ago, Liam Dann wrote a column pondering how in […]
Gordon Campbell On Britain’s Pathetic Trade Deal With Australia
So much for those assurances that New Zealand would be the first cab off the rank for any post -Brexit trade deal with the United […]
Gordon Campbell on why it’s getting harder to walk the tightrope between China and the US
This morning, China announced it is changing its “two child” family limit to a “three child” policy. This looks like a desperate attempt to fix […]
Gordon Campbell on whether we’re anywhere near ready for our mass vaccine rollout
As the commencement date for New Zealand’s mass vaccination rollout looms and recedes– and it has now been pushed back until late July at the […]
Gordon Campbell on bubble economics, and the new pro-gun, pro-hunting firearms panel
The travel bubble with Australia will throw a lifeline to tourism operators, who have first-hand experience that thrifty domestic tourists are no real substitute for […]
Gordon Campbell on how the tourism industry pressured the government to create the travel bubble
Today is when the fate (and date) of the trans-Tasman travel bubble will be announced by PM Jacinda Ardern and -already– Opposition leader Judith Colins […]
Gordon Campbell on why we’ll need three doses of the Pfizer vaccine – and on Rocket Lab’s work for the Pentagon
Yesterday, the government finally released a four part timetable setting out which groups will get vaccinated with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and in what sequence …And […]
Gordon Campbell on Australia’s superior ways of communicating about its vaccine rollout
It isn’t only on the cricket field that Australia performs better. The clarity and degree of detail in Australia’s published schedule of the priorities for […]
Gordon Campbell on who decides on the priority list for Covid vaccines
During the past week, the nation has gone through a range of mixed feelings about south Auckland. Understandably, there’s been a hankering in some quarters […]
Gordon Campbell on Australia’s attempt to demonise Facebook
It is a free country. Feel free to treat the battle between Australia and Facebook as a case of Facebook using its immense power to […]
Gordon Campbell on another epic failure by Australia to act decently on the world stage
Not for the first time, New Zealand’s leaders did us proud yesterday while – faced with the same moral challenge- Australia leaders fouled their nest. […]
Gordon Campbell on the transTasman tinkering with Covid-related poverty
On September 25, the government’s Covid-19 rent freeze will expire. A fortnight ago, the Commerce Commission (in response to a complaint) sent out a letter […]
Gordon Campbell on showing the Aussies how to reach a consensus on quarantine fees
Back at the dawn of time, MMP was created (a) to impose a discipline on government and (b) to prevent any one party from riding […]
Gordon Campbell on managing Covid-19 better than the Australians, and the Ellis case
If anything the Covid-19 outbreaks occurring this week in and around Melbourne are a timely reminder of the bullet we dodged by not having a […]
Gordon Campbell on the hype around the transTasman bubble, and Microsoft
Arguably, one of the more irresponsible things the government could do right now would be to throw the doors wide open to non-essential travel next […]
Gordon Campbell on the trans-Tasman bubble, and the future of airlines
As the epidemiologists keep on saying, a trans-Tasman bubble will require having in place beforehand a robust form of contact tracing, of tourists and locals […]
Gordon Campbell on why we shouldn’t be trying to emulate Australia
On today’s Coronocast podcast on the ABC state broadcasting network in Australia, New Zealand’s policy of going out hard early with a stringent economic shutdown […]
Gordon Campbell on Australia’s callousness, and grandparents as parents amid Covid-19
Reportedly, there are some 650,000 New Zealanders living in Australia. Many will lose their jobs in the economic crash caused by Covid-19, and none of […]
Gordon Campbell on dodging a bullet over the transport cost over-runs
As New Zealand gears up to begin its $6.8 billion programme of large scale roading projects all around the country, we should be aware of […]
Gordon Campbell on the Aussie bush fires, and the killing of Qassem Suleimani
In popular culture, Australia is often portrayed as Western civilisation’s last unspoiled frontier, or as its final refuge from planetary disaster. In Nevil Shute’s best-selling […]
Gordon Campbell on why New Zealand shouldn’t try to curry favour with Trump
The bizarre spat over Donald Trump trying to buy Greenland shows just how foolish it would be for any country to treat the US as […]
Gordon Campbell on Kiwis being the Aussies’ friendly go-fers in the Pacific
If not for the surprise election result, Ardern would almost certainly have been able to score real policy gains with a Labor PM in her Canberra meeting.
Gordon Campbell on what the Ardern government could have done better
Across New Zealand and the world , PM Jacinda Ardern has justifiably won praise for how she has responded to the Christchurch attacks. There have been a few areas where the performance of the government has been less than stellar.
Gordon Campbell on why the Aussie banks are bastards
Across the Tasman a Royal Commission has been barking very loudly indeed about the activities of the Australian banks that own the main NZ banks.
Gordon Campbell on the fuss and fighting over the PM’s Pacific Forum trip
Dutifully, the Pacific Islands Forum meeting is described each year as the region’s most important gathering of leaders…
From the Hood : Mateship
A List of Thing Mates Don’t Let Mates Do, Based on a Google Search and/or the Fact Asylum Seekers are Human Beings
Gordon Campbell on why Labour isn’t responsible for Barnaby Joyce
Evidently, the National government is similarly desperate for anything that might discredit or derail the Ardern juggernaut, even if that means throwing Peter Dunne under a bus.
Gordon Campbell on our caving in to the Aussies
The latest expression of this lopsided relationship has seen young Kiwis at Australian universities being hit with a trebling of their tuition fees.
John Quiggin on Australia’s flirtations with Trumpism
Australia has had no less than four Trumpist political parties and may yet get a fifth. The good news is they have been surprisingly ineffectual.